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0246 Sino-Iranica : vol.1
Sino-Iranica : vol.1 / Page 246 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000248
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CASSIA PODS AND CAROB

44. In his Pen tstao i i, written during the first half of the eighth century, C'en Ts`an-kg has this notice regarding an exotic plant:

"A-lo-pto   i (*a-lak-bwut) grows in the country Fu-lin (Syria),

its fruit resembling in shape that of the tsao kia .   (Gleditschia or

Gymnocladus sinensis), save that it is more rounded and elongated. It is sweet of taste and savory."'

In the Cen lei pen tstao2 we read that "a-to-p`o grows in the country Fu-si ift "; that is, Bhoja, Sumatra. Then follows the same description as given above, after C'en Ts`an-kg. The name p`o-lo-men tsao

kia   [19 A is added as a synonyme. Li i-6en3 comments that

Po-lo-men is here the name of a Si-yû   JA ("Western Regions")

country, and that Po-se is the name of a country of the south-western barbarians; that is, the Malayan Po-se. The term p`o-lo-men tsao kia, which accordingly would mean "Gleditschia of the Po-lo-men country," he ascribes to C`en Ts`an-kg, but in his quotation from this author it does not occur. The country Po-lo-men here in question is the one mentioned in the Man .N.4

A somewhat fuller description of this foreign tree is contained in the Yu yan tsa tsu,5 as follows: "The Persian tsao kia (Gleditschia) has its habitat in the country Po-se (Persia), where it is termed hu-ye-

yen-mo   , while in Fu-lin it is styled a-li-k`it f a   fl .6
The tree has a height of from thirty to forty feet, and measures from four to five feet in ci"rcumference. The leaves resemble those of Citrus medica (kou yuan .7 c), but are shorter and smaller. During the cold season it does not wither.' It does not flower, and yet bears fruit .8 Its pods are two feet long. In their interior are shells (ko ko I Pm). Each of these encloses a single seed of the size of a finger, red of color,

1 Pen ts`ao haft mu, Ch. 31, p. 9 b, where the name of the plant is wrongly written a-p`o-lo. The correct form a-to-yo is given in the Cen lei pen ts`ao.

2 Ch. 12, p. 56 (ed. of 1587).

3 Pen ts`ao haft mu, Ch. 31, p. 9 b.

4 See below, p. 468.

Ch. 18, p. 12. Also Li i-den has combined this text with the preceding one under the heading a-yo-lo (instead of a-to-p`o).

s The Pen tsao hail mu (Ch. 31, p. 9 b), in quoting this text, gives the Po-se name as hu-ye-yen and the Fu-lin name only as a-li.

This means, it is an evergreen.

8 This is due to erroneous observation.

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