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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

98

MARCO POLO.   VOL. II. BK. II.

LXXVI., p. 199.

KINSAY, KHANFU.

Pelliot proposes to see in Khanfu a transcription of Kwang-

fu, an abridgment of Kwang chau fu, prefecture of Kwang chau

(Canton). Cf. Bul. Ecole franç Ext. Orient, Jan.—June, 1904,

p. 215 n., but I cannot very well accept this theory.

LXXX., pp. 225, 226. " They have also [in Fu Kien] a kind of

fruit resembling saffron, and which serves the purpose of saffron just

as well."

Dr. Laufer writes to me : " Yule's identification with a species

of Gardenia is all right, although this is not peculiar to Fu Kien.

Another explanation, however, is possible. In fact, the Chinese

speak of a certain variety of saffron peculiar to Fu Kien. The

Pen ts'ao kang mu shi i (Ch. 4, p. 14 b) contains the description

of a ` native saffron ' (t'u hung hwa, in opposition to the Tibetan

red flower ' or genuine saffron) after the Continued Gazetteer

of Fu Kien, as follows : As regards the native saffron, the

largest specimens are seven or eight feet high. The leaves are

like those of the p'i-p'a (Eriobotrya japonica), but smaller and

without hair. In the autumn it produces a white flower like a

grain of maize (Su-mi, Zea mays). It grows in Fu Chou and

Nan Ngen Chou (now Yang Kiang in Kwang Tung) in the

mountain wilderness. That of Fu Chou makes a fine creeper,

resembling the fu-yung (Hibiscus mutabilis), green above and

white below, the root being like that of the ko (Pachyrhizus

thunbergianus). It is employed in the pharmacopeia, being finely

chopped for this purpose and soaked overnight in water in which

rice has been scoured ; then it is soaked for another night in

pure water and pounded : thus it is ready for prescriptions.' This

plant, as far as I know, has not yet been identified, but it may

well be identical with Polo's saffron of Fu Kien."

LXXX., pp. 226, 229 n.

THE SILKY FOWLS OF MARCO POLO.

Tarradale, Muir of Ord, Rosss-shire, May Io, 1915.

In a letter lately received from my cousin Mr. George Udny

Yule (St. John's College, Cambridge) he makes a suggestion

which seems to me both probable and interesting. As he is at

present too busy to follow up the question himself, I have asked

permission to publish his suggestion in The A thenæum, with the