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11,25-26 PUTCHDCK. — CAKDAMOMS. 2 2 1
25.
PUTCHUCK (tI^ #).
Mu-Mang comes from the country of Ma-lo-mo of the Ta-slii; it is also
found in Shi-ho and Nu-fa. The plant resembles the Chinese ssi-km (^ JJ}^
5 Luffa cylindrica, Koem.). The winter months is the time for gathering the
root, which is chopped into pieces of one or two inches in length and sun-
dried. Pieces like a chicken bone are of the best quality.
Note.
Ma-lo-mo is Merbat, SM-lio is Shehr, and Nu-fa is Ziifar, the modern Dhofar, all on the
ID Hadramaut coast of Arabia. See supra, p. 116. Our author also states (supra, p. 128) that mu-hiang
came from the Somali coast (Pi-p'a-lo); but the best quality of the drug came, he says (supra, p. 98)
from Nan-ni-hua-lo, which we think must be identified with Sindh, or a section of that region. Our
author is wrong in stating that this product was found in Hadramaut and on the Somali coast. It
is a native of Kashmere and was an important export from the ports of Sindh, when the author
15 of the Periplus wrote, and probably ages before his time, as it was well known to the Hebrews who
called it Icetgiofh (niV'Sp cassia), which, we presume, is derived from its Sanskrit name, IcusMlia, which
is the original of the Greek xoffTo?, and the Latin eostus. In Malay it is called pueho, which may
be the origin of our putchuk, or our term may be derived ivomputchok, by which name this root is
known in Calcutta. Putchuck is the root oftheAucklandia eostus, Royle. Hamilton, New Account
20 of the East Indies (1744), I, 127, says: «The Wood Ligna dulcis grows only in this country (i. e.,
Sindh). It is rather a Weed than a Wood, and nothing of it is useful but the Root called Putchock,
or, Radix dulcis. I never heard it is used in Physic, but it is a good Ingredient in the Compos-
ition of Perfumes. There are great Quantities exported for Surat, and from thence to China.»
The earliest mention we have found in Chinese works of this drug is in the Wei-shu, 102,i2^,
25 and the Sui-shu ,83,16'', where mention is made among the products of Po-ssi (Persia) ofts'ing-mu-
hiang (^ 7^^ ^i lit., agreen-wood incense»). The name mu-Mang occurs, however, in a
Chinese Materia medica of the fifth century, Ming-i-pie-lu by T'au Hung-king, as a plant growing
in western Yun-nan, and which was also called mi-Mang (^ ^•)- ^^^ already at that time
the Chinese product was no longer used, and ts'tng-mii-hiang was brought to China from abroad
30 by foreign ships, it being said that it came from Ta-ts"in. Bretschneider, Bot. Sinic, III, 111.
35
It would seem, therefore, that the name mu-hiang was at first applied by the Chinese to a native
product, probably because it was 'wood perfume'. In Chinese Buddhist books it -is called Jcii-so-t'o
(^ ^/^), Sanskrit ftwsTii/sa. Bretschneider, loc.cit.,112. See also Yule, Marco Polo, 11,387.
26.
CARDAMOMS (
Q
S _
Pai-t6u-¥dti come from Chon-la, Sho-p'o and other foreign countries;
but Chon-la produces them in the largest quantity. The plant resembles the
ssi-km (^ JR),
valleys ([Jj ^).
and the seed a grape; it is a creeping plant fond of deep
It blossoms in the spring and ripens in the summer. The
40 people are allowed to gather it without hindrance.