Every tyro in things Chinese knows that hemp (Cannabis
sativa) belongs to the oldest cultivated plants of the Chinese, and
that hemp-paper is already listed among the papers invented by Ts'ai
Lun in A.D. 105 (cf. CHAVANNES, Les livres chinois avant l'invention
du papier, Journal Asiatique, 1905, p. 6 of the reprint).
[11] Ch. B., p. 10b (ed. of Pie hia chai ts'ung shu).
[12] The Persian word for the mulberry, tud, is supposed to be a
loan-word from Aramaic. (HORN, Grundriss iran. Phil., Vol. I.,
pt. 2, p. 6.)
BOOK SECOND.
PART II. - JOURNEY TO THE WEST AND SOUTH-WEST OF CATHAY.
XXXVII, p. 13. "There grow here [Taianfu] many excellent vines, supplying
great plenty of wine; and in all Cathay this is the only place where wine
is produced. It is carried hence all over the country."
Dr. B. Laufer makes the following remarks to me: "Polo is quite right in
ascribing vines and wine to T'ai Yuean-fu in Shan Si, and is in this
respect upheld by contemporary Chinese sources. The Yin shan cheng yao
written in 1330 by Ho Se-hui, contains this account[1]: 'There are
numerous brands of wine: