"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.
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