- The spiced wine of Kien-ch'ang (see note to next chapter) has
even now a high repute. (Richthofen.)
NOTE 7. - M. Pauthier will have it that Marco was here the discoverer of
Assam tea. Assam is, indeed, far out of our range, but his notice of this
plant, with the laurel-like leaf and white flower, was brought strongly to
my recollection in reading Mr. Cooper's repeated notices, almost in this
region, of the large-leaved tea-tree, with its white flowers; and,
again, of "the hills covered with tea-oil trees, all white with
flowers." Still, one does not clearly see why Polo should give tea-trees
the name of cloves.
Failing explanation of this, I should suppose that the cloves of which the
text speaks were cassia-buds, an article once more prominent in commerce
(as indeed were all similar aromatics) than now, but still tolerably well
known. I was at once supplied with them at a drogheria, in the city where
I write (Palermo), on asking for Fiori di Canella, the name under which
they are mentioned repeatedly by Pegolotti and Uzzano, in the 14th and 15th
centuries. Friar Jordanus, in speaking of the cinnamon (or cassia) of
Malabar, says, "it is the bark of a large tree which has fruit and flowers
like cloves" (p. 28). The cassia-buds have indeed a general resemblance to
cloves, but they are shorter, lighter in colour, and not angular.
