A review of the infraspecific taxa of Paeonia suffruticosa Andr. is presented. Three subspecies are recognized, subsp. suffruticosa, subsp. spontanea (Rehder) Haw & Lauener stat. nov., and subsp. rockii Haw & Lauener, subsp. nov., with one further doubtful subspecies. The distinguishing features of all the subspecies are described.
There is a widespread assumption that ancient "cinnamon" and "cassia" were the same as the spices now known by those names; that is, products obtained from trees of the genus Cinnamomum. This article argues that this is not the case, but that the "cinnamon" and "cassia" of ancient writers very probably came from plants native to northeast Africa, as several early writers actually state. Possible African sources of ancient "cinnamon" and "cassia" are suggested. The most probable principal source is identified as Cassia abbreviata. It is also argued that alleged identifications of cinnamon or cassia at archaeological sites in the Mediterranean region are questionable. It is shown that cinnamon and cassia did not figure in Southeast Asian and Chinese trade at an early period, and that Austronesian settlement of Madagascar occurred after the Classical period, probably during the second half of the first millennium CE, too late for Southeast Asians to have played any major role in trade with the Roman Empire. There is no good reason to believe that cinnamon and cassia were traded to the western Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean region at any very early date.
It has been claimed that the ninth-century shipwreck found near the island of Belitung, Indonesia, is that of an Arabian ship. The evidence for this is examined in detail, and found to be less than convincing. The identifications of samples of wood from the wreck are shown to be unreliable at species level. The construction technique of the ship appears to resemble that of the eastern Indian Ocean, not the western Indian Ocean. Various items from the wreck connect it with Southeast Asia: a piloncito coin probably came from Java. Very little from the ship suggests any link at all with the western Indian Ocean. Overall, the strongest probability is that the ship was built in Southeast Asia.
The sudden Mongol withdrawal from Hungary in 1242 has been explained by historians in several ways and no consensus about the reason has ever been reached. Contrary to some previously expressed opinions, it was not an unparalleled event: a similar withdrawal from a successful invasion of the Song empire in southern China occurred in 1260. The parallels between the events of 1242 and 1260 are instructive, and strongly suggest that the deaths of the Khaghans Ögödei, in 1241, and Möngke, in 1259, were the basic reasons for breaking off the campaigns. The full explanation is more complex, however. The Mongol invasions of Dali and Annam in the 1250s are also briefly examined, and it is pointed out that a Mongol army led by Uriyangkhadai successfully invaded Song from Annam in 1259, a fact that has often been overlooked.
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