Professional Documents
Culture Documents
EDITED
BY
U. P. HEDRICK
with updated botanical names by Michael Moore
Dr. Sturtevant was one of that group of men who early espoused the
cause of agricultural science in the United States, a field in which he
became distinguished, his studies in economic botany being one of his
notable achievements. When he retired in 1887 as Director of this
Station, he left behind him a voluminous manuscript consisting of a
compilation of existing knowledge on the edible food plants of the
world, a piece of work involving a laborious and extended research in
botanical literature. For twenty years this manuscript remained
untouched, when Dr. U. P. Hedrick undertook its editing, a difficult and
arduous task, well performed, in order that so valuable a collection of
knowledge might become available to botanists and to students of food
economics.
Very respectfully,
W. H. JORDAN
Director
NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION GENEVA, N. Y.
June 1, 1919.
All who have attempted to study the origin and history of cultivated
plants must have been struck with the paucity and inaccuracy of
information on the subject. For nearly nineteen hundred years, to be
written in Pliny was proof sufficient; yet much of Pliny's history is
inaccurate though still repeated in periodicals and popular works.
Linnæus, the great system-atizer, gave the origin of most of the plants
he described; but of these, De Candolle, by long odds the best plant
historian, says, " three out of four of Linnaeus' indications of the
original home of cultivated plants are incomplete or incorrect." De
Candolle, in his turn, usually accurate, is exceedingly scant, giving the
origin of but 249 cultivated plants, not all edible, while Sturtevant, in
the text in hand, puts down 2897 which may be used for food, most of
which are cultivated.
After sorting the material, the next task was to arrange it for
publication. This work fell into four well-defined divisions of labor:
While the changes and omissions made by the editor leave that which
remains substantially as written by Dr. Sturtevant, yet there has been
so much cutting and fitting that it would be unjust to hold Sturtevant
responsible for infelicities that may appear. Despite the editor's efforts to
retain the diction, style and individuality of Dr. Sturtevant, the quality
of the work is no doubt marred by passing through hands other than
those of the author.
U. P. HEDRICK,
To classical Bowdoin, Sturtevant owed much for his ability to write. Few
scientists who have written so much and so rapidly, have written as
well. His English is not ornate but is vivid, terse, logical, happy in
phrasing and seldom at loss for the proper word. To classical Bowdoin,
too, Sturtevant owes his remarkable ability to use languages. Greek,
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Latin, French and German in the written form were familiar to him, and
he was able to read, more or less well, scientific treatises in several other
of the European languages. Though he was not graduated with his
class at Bowdoin, the college later gave him her degree of Bachelor of
Arts and still later further honored him with her Master of Arts.
But even in these first days on Waushakum Farm, the Ayrshires did not
occupy all of his time. One is amazed in looking through the
agricultural papers of the late sixties and early seventies at the number
of articles signed by E. L. Sturtevant — still in his twenties. These early
articles show originality, intense curiosity in regard to everything new,
scientific imagination, a mind fertile in fruitful ideas and tremendous
industry. These first articles in the press, too, show that he early
possessed initiative, a trait which he retained throughout his scientific
life. In all of his work it was seldom that he had to seek ideas or
suggestions from others, though he was possessed of a mind which
appreciated new trains of thought, and many there were of his day who
could speak of his kindly interest in the work of others.
Indian corn attracted Sturtevant from the first. No sooner had he settled
on Waushakum Farm than he began a botanical and cultural study of
maize which he continued to the time of his death. The first fruits of his
work with corn was the introduction of an improved variety of Yellow
Flint, the new sort being called "Waushakum." This variety was
wonderfully productive, yields of 125 bushels of shelled corn to the acre
being common. Breeding this new variety was a piece of practical work
that brought the head of Waushakum Farm more prominence in
agriculture than any of his scientific work, "scientific farming" at that
time not being in high repute with tillers of the soil.
"Joseph N. Sturtevant, born April i, 1844; died Jan. 19, 1879. Member
of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture 1873-5. A brief record
of a short but useful life. And yet this life, which struggled with the
difficulties brought about by ill health from birth, made the most of the
few well moments, and has made an impress upon agricultural thought
which shall continue even if the originator be unrecognized and
forgotten. Honest in thought as in action, caring nothing for applause, a
true philanthropist in all that constitutes the word, a careful thinker,
considerate towards the opinions of others, and yet possessing a
positiveness of character which came through conviction, his advice was
often sought and seldom unheeded. Without personal vanity, as
delicate as a woman towards the rights of others, a mind trained to
goodness for its own sake, one who believed in good because of the
good, and hated evil because of the evil, the future life was lost sight of
in the present, and there was nothing additional that religion could
bring, because he was true religion itself in every fibre of body and
movement of mind. His creed,—
What is excellent,
As God lives in permanent.'
And his life and creed were as one; and he was one who held familiar
converse with self, and was trustful of man's power to do the right as
well as to think it, and looked upon wrong as the mar which came
through the self rather than others, and in purity of thought sought
that purity of life which distinguished him.
"He has appeared before the public as one of the authors of The Dairy
Cow, Ayrshire, as one of the editors of the North American Ayrshire
Register, and as contributor to our various agricultural papers. In the
Scientific Farmer he has contributed many articles without signature,
some signed J. N. S., others signed Zelco, and a few under his own
name. He commenced writing for the Country Gentleman in 1868,
using the nom de plume of Zelco, and although this was his favorite
paper before the close connection with the Scientific Farmer arose, yet
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he wrote occasionally for the Massachusetts Ploughman, New England
Farmer, National Live Stock Journal, and other papers, but usually
upon request. The series of 'In and Out Papers,' written under the nom
de plume of Alex. B., in the Scientific Farmer, commencing with the
May number for 1876, and continuing till the farewell in the April
number for 1878, when his health broke down, has received marked
attention, and showed the possibilities of a literary career, had only the
health which admitted of close and continuous application been
granted.
The invitation to take up work in New York was accepted and Dr.
Sturtevant moved at once to Geneva to become, in his new work in
agricultural research, an explorer in an almost virgin field. The splendid
institutions we now have, created by the Hatch Act of Congress, did not
come into existence until 1888. But six other States had planned to
begin experimental work in agriculture, four of which had made modest
starts, but as yet not much had been accomplished. There were but few
models in the Old World, and these were established in very different
environment. The financial support was meager, and encouragement
from those the Station sought to serve was correspondingly small. The
new Director had to deal with the fundamentals of agricultural research
at a time when few men could see the need of such research, and almost
no one could be found to help carry the work forward.
Dr. Sturtevant was Director of the New York Station from July, 1882, to
March, 1887 — not quite five years. Much of his time must have been
taken up with executive work incidental to a new institution. Yet the six
reports of the Station show much real research material, and much
extension work, more needed then than now, that speak well for the
initiative and industry of the Director and his small staff. Be it
remembered that in these early days there were no laboratories and but
scant equipment, with only the small sum of $20,000 annually
available for maintenance, salaries and improvements. The- Board of
Control confessedly did not have clear ideas of the function of the
Station, and there were many opponents in the press, and even on the
farms, who lost no opportunities to criticise.
One of the best measures of the man can be found in the initial policy of
the Station as determined by Dr. Sturtevant. Widely divergent opinions
prevailed as to the work of such institutions. Dr. Sturtevant asserted
that the function of a Station was to " discover, verify and disseminate."
He saw clearly from the very first the need of well-established
fundamental principles in agriculture and set his staff at the work of
discovering principles. His scientific work on Waushakum Farm had
taught him that there were many possible errors in prevailing
experimental work, and he at once set about determining their source
and the best means of minimizing them. During his stay at the New
York Station, in several reports he urged the importance of learning
how to experiment, how to interpret results and pointed out errors in
certain kinds of experimentation. He believed that the management and
responsibility for a station should rest with the Director alone as the
only way in which unity and continuity of direction could be secured.
Those conversant with experiment stations must see how generally
these views of Dr. Sturtevant now prevail and must give him credit for
very materially helping to found the splendid system of present-day
experiment stations.
In 1887, Dr. Sturtevant gave up his charge of the Station at Geneva and
returned to the old home at South Framingham. But the opportunity
for experimental work on Waushakum Farm had passed. The city had
encroached upon the country, and where had been pastures and farm
fields were now town lots and dwellings. The inclination for research
which throughout his life had animated Sturtevant, now took the turn,
more than ever, of research in books. Near the old home, into which he
moved with his family, he housed his library in a small building and set
to work. Always diligent with the pen, and his favorite subject the
history of plants, there is no question but that he now determined to
put in permanent form the many articles he had printed here and there
on the origin, history and variations in cultivated plants. His
manuscripts, notes and the articles in American Naturalist indicate
such a determination. Had not ill health and untimely death intervened,
it is probable that Sturtevant would have put forth the volume which
now, a quarter-century later, comes from the hands of an editor.
The idea of writing a history of food plants came to Dr. Sturtevant long
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before his retirement from active professional work — in fact must have
been in his mind from college days. His books were well under way and
much had been accomplished as early as 1880, for in April of that year
he wrote to the Country Gentleman asking its readers to give him
information on the introduction of food plants, for seeds of new or
curious esculents, for reports on the foods of agricultural Indians,
stating the purpose of these questions as follows: "I am collecting the
material for writing a Flora Dietica, or a history of food plants, with
especial reference to the distribution and variation of cultivated plants.
My inquiries thus far embrace 1,185 genera, and (including probably
some synonyms) 3,087 species of food plants." Then follow numerous
questions, after which he further states: "Geographical botany,
acclimatization through variations, the increase of varieties with the
increase of knowledge and the spread of civilization, what man has
done and what man can hope to do in modifying vegetable growth to
his use and support—is a subject of great interest as well as
importance; and it seems desirable that information which can be
obtained now, while our country is not yet wholly occupied, should be
put upon record against the time when the ascertaining of these facts
will be more difficult."
For a little more than two years, Dr. Sturtevant was associated with E.
H. Libby, as editor of the Scientific Farmer, after which, for nearly a
year and a half, he was sole editor. The joint editorship began in March,
1876, and ended in May, 1878, the magazine being discontinued in
October, 1879. The Scientific Farmer was in all matters pertaining to
agriculture abreast of the times — in most matters in advance of the
times — notwithstanding which it was not a financial success, and,
becoming too heavy a drain on its owner's pocket, was discontinued.
The magazine was published before the days of experiment station
bulletins and contains the gist of the agricultural investigations then
being carried on, most of it being reported by the investigators
themselves. As editor, Dr. Sturtevant assumed the role of analyst of the
scientific work in the agriculture of the times, using, as all must agree,
singularly good judgment and discrimination in his discussions of the
work of others.
One of the great pleasures of Dr. Sturtevant's life seems to have been
active participation in the several scientific societies to which he
belonged. He was long a Fellow in the American Association for the
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Advancement of Science; he was one of the founders of the Society for
the Promotion of Agricultural Science, serving as its first secretary and
fourth president; while in Massachusetts, he was active in the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society; and during his directorship of the
New York Station was one of the leaders in the Western New York
Horticultural Society. He was, too, at various times, a member of several
general agricultural and dairymen's organizations. He was never a
passive member in any of the societies in which he was interested and
to those named, in particular, presented many papers, while the
minutes of the meetings record that his voice was heard in all important
discussions.
Seashore of Oregon and California. The root is stout and fusiform, often
several feet long. The Chinook Indians eat it.
A plant common within the tropics in the Old World, principally upon
the shores. The beauty of the seeds, their use as beads and for
necklaces, and their nourishing qualities, have combined to scatter the
plant. The seeds are used in Egypt as a pulse, but Don says they are
the hardest and most indigestible of all the pea tribe. Brandis says the
root is a poor substitute for licorice.
Brazil. The Brazilians eat the corolla of this native plant cooked as a
vegetable.
A. indicum Sweet
Old World tropics. The raw flowers are eaten in Arabia. The leaves
contain a large quantity of mucilage.
Acacia Leguminosae.
A. abyssinica Hochst.
North and central Africa and Southwest Asia. It furnishes a gum arable
of superior quality. The bark, in times of scarcity, is ground and mixed
with flour in India, and the gum, mixed with the seeds of sesame, is an
article of food with the natives. The gum serves for nourishment, says
Humboldt,9 to several African tribes in their passages through the
dessert. In Barbary, the tree is called atteleh.
A. bidwilli Benth.
Australia. The roots of young trees are roasted for food after peeling.
Tropical Asia. The leaves are acid and are used in cookery by the
natives of India as a substitute for tamarinds. It is the fei-tsau-tau of
the Chinese. The beans are about one-half to three-fourths inch in
diameter and are edible after roasting.
A. decora Reichb.
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Australia. The gum is gathered and eaten by Queensland natives.
A. ehrenbergiana Hayne
A. ferruginea DC.
India. The bark steeped in "jaggery water"—fresh, sweet sap from any of
several palms — is distilled as an intoxicating liquor. It is very
astringent.
A. flexicaulis Benth.
Texas. The thick, woody pods contain round seeds the size of peas
which, when boiled, are palatable and nutritious.4
A. glaucophylla Steud.
South Africa. This is the dornboom plant which exudes a good kind of
gum.
Australia. The Tasmanians roast the pods and eat the starchy seeds.
A. pallida F. Muell.
Australia. The roots of the young trees are roasted and eaten.
Old World tropics. The tree forms vast forests in Senegambia. It is called
nebul by the natives and furnishes gum arable.
North Africa, Upper Egypt and Senegambia. It furnishes the best gum
arabic. It is called glute by the Arabs of the upper Nile and whistling
tree by the natives of Sudan. The holes left by the departure of a gall
insect are rendered musical by the wind.
A. suaveolens Willd.
A. tortilis Hayne
Arabia, Nubia and the desert of Libya and Dongola. It furnishes the
best of gum arabic.
Australia. The leaves are used as a tea by the natives of the Middle
Island in New Zealand, according to Lyall. It is the piri-piri of the natives.
Tropics of Africa. The fruit grows on a bush from four to five feet high,
without leaves and with opposite thorns. It has a coriaceous rind,
rough with prickles, is about 15-18 inches around and inside
resembles a melon as to seed and pulp. When ripe it has a luscious
sub-acid taste. The bushes grow on little knolls of sand. It is described,
however, by Andersonl as a creeper which produces a kind of prickly
gourd about the size of a Swede turnip and of delicious flavor. It
constitutes for several months of the year the chief food of the natives,
and the seeds are dried and preserved for winter consumption.
North America. The sap will make sugar of good quality but less in
quantity than the sugar maple. Sugar is made from this species, says
Loudon, in districts where the tree abounds, but the produce is not
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above half that obtained from the sap of the sugar maple.
Europe and the Orient. From the sap, sugar has been made in Norway,
Sweden and in Lithuania.
Europe and the Orient. In England, children suck the wings of the
growing keys for the sake of obtaining the sweet exudation that is upon
them. In the western Highlands and some parts of the Continent, the
sap is fermented into wine, the trees being first tapped when just
coming into leaf. From the sap, sugar may be made but not in
remunerative quantities.
North America. The French Canadians make sugar from the sap which
they call plaine, but the product is not more than half that obtained
from the sugar maple. In Maine, sugar is often made from the sap.
Orient. The Calmucks, after depriving the seeds of their wings, boil
them in water and afterwards use them for food, mixed with milk and
butter.
South America. This is a tree found wild in the forests of Venezuela and
the Antilles. It has for a long time been introduced into the gardens of
the West Indies and South America but has been recently carried to
Mauritius, to Java, to the Philippines, and to the continent of India. The
sapodilla bears a round berry covered with a rough, brown coat, hard
at first, but becoming soft when kept a few days to mellow. The berry is
about the size of a small apple and has from 6 to 12 cells with several
seeds in each, surrounded by a pulp which in color, consistence, and
taste somewhat resembles the pear but is sweeter. The fruit, when tree-
ripe, is so full of milk that little rills or veins appear quite through the
pulp, which is so acerb that the fruit cannot be eaten until it is as rotten
as medlars. In India, Firminger says of its fruit: " a more luscious, cool
and agreeable fruit is not to be met with in any country in the world; "
and Brandis says: "one of the most pleasant fruits known when
completely ripe." It is grown in gardens in Bengal.
Japan. The root of this species is said to possess a stronger and more
pleasant taste and smell than that of A. calamus. It is sometimes
cultivated in gardens.
West Indies and Brazil. Its fruit is the size of an apricot, globular and of
a greenish-olive color, with a thin layer of firm, edible pulp of an orange
color covering the nut, and, though oily and bitter, is much esteemed
and eagerly sought after by the natives. This is probably the macaw tree
of Wafer.
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A. mexicana Karw. COQUITO HABRASO. COYOLI PALM.
Japan and Manchuria. This vine is common in all the valleys of Yesso
and extends to central Nippon. It is vigorous in growth and fruits
abundantly. The fruit is an oblong, greenish berry about one inch in
length; the pulp is of uniform texture, seeds minute and skin thin.
When fully ripe it possesses a very delicate flavor.
East Indies. This tree has been found in Senegal and Abyssinia, as well
as on the west coast of Africa, extending to Angola and thence across
the country to Lake Ngami. It is cultivated in many of the warm parts of
the world. Mollien, in his Travels, states that to the negroes, the Baobab
is perhaps the most valuable of vegetables. Its leaves are used for leaven
and its bark for cordage and thread. In Senegal, the negroes use the
pounded bark and the leaves as we do pepper and salt. Hooker says
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the leaves are eaten with other food and are considered cooling and
useful in restraining excessive perspiration. The fruit is much used by
the natives of Sierra Leone. It contains a farinaceous pulp full of seeds,
which tastes like gingerbread and has a pleasant acid flavor. Brandis
says it is used for preparing an acid beverage. Monteiro says the leaves
are good to eat boiled as a vegetable and the seeds are, in Angola,
pounded and made into meal for food in times of scarcity; the
substance in which they are imbedded is also edible but strongly and
agreeably acid.
Northern Australia. The pulp of its fruit has an agreeable, acid taste like
cream of tartar and is peculiarly refreshing in the sultry climates where
the tree is found.
Australia. The seeds are roasted in the coals and the kernels are eaten.
One of the largest trees of tropical eastern Asia. The seeds are eaten by
the common people. It has been introduced into the West Indies and
various parts of South America.
Northern temperate climates. In the Isles of Arran, off the Galway coast
of Britain, the inhabitants collect the fronds of this fern, dry them and
use them as a substitute for tea.
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Aeginetia indica Linn. Orobanchaceae.
Europe and adjoining Asia. Lightfoot says the young leaves are eaten in
the spring in Sweden and Switzerland as greens. It is mentioned by
Gerarde. In France it is an inmate of the flower garden, especially a
variety with variegated leaves.
A. indica Coleb.
East Indies. The leaves are used as a substitute for tea by the natives of
Sikkim.
The agave was in cultivation in the gardens of Italy in 1586 and Clusius
saw it in Spain a little after this time. It is now to be found generally in
tropical countries. The variety which furnishes sisal hemp was
introduced into Florida in 1838 and in 1855 there was a plantation of
50 acres at Key West.
A. palmeri Engelm.
Arizona. The central bud at certain seasons is roasted and eaten by the
Indians and a spirit is also distilled from it.
New Mexico and northern Arizona. This plant constitutes one of the
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staple foods of the Apaches. When properly prepared, it is saccharine,
palatable and wholesome, mildly acid, laxative and antiscorbutic.
Utah and Arizona. The bulb of the root is considered a great delicacy by
the Indians, who roast and prepare it for food which is said to be sweet
and delicious.
A. wislizeni Engelm.
Mexico. The young stems when they shoot out in the spring are tender
and sweet and are eaten with great relish by the Mexicans and Indians.
Fiji Islands and the East Indies. The natives eat the aril which
surrounds the seed and call it gumi. The fruit is edible, having a
watery, cooling, pleasant pulp. The aril is large, succulent and edible.
A. odorata Lour.
China. Firminger says this plant never fruits in Bengal. The flowers are
bright yellow, of the size and form of a pin head and are delightfully
fragrant. Fortune says it is the lan-hwa u yu-chu-lan of China and that
the flowers are used for scenting tea. Smith says it is the san-yeh-lan of
China, that the flowers are used for scenting tea and that the tender
leaves are eaten as a vegetable.
North temperate regions. The dried leaves are used by country people
as a sort of tea but probably only for medicinal qualities.
China. Smith says that the leaves are used to feed silkworms and, in
times of scarcity, are used as a vegetable.
Japan. The fruits of the wild vines are regularly gathered and marketed
in season.
A. quinata Decne.
China. The fruit is of variable size but is usually three or four inches
long and two inches in diameter. The pulp is a homogeneous,
yellowish-green mass containing 40 to 50 black, oblong seeds. It has a
pleasant sweetish, though somewhat insipid taste.
A small tree of the tropics of the Old World. On the coast of Malabar, the
fruit is an article of food. It affords an edible fruit. The fruit in India is
mucilaginous, sweet, somewhat astringent but is eaten.
Asia and tropical Africa. The aromatic leaves are used by the Chinese as
food. The leaves are said to be edible. The tree is called nemu in Japan.
A. lucida Benth.
A. monilifera F. Muell.
Australia. The pods are roasted when young and are eaten by the
natives.
A. montana Benth.
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Java. Sometimes used as a condiment in Java.
A. myriophylla Benth.
A. procera Benth.
Tropical Asia and Australia. In times of scarcity, the bark is mixed with
flour.
North America. This plant, says Masters, is one of the most intense
bitters known, but, according to Rafinesque, the Indians eat its bulbs.
The Orient and central Asia. This indigenous shrub furnishes a manna
by exudation.
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A. maurorum Medic. PERSIAN MANNA-PLANT.
North temperate zone and Australia. The solid part of the root contains
farinaceous matter and, when deprived of its acrid properties by drying,
is eaten by the Calmucks.
Europe and the Orient. This is a hardy perennial, remarkable for the
size of the bulbs. The leaves and stems somewhat resemble those of the
leek. The peasants in certain parts of Southern Europe eat it raw and
this is its only known use.
The bulbs are compound, separating into what are called cloves, like
those of garlic, and are of milder flavor than other cultivated alliums.
They are used in cookery as a seasoner in stews and soups, as also in a
raw state; the cloves, cut into small sections, form an ingredient in
French salads and are also sprinkled over steaks and chops. They
make an excellent pickle. In China, the shallot is grown but is not
valued as highly as is A. uliginosum.
North America. There is some hesitation in referring the tree onion of the
garden to this wild onion. Loudon refers to it as "the tree, or bulb-
bearing, onion, syn. Egyptian onion, A. cepa, var. viviparium; the stem
produces bulbs instead of flowers and when these bulbs are planted
they produce underground onions of considerable size and, being
much stronger flavored than those of any other variety, they go farther
in cookery." Booth says, "the bulb-bearing tree onion was introduced
into England from Canada in 1820 and is considered to be a
vivaparous variety of the common onion, which it resembles in
appearance. It differs in its flower-stems being surmounted by a cluster
of small green bulbs instead of bearing flowers and seed." It is a
peculiarity of A. canadense that it often bears a head of bulbs in the
place of flowers; its flavor is very strong; it is found throughout northern
United States and Canada. Mueller says its top bulbs are much sought
for pickles of superior flavor. Brown says its roots are eaten by some
Indians. In 1674, when Marquette and his party journeyed from Green
Bay to the present site of Chicago, these onions formed almost the entire
source of food. The lumbermen of Maine often used the plant in their
broths for flavoring. On the East Branch of the Penobscot, these onions
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occur in abundance and are bulb-producing on their stalks. They grow
in the clefts of ledges and even with the scant soil attain a foot in height.
In the lack of definite information, it may be allowable to suggest that
the tree onion may be a hybrid variety from this wild species, or
possibly the wild species improved by cultivation. The name, Egyptian
onion, is against this surmise, while, on the other hand, its apparent
origination in Canada is in its favor, as is also the appearance of the
growing plants.
Persia and Beluchistan. The onion has been known and cultivated as
an article of food from the earliest period of history. Its native country is
unknown. At the present time it is no longer found growing wild, but all
authors ascribe to it an eastern origin. Perhaps it is indigenous from
Palestine to India, whence it has extended to China, Cochin China,
Japan, Europe, North and South Africa and America. It is mentioned in
the Bible as one of the things for which the Israelites longed in the
wilderness and complained about to Moses. Herodotus says, in his time
there was an inscription on the Great Pyramid stating the sum
expended for onions, radishes and garlic, which had been consumed by
the laborers during the progress of its erection, as 1600 talents. A
variety was cultivated, so excellent that it received worship as a divinity,
to the great amusement of the Romans, if Juvenal is to be trusted.
Onions were prohibited to the Egyptian priests, who abstained from
most kinds of pulse, but they were not excluded from the altars of the
gods. Wilkinson says paintings frequently show a priest holding them
in his hand, or covering an altar with a bundle of their leaves and roots.
They were introduced at private as well as public festivals and brought
to table. The onions of Egypt were mild and of an excellent flavor and
were eaten raw as well as cooked by persons of all classes.
Humboldt says that the primitive Americans were acquainted with the
onion and that it was called in Mexican xonacatl. Cortez, in speaking of
the edibles which they found on the march to Tenochtitlan, cites onions,
leeks and garlic. De Candollel does not think that these names apply to
the species cultivated in Europe. Sloane, in the seventeenth century,
had seen the onion only in Jamaica in gardens. The word xonacati is
not in Hernandez, and Acosta says expressly that the onions and
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garlics of Peru came originally from Europe. It is probable that onions
were among the garden herbs sown by Columbus at Isabela Island in
1494, although they are not specifically mentioned. Peter Martyr
speaks of "onyons" in Mexico and this must refer to a period before
1526, the year of his death, seven years after the discovery of Mexico. It
is possible that onions, first introduced by the Spaniards to the West
Indies, had already found admittance to Mexico, a rapidity of
adaptation scarcely impossible to that civilized Aztec race, yet
apparently improbable at first thought.
But few of our modem forms are noticed in the early botanies. The
following synonymy includes all that are noted, but in establishing it, it
must be noted that many of the figures upon which it is founded are
quite distinct:
I.
Bulb flat at bottom, tapering towards stem.
The difference at first sight between the crude figure of Fuchsius and
the modern varieties is great, but ordinary experience indicates that the
changes are no greater than can be observed under selection.
II.
Bulb round at bottom, tapering towards stem.
III.
Bulb roundish, flattened above and below.
IV.
Bulb rounded below, flattened above.
VI
Bulb concave on the bottom.
VII.
Bulb oblong.
VIII.
The top onion.
Siberia, introduced into England in 1629. The Welsh onion acquired its
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name from the German walsch (foreign). It never forms a bulb like the
common onion but has long, tapering roots and strong fibers. It is
grown for its leaves which are used in salads. McIntosh says it has a
small, flat, brownish-green bulb which ripens early and keeps well and
is useful for pickling. It is very hardy and, as Targioni-Tozzetti thinks,
is probably the parent species of the onion. It is mentioned by
McMahon in 1806 as one of the American garden esculents; by
Randolph in Virginia before 1818; and was cataloged for sale by
Thorburn in 1828, as at the present time.
Europe and the Orient. According to Heldreich, it yields roots which are
edible.
A. obliquum Linn.
Siberia. From early times the plant has been cultivated on the Tobol as
a substitute for garlic.
Europe. The young leaves are used in Sweden to flavor stews and
soups or fried with other herbs and are sometimes so employed in
Britain but are inferior to those of the cultivated garlic.
Found growing wild in Algiers but the Bon Jardinier says it is a native
of Switzerland. It has been cultivated from the earliest times. This
vegetable was the prason of the ancient Greeks, the porrum of the
Romans, who distinguished two kinds, the capitatum, or leek, and the
sectile, or chives, although Columella, Pliny, and Palladius, indicate
these as forms of the same plant brought about through difference of
culture, the chive-like form being produced by thick planting. In
Europe, the leek was generally known throughout the Middle Ages, and
in the earlier botanies some of the figures of the leek represent the two
kinds of planting alluded to by the Roman writers. In England, 1726,
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Townsend says that "leeks are mightily used in the kitchen for broths
and sauces." The Israelites complained to Moses of the deprivation from
the leeks of Egypt during their wanderings in the wilderness. Pliny
states, that in his time the best leeks were brought from Egypt, and
names Aricia in Italy as celebrated for them. Leeks were brought into
great notice by the fondness for them of the Emperor Nero who used to
eat them for several days in every month to clear his voice, which
practice led the people to nickname him Porrophagus. The date of its
introduction into England is given as 1562, but it certainly was
cultivated there earlier, for it has been considered from time immemorial
as the badge of Welshmen, who won a victory in the sixth century over
the Saxons which they attributed to the leeks they wore by the order of
St. David to distinguish them in the battle. It is referred to by Tusser
and Gerarde as if in common use in their day.
The leek may vary considerably by culture and often attain a large size;
one with the blanched portion a foot long and nine inches in
circumference and the leaf fifteen inches in breadth and three feet in
length has been recorded. Vilmorin described eight varieties in 1883
but some of these are scarcely distinct. In 1806, McMahon named three
varieties among American garden esculents. Leeks are mentioned by
Romans as growing at Mobile, Ala., in 1775 and as cultivated by the
Choctaw Indians. The reference to leeks by Cortez is noticed under A.
cepa, the onion. The lower, or blanched, portion is the part generally
eaten, and this is used in soups or boiled and served as asparagus.
Buist names six varieties. The blanched stems are much used in French
cookery.
A. reticulatum Fras.
North America. This is a wild onion whose root is eaten by the Indians.
A. rotundum Linn.
Europe and Asia Minor. The leaves are eaten by the Greeks of Crimea.
A. rubellum Bieb.
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Europe, Siberia and the Orient. The bulbs are eaten by the hill people of
India and the leaves are dried and preserved as a condiment.
The first mention of garlic in America is by Peter Martyr, who states that
Cortez fed on it in Mexico. In Peru, Acosta says "the Indians esteem
garlike above all the roots of Europe." It was cultivated by the Choctaw
Indians in gardens before 1775 and is mentioned among garden
esculents by American writers on gardening in 1806 and since. The
plant has the well-known alliaceous odor which is strongly penetrating,
especially at midday. It is not as much used by northern people as by
those of the south of Europe. In many parts of Europe, the peasantry
eat their brown bread with slices of garlic which imparts a flavor
agreeable to them. In seed catalogs, the sets are listed while seed is
rarely offered. There are two varieties, the common and the pink.
Europe, Caucasus region and Syria. This species grows wild in the
Grecian Islands and probably elsewhere in the Mediterranean regions.
Loudon says it is a native of Denmark, formerly cultivated in England
for the same purposes as garlic but now comparatively neglected. It is
not of ancient culture as it cannot be recognized in the plants of the
ancient Greek and Roman authors and finds no mention of garden
cultivation by the early botanists. It is the Scorodoprasum of Clusius,
1601, and the Allii genus, ophioscorodon dictum quibusdam, of J.
Bauhin, 1651, but there is no indication of culture in either case. Ray,
1688, does not refer to its cultivation in England. In 1726, however,
Townsend says it is "mightly in request;" in 1783, Bryant classes it with
edibles. In France it was grown by Quintyne, 1690. It is mentioned by
Gerarde as a cultivated plant in 1596. Its bulbs are smaller than those
of garlic, milder in taste and are produced at the points of the stem as
well as at its base. Rocambole is mentioned among American garden
esculents by McMahon, 1806, by Gardiner and Hepburn, 1818, and by
Bridgeman, 1832.
A. senescens Linn.
Europe and Siberia. From early times this species has been eaten by
the people about Lake Baikal.
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A. stellatum Fras.
Europe and northern Asia. Gerarde, 1597, says the leaves were eaten in
Holland. They were also valued formerly as a pot-herb in England,
though very strong. The bulbs were also used boiled and in salads. In
Kamchatka this plant is much prized. The Russians as well as the
natives gather it for winter food.
Eastern Asia. The berries, which are red in color and about the size of
peas, are eaten by the natives.
A. zeylanicus Linn.
East Indies and south Asia, South Sea Islands and east Australia. The
underground stems constitute a valuable and important vegetable of
the native dietary in India. The stems sometimes grow to an immense
size and can be preserved for a considerable time, hence they are of
great importance in jail dietary when fresh vegetables become scarce in
the bazar or jail-garden. For its esculent stems and small, pendulous
tubers of its root, it is cultivated in Bengal and is eaten by people of all
ranks in their curries. In the Polynesian islands its large tuberous roots
are eaten. Wilkes says the natives of the Kingsmill group of islands
cultivate this species with great care. The root is said to grow to a very
large size.
Tropics of Asia, Australia and the islands of the Pacific. The root is
eaten in India, after being cooked, but it is inferior to that of A.
esculentum The roots are also eaten in tropical America as well as by
the people of New Caledonia, who cultivate it. It furnishes the roasting
eddas of Jamaica and the tayoea of Brazil. It is the taro of New Holland,
the roots of which, when roasted, afford a staple aliment to the natives.
Wilkes states that this plant is the ape of the Tahitians and is cultivated
as a vegetable.
The Banians of the African coast, according to Grant, cut the leaves of
an aloe into small pieces, soak them in lime-juice, put them in the sun,
and a pickle is thus formed.
Tropical eastern Asia. The root is used in place of ginger in Russia and
in some other countries for flavoring a liquor called nastoika. By the
Tartars, it is taken with tea." In Cochin China the fresh root is used to
season fish and for other economic purposes.
A. globosa Horan.
A. uviformis Horan.
A. spinulosa Hook.
This is the pugjik of the Lepchas who eat the soft, watery pith. It is
abundant in East Bengal and the peninsula of India.
A. ligtu Linn.
Chile and the mountains of Peru. A farina is obtained from its roots. It
is called in Peru Untu, in Chile utat. Its roots furnish a palatable starch.
The plant is found wild in Europe and Asia and is naturalized in places
in America. It is cultivated extensively in Europe for medicinal
purposes, acting as a demulcent. In 812, Charlemagne enjoined its
culture in France. Johnson says its leaves may be eaten when boiled.
A. campestris Willd.
A. diacanthus Rafin.
North America. Rafinesque says the leaves are good to eat as spinach.
Tropical Africa and East Indies. This plant is cultivated in India and is
used as a pot-herb. It has mucilaginous leaves without taste. This
amaranthus is a common weed everywhere in India and is much used
by the natives as a pot-herb. Drury says it is considered very
wholesome. This species is the goose-foot of Jamaica, where it is
sometimes gathered and used as a green.
A. polystachyus Willd.
A. viridis Linn.
North America and eastern Asia. This bush or small tree, according to
the variety, is a native of the northern portion of America and eastern
Asia. Gray describes five forms. For many years a Mr. Smith,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, has cultivated var. oblongifolia in his
garden and in 1881 exhibited a plate of very palatable fruit at the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society's show. The berries are eaten in
large quantities, fresh or dried, by the Indians of the Northwest. The
fruit is called by the French in Canada poires, in Maine sweet pear and
from early times has been dried and eaten by the natives. It is called
grape-pear in places, and its fruit is of a purplish color and an
agreeable, sweet taste. The pea-sized fruit is said to be the finest fruit of
the Saskatchewan country and to be used by the Cree Indians both
fresh and dried.
A leafless plant, native of New Mexico (Nope - MM). Col. Grey, the
original discoverer of this plant, found it in the country of the Papago
Indians, a barren, sandy waste, where rain scarcely ever falls, but
"where nature has provided for the sustenance of man one of the most
nutritious and palatable of vegetables." The plant is roasted upon hot
coals and ground with mesquit beans and resembles in taste the sweet
potato "but is far more delicate." It is very abundant in the hills; the
whole plant, except the top, is buried in the sand.
The aromatic and stimulant seeds of many of the plants of the genus
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Amomum are known as cardamoms, as are those of Elettaria. The
botanical history of the species producing the various kinds is in much
confusion. One species at least is named as under cultivation.
A. aromaticum Roxb.
East Indies. The fruit is used as a spice and medicine by the natives
and is sold as cardamoms.
African tropics. The seeds are made use of illegally in England to give a
fictitious strength to spirits and beer, but they are not particularly
injurious. The seeds resemble and equal camphor in warmth and
pungency.
Java and other Malay islands. This species is said to be cultivated in the
mountains of Nepal.
African tropics. The seeds are exported from Guiana where the plant,
supposed to have been brought from Africa, is cultivated by the
negroes. The hot and peppery seeds form a valued spice in many parts
of India and Africa.
A. villosum Lour.
East Indies and China. This plant is supposed to yield the hairy, round,
China cardamoms.
A. lyratus Kunth.
East Indies. The roots are eaten by the natives and are thought to be
very nutritious. They require, however, to be carefully boiled several
times and to be dressed in a particular manner in order to divest them
of a somewhat disagreeable taste.
Brazil. The nuts are eaten and conserves are made of the fruit.
Brazil. The nuts are eaten and conserves are made of the fruit.
East Indies. A strong, climbing shrub found in the eastern part of the
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Indian Peninsula and Malay Islands. From this plant is produced a
deleterious drug illegally used in England to impart bitterness to beer.
Acosta states that the ananas was carried from Santa Cruz in Brazil to
the West Indies, and thence to the East Indies and China, but he does
not pretend by this that pineapples were not to be found out of Brazil,
for he describes an idol in Mexico, Vitzili-putzli, as having "in his left
hand a white target with the figures of five pineapples, made of white
feathers, set in a crosse." Stephens, at Tuloom, on the coast of Yucatan,
found what seemed intended to represent a pineapple among the
stucco ornaments of a ruin. We do not know what to make of
Wilkinson's n statement of one instance of the pineapple in glazed
pottery being among the remains from ancient Egypt. It has probably
been cultivated in tropical America from time immemorial, as it now
rarely bears seeds. Humboldt mentions pineapples often containing
seeds as growing wild in the forests of the Orinoco, at Esmeralda; and
Schomburgk found the wild fruit, bearing seeds, in considerable
quantity throughout Guiana. Piso also mentions a pineapple having
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many seeds growing wild in Brazil. Titford says this delicious fruit is
well known and very common in Jamaica, where there are several sorts.
Unger says, in 1592 it was carried to Bengal and probably from Peru
by way of the Pacific Ocean to China. Ainslie says that it was introduced
in the reign of the Emperor Akbar by the Portuguese who brought the
seed from Malacca; that it was naturalized in Java as early as 1599 and
was taken thence to Europe. In 1594, it was cultivated in China,
brought thither perhaps from America by way of the Philippines. An
anonymous writer states that it was quite common in India in 1549
and this is in accord with Acosta's statement.
North America. Josselyn, prior to 1670, remarks of this plant that "the
fishermen when they want tobacco, take this herb: being cut and
dryed." In France, it is an inmate of the flower garden.
African tropics. The stems are cut into short lengths and are carried by
the natives upon long journeys, the soft central parts being eaten after
they have been properly roasted.
China. The plant is cultivated and its tubers are eaten by the Chinese.
They are also eaten in India.
Europe and the adjoining portions of Asia. On the lower Volga, the
young stems are eaten raw by the natives. Don says it is used as
archangelica, but the flavor is more bitter and less grateful.
A fern of India, the Asiastic and Polynesian Islands. The caudex, as also
the thick part of the stipes, is of a mealy and mucilaginous nature and
is eaten by the natives in times of scarcity.
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Angraecum fragrans Thou. Orchideae. BOURBON TEA. FAHAM
TEA.
The leaves of this orchid are very fragrant and are used in Bourbon as
tea. It has been introduced into France.
African tropics. The fruit is sold in the markets of Sierra Leone in the
months of April and May; it is described by Don as being superior to
any other which is tasted in Africa. It is of the size and shape of a
pigeon's egg, red on the sunned side, yellow on the other, its flavor
being something between that of the nectarine and a plum.
Tropical America. This tree grows wild in Barbados and Jamaica but in
Surinam has only escaped from gardens. It is cultivated in the whole of
Brazil, Peru and Mexico. In Jamaica, the fruit is sought after only by
negroes. The plant has quite recently been carried to Sierra Leone. It is
not mentioned among the fruits of Florida by Atwood in 1867 but is
included in the American Pomological Society's list for 1879. The smell
and taste of the fruit, flowers and whole plant resemble much those of
the black currant. The pulp of the fruit, says Lunan, is soft, white and
of a sweetish taste, intermixed with oblong, dark colored seeds, and,
according to Sloane, the unripe fruit dressed like turnips tastes like
them. Morelet says the rind of the fruit is thin, covering a white,
unctuous pulp of a peculiar, but delicious, taste, which leaves on the
palate a flavor of perfumed cream. It has a peculiarly agreeable flavor
although coupled with a biting wild taste. Church says its leaves form
corossol tea.
A. paludosa Aubl.
American and African tropics. The plant bears fruit the size of the fist.
The seeds, as large as a bean, lie in an orange-colored pulp of an
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unsavory taste but which has something of the smell and relish of an
orange. The fruit is considered narcotic and even poisonous in Jamaica
but of the latter we have, says Lunan, no certain proof. The wood of the
tree is so soft and compressible that the people of Jamaica call it
corkwood and employ it for stoppers.
A. punctata Aubl.
Guiana. The plant bears a brown, oval, smooth fruit about three inches
in diameter with little reticulations on its surface. The flesh is reddish,
gritty and filled with little seeds. It has a good flavor and is eaten with
pleasure. It is the pinaou of Guiana.
A. senegalensis Pers.
African tropics and Guiana. The fruit is not much larger than a pigeon's
egg but its flavor is said, by Savine, to be superior to most of the other
fruits of this genus.
South Africa. The sprouts are eaten as a substitute for asparagus. They
are by no means unpalatable, says Carmichael,9 though a certain
clamminess which they possess, that induces the sensation as of
pulling hairs from between one's lips, renders them at first unpleasant.
Africa. This grass grows in great luxuriance in the Upper Nile region, 5°
5' south, and in famines furnishes the natives with a grain.
East Indies and Sumatra. This large tree is cultivated in Bengal, North
India and elsewhere. The flowers are offered on Hindu shrines. The
yellow fruit, the size of a small orange, is eaten. The plant is a native of
the Siamese countries.
A tree of Nepal, Amboina and Malabar. Its shining, deep red, fruits are
subacid and palatable. In Java, the fruits are used, principally by
Europeans, for preserving.
A. diandrum Spreng.
East Indies. The berries are eaten by the natives. The leaves are acid
and are made into preserve.
A. ghesaembilla Gaertn.
East Indies, Malay, Australia and African tropics. The small drupes,
dark purple when ripe, with pulp agreeably acid, are eaten.
Northeast America. The tubers are used as food. Kalm says this is the
kopniss of the Indians on the Delaware, who ate the roots; that the
Swedes ate them for want of bread, and that in 1749 some of the
English ate them instead of potatoes. Winslow says that the Pilgrims,
during their first winter, "were enforced to live on ground nuts." At Port
Royal, in 1613, Biencourt and his followers used to scatter about the
woods and shores digging ground nuts. In France, the plant is grown in
the flower garden.
The first celeries grown seem to have differed but little from the wild
plant, and the words celery and (cultivated) smallage were apparently
nearly synonymous at one time, as we find cultivated ache spoken of in
1623 in France and at later dates petit celeri or celeri a couper, a
variety with hollow stalks, cultivated even at the present time for use of
the foliage in soups and broths. Among the earlier varieties we find
mention of hollow-stalked, stalks sometimes hollow, and solid-stalked
forms; at the present time the hollow-stalked forms have been
discarded. Vilmorin describes twelve sorts as distinct and worthy of
culture in addition to the celeri a couper but in all there is this to be
noted, there is but one type.
In Italy and the Levant, where celery is much grown, but not blanched,
the green leaves and stalks are used as an ingredient in soups. In
England and America, the stalks are always blanched and used raw as
a salad or dressed as a dinner vegetable. The seeds are also used for
flavoring. In France, celery is said by Robinson never to be as well
grown as in England or America. By cultivation, celery, from a
suspicious if not poisonous plant, has become transformed into the
sweet, crisp, wholesome and most agreeable cultivated vegetable.
Europe, Orient, India and California. This variety of celery forms a stout
tuber, irregularly rounded, frequently exceeding the size of one's fist,
hence it is often termed turnip-rooted celery. In France, it is commonly
grown in two varieties. The tuber, generally eaten cooked, is sometimes
sliced and used in salads. In Germany, it is commonly used as a
vegetable, cooked in soups or cooked and sliced for salads. In England,
celeriac is seldom grown. In this country, it is grown only to a limited
extent and is used only by our French and German population. When
well grown, these bulbs should be solid, tender and delicate.
Australian and Antarctic regions. Mueller says this plant can be utilized
as a culinary vegetable.
Madagascar. Ellis says this plant is not only extremely curious but also
very valuable to the natives who, at certain seasons of the year, gather it
as an article of food, the fleshy root, when cooked, yielding a
farinaceous substance resembling the yam.
A. monostachyon Linn. f.
Tropical eastern Asia. The natives relish the small tubers as an article of
diet; they are said to be as good as potatoes, and are esteemed a great
delicacy.
Brazil. The seeds are very large and are eatable. They are sold as an
article of food in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Southern Chili. The seeds are eaten by the Indians, either fresh, boiled
or roasted, and from them is distilled a spirituous liquor. Eighteen
good-sized trees will yield enough for a man's sustenance all the year
round.
East Mediterranean countries. Its fruit was eaten during the Golden
Age. Don says the fruit seems to be used in Greece.
A. canariensis Duham.
The medicinal properties of the root were highly prized in the Middle
Ages. In Pomet, we read that the seed is much used to make angelica
comfits as well as the root for medicine. Bryant deems it the best
aromatic that Europe produces. This plant must be a native of northern
Europe, for there are no references to it in the ancient authors of Greece
and Rome, nor is it mentioned by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth
century. By Fuchsius, 1542, and succeeding authors it receives proper
attention. The German name, Heilige Geist Wurz, implies the estimation
in which it was held and offers a clue to the origin of the word Angelica,
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or angel plant, which occurs in so many languages, as in English,
Spanish, Portugese, and Italian, becoming Angelique and
Archangelique in French, and Angelickwurz in German. Other names of
like import are the modern Engelwurz in Germany, Engelkruid in
Flanders and Engelwortel in Holland.
The various figures given by herbalists show the same type of plant, the
principal differences to be noted being in the size of the root. Pena and
Lobel, 1570, note a smaller variety as cultivated in England, Belgium,
and France, and Gesner is quoted by Camerarius as having seen roots
of three pounds weight. Bauhin, 1623, says the roots vary, the Swiss-
grown being thick, those of Bohemia smaller and blacker.
Arctic regions and mountain summits farther south. The berries are
eaten in Lapland but are a mawkish food, according to Linnaeus.
Richardson says there are two varieties, that both are eaten in the
autumn and, though not equal to some of the other native fruits, are
not unpleasant. They are called amprick by the Russians at the mouth
of the Obi.
North America and Arctic regions. The Chinook Indians mix its dried
leaves with tobacco. It is used for the same purpose by the Crees who
call it tchakoshe-pukk; by the Chippewaians, who name it kleh; and by
the Eskimos north of Churchill, by whom it is termed at-tung-a-wi-at. It
is the iss-salth of the Chinooks. Its dry, farinaceous berry is utterly
inedible.
West Indies. According to Sloane, the drupes are eaten in Jamaica and
are accounted a pleasant dessert.
A. esculenta Pav.
A. glandiformis Lam.
Moluccas. In Cochin China the leaves are chewed with the betel nut.
A. laxa Buch.-Ham.
Andaman Islands. The nuts of this plant are used instead of the betel
nut by the convicts confined on, Andaman Islands.
Tropical eastern Asia. This palm has been called the most useful of all
palms. Griffith says, the young albumen preserved in sugar forms one
of the well-known preserves of the Straits. Brandis says, the heart of the
stem contains large quantities of sago, and the cut flower-stalks yield a
sugary sap of which sugar and palm-wine are made. Graham says, at
Bombay this palm affords tolerably good sago and the sap, palm-wine
and sugar. Seemann says, the bud, or cabbage, is eaten. The sap, of
which some three quarts a day are collected, furnishes toddy and from
this toddy, jaggery sugar is prepared. The seed, freed from its noxious
covering, is made into a sweetmeat by the Chinese. From the pith, a
species of sago is prepared which, however, has a peculiar flavor.
Morocco. From the seeds, the natives extract an oil that is used for
cooking and lighting. When ripe, the fruit, which is an egg-shaped
drupe, falls from the trees and the goats then enter into competition
with their masters for a share in the harvest. The goats, however,
swallow the fruit only for the sake of the subacid rind and, being
unable to digest the hard seeds, eject them during the process of
rumination, when they are gathered and added to the general store for
oil making.
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Arisaema atrorubens Blume. Aroideae (Araceae). DRAGON ROOT.
JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT. INDIAN TURNIP.
North America. Cutler says, the shredded roots and berries are said to
have been boiled by the Indians with their venison. Bigelow says, the
starch of the root is delicate and nutritious. It must, however, be
obtained from the root by boiling in order that the heat may destroy the
acrimonious principle.
A. costatum Mart.
A. curvatum Kunth.
Himalayas. The Lepchas of India prepare a food called tong from the
tuberous root. The roots are buried in masses until acetous
fermentation sets in and are then dug, washed and cooked, by which
means their poisonous properties are in part dispersed, but not
entirely, as violent illness sometimes follows a hearty meal of tong.
A. tortuosum Schott.
Mediterranean regions. In north Africa, the roots are much used in,
seasons of scarcity. The root, which is not as large as our ordinary
walnut, contains an acid juice, which makes it quite uneatable in the
natural state. This is, however, removed by repeated washings and the
residue is innoxious and nutritive.
A large shrub called in Chile, maqui. The berries, though small, have
the pleasant taste of bilberries and are largely consumed in Chile.
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A. racemosa Hook.
Northern South America. This plant has been cultivated and used as a
food from early times in the cooler mountainous districts of northern
South America, where the roots form a staple diet of the inhabitants.
The root is not unlike a parsnip in shape but more blunt; it is tender
when boiled and nutritious, with a flavor between the parsnip and a
roasted chestnut. A fecula, analogous to arrowroot, is obtained from it
by rasping in, water. Arracacha yields, according to Boussingault,
about 16 tons per acre. The plant is also found in the mountain regions
of Central America. The roots are nutritious and palatable and there are
yellow, purple and pale varieties. Attempts to naturalize this plant in
field culture in Europe have been unsuccessful. It was introduced into
Europe in 1829 and again, in 1846, but trials in England, France and
Switzerland were unsuccessful5 in obtaining eatable roots. It was
grown near New York in 1825 4 and at Baltimore in 1828 or 1829 but
was found to be worthless. Lately introduced into India, it is now fairly
established there and Morris considers it a most valuable plant-food,
becoming more palatable and desirable the longer it is used. It is
generally cultivated in Venezuela, New Granada and Ecuador, and in
the temperate regions of these countries, Arracacha is preferred to the
potato. The first account which reached Europe concerning this plant
was published in the Annals of Botany in 1805. It was, however,
mentioned in a few words by Alcedo, 1789.
East Europe, the Orient and Himalayan regions. Tarragon was brought
to Italy, probably from the shores of the Black Sea, in recent times. The
first mention on record is by Simon Seth, in the middle of the twelfth
century, but it appears to have been scarcely known as a condiment
until the sixteenth century. It was brought to England in or about
1548. The flowers, as Vilmorin says, are always barren, so that the
plant can be propagated only by division. Tarragon culture is
mentioned by the botanists of the sixteenth century and in England by
Gerarde, 1597, and by succeeding authors on gardening. Rauwolf,
1573-75, found it in the gardens of Tripoli. In America, it is mentioned
by McMahon, 1806. Its roots are now included in our leading seed
catalogs. Tarragon has a fragrant smell and an aromatic taste for which
it is greatly esteemed by the French. In Persia, it has long been
customary to use the leaves to create an appetite. Together with the
young tips, the leaves are put in salads, in pickles and in vinegar for a
fish sauce. They are also eaten with beefsteaks, served with
horseradish. Tarragon vinegar, says Mclntosh, is much esteemed.
A. hirsuta Lam.
East Indies. The fruit is the size of a large orange. The pulpy substance
is much relished by the natives, being almost as good as the fruit of the
jack.
This most useful tree is nowhere found growing wild but is now
extensively cultivated in warm regions. It is first described by the writer
of Mendana's Voyage to the Marquesas Islands, 1595. It has been
distributed from the Moluccas, by way of Celebes and New Guinea,
throughout all the islands of the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti. Breadfruit is
also naturalized in, the Isle of France, in tropical Americal and bears
fruit in Ceylon and Burma. It is more especially an object of care and
cultivation in the Marquesas and the Friendly and Society Islands. The
tree was conveyed to the Isle of France from Luzon in the Philippines by
Sonnerat. In 1792, from Tahiti and Timor, Capt. Bligh, who was
commissioned by the British Government for this purpose, took a store
of plants and in 1793 landed 333 breadfruit trees at St. Vincent and
347 at Port Royal, Jamaica. In the cultivated breadfruit, the seeds are
almost always abortive, leaving their places empty which shows that its
cultivation goes back to a remote antiquity. This seedlessness does not
hold true, however, of all varieties, of which there are many. Chamisso
describes a variety in the Mariana Islands with small fruit containing
seeds which are frequently perfect. Sonnerat found in the Philippines a
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breadfruit, which he considered as wild, which bears ripe seeds of a
considerable size. In Tahiti, there are eight varieties without seeds and
one variety with seeds which is inferior to the others. Nine varieties are
credited by Wilkes to the Fiji Islands and twenty to the Samoan.
Captain Cook, at Tahiti, in 1769, describes the fruit as about the size
and shape of a child's head, with the surface reticulated not much
unlike a truffle, covered with a thin skin and having a core about as big
as the handle of a small knife.
The eatable part of breadfruit lies between the skin and the core and is
as white as snow and somewhat of the consistence of new bread. It
must be roasted before it is eaten. Its taste is insipid, with a slight
sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread
mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. Wilkes says the best varieties when
baked or roasted are not unlike a good custard pudding. If the
breadfruit is to be preserved, it is scraped from the rind and buried in a
pit where it is allowed to ferment, when it subsides into a mass
somewhat of the consistency of new cheese. These pits when opened
emit a nauseous, fetid, sour odor, and the color of the contents is a
greenish-yellow. In this state it is called mandraiuta, or native bread, of
which several kinds are distinguished. It is said that it will keep several
years and is cooked with cocoanut milk, in which state it forms an
agreeable and nutritious food. This tree affords one of the most
generous sources of nutriment that the world possesses. According to
Poster, twenty-seven breadfruit trees, which would cover an English
acre with their shade, are sufficient for the support of from ten to twelve
people during the eight months of fruit-bearing. Breadfruit is called in
Tahiti maiore, in Hawaii aeiore.
East Indies. On account of its excellent fruit, this tree is a special object
of cultivation on the two Indian peninsulas, in Cochin China and
southern China. It has only recently been introduced into the islands of
the Pacific Ocean, as well as upon the island of Mauritius, the Antilles
and the west coast of Africa. It is scarcely to be doubted that it occurs
here and there growing wild and that perhaps Ceylon and the
peninsula of Further India may be looked upon as its original native
land. The jack seems to be the Indian fruit described by Pliny, who
gives the name of the tree as pala, of the fruit, ariena; and to be the
chagui of Friar Jordanus, about 1330, whose "fruit is of such size that
one is enough for five persons." Firminger says the fruit of this tree is
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perhaps about one of the largest in existence and is an ill-shapen,
unattractive-looking object. The interior is of a soft, fibrous consistency
with the edible portions scattered here and there, of about the size and
color of a small orange. It is considered delicious by those who can
manage to eat it, but it possesses the rich, spicy scent and flavor of the
melon to such a powerful degree as to be quite unbearable to persons
of a weak stomach, or to those not accustomed to it. There are two
varieties in India. Lunan says the thick, gelatinous covering which
envelopes the seeds, eaten either raw or fried, is delicious. The round
seeds, about half an inch in diameter, eaten roasted, have a very mealy
and agreeable taste. The fruit, says Brandis, is an important article of
food in Burma, southern India and Ceylon. The tree has a very strong
and disagreeable smell.
A. lakoocha Roxb.
Malay and East Indies. The ill-shapen fruit, the size of an orange and of
an austere taste, is sometimes eaten. Firminger says also that he has
met with those who said they liked it, a fact which he could otherwise
have hardly credited. Brandis says the male flower-heads are pickled.
Europe. The thick and tuberous root, while fresh, is extremely acrid,
but by heat its injurious qualities are destroyed, and in the isle of
Portland the plant was extensively used in the preparation of an arrow-
root. According to Sprengel,4 its roots are cooked and eaten in Albania,
and in Slavonia it is made into a kind of bread. The leaves, even of this
acrid plant, are said by Pallas 5 to be eaten by the Greeks of Crimea.
"Dioscorides showeth that the leaves also are prescribed to be eaten and
that they must be eaten after they be dried and boy led."
Northern Japan. When the young shoots appear in early summer, they
are carefully gathered and, under the name of take-no-ko, are used for
food as we would employ young asparagus; though by no means so
tender as the latter, they make a very desirable dish.
North America. This is the species of cane which forms cane brakes in
Virginia, Kentucky and southward. Flint, in his Western States, says: "It
produces an abundant crop of seed with heads very like those of broom
corn. The seeds are farinaceous and are said to be not much inferior to
wheat, for which the Indians and occasionally the first settlers
substituted it."
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Asarum canadense Linn. Aristolochiaceae. SNAKEROOT. WILD
GINGER.
North America. Kalm says the French in Canada use the tender shoots
of milkweed in spring, preparing them like asparagus, and that they
also make a sugar of the flowers; a very good, brown, palatable sugar.
Fremont found the Sioux Indians of the upper Platte eating the young
pods, boiling them with the meat of the buffalo. Jefferys, in his Natural
History of Canada, says: "What they call here the cotton-tree is a plant
which sprouts like asparagus to the height of about three feet and is
crowned with several tufts of flowers; these are shaken early in the
morning before the dew is off of them when there falls from them with
the dew a kind of honey, which is reduced into sugar by boiling; the
seed is contained in a pod which encloses also a very fine sort of cotton."
In 1835, Gen. Dearborn of Massachusetts recommended the use of the
young shoots of milkweed as asparagus, and Dewey says the young
plant is thus eaten. In France the plant is grown as an ornament.
Northeastern America. The tubers are boiled and used by the Indians.
The Sioux of the upper Platte prepare from the flowers a crude sugar
and also eat the young seed-pods. Some of the Indians of Canada use
the tender shoots as an asparagus.
Middle and southern United States. All parts of the tree have a rank
smell, and the fruit is relished by few except negroes. Vasey says the
fruit, about four inches long, when ripe has a rich, luscious taste. "The
pulp of the fruit," says Flint, "resembles egg-custard in consistence and
appearance. It has the same creamy feeling in the mouth and unites the
taste of eggs, cream, sugar and spice. It is a natural custard, too
lucious for the relish of most people. The fruit is nutritious and a great
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resource to the savages."
A. adscendens Roxb.
Western Mediterranean region. The young heads are cut from wild
plants and brought to table in Sicily, but they form but a poor
substitute for cultivated asparagus.
A. aphyllus Linn.
A. laricinus Burch.
East Indies, African tropics and Australia. In India, the tubers are
candied as a sweetmeat. This preparation, however, as Dutt states, has
scarcely any other taste or flavor besides that of the sugar. Firminger
says the preserve prepared from the blanched shoots is very agreeable.
East Indies. The long, fleshy, whitish root is used as food by the people
of Ceylon and, in the candied state, is often brought to India from
China.
A. verticillatus Linn.
Europe and the adjoining portions of Asia. The flowers are sweet-
scented. The herbage is not fragrant when fresh but, after being
gathered for a short time, it gives out the perfume of new hay and
retains this property for years. In Germany, woodroof is used for
imparting a flavor to some of the Rhine wines. In England, it is
cultivated occasionally as a garden herb, being used for flavoring
cooling drinks. Its seed is advertised in American garden catalogs.
Woodroof will thrive in the shade of most trees and grows in all kinds of
garden soil.
Northern Africa, Asia, the Orient and Europe. The somewhat fleshy
leaves of this aster are occasionally gathered to make a kind of pickle.
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Astragalus aboriginorum Richards. Leguminosae. ASTRAGALUS.
Arctic North America. The roots are eaten by the Cree and Stone
Indians of the Rocky Mountains.
Mississippi region of North America. The unripe fruits are edible and
are eaten raw or cooked.
A. christianus Linn.
Asia Minor and Syria. In Taurus, the roots of the great, yellow milk-
vetch are sought as an article of food.
A. creticus Lam.
A. gummifer Labill.
A. hamosus Linn.
A. kurdicus Boiss.
A. leioclados Boiss.
A. mexicanus A. DC.
Open plains and prairies from Illinois westward and southward. The
unripe fruits are edible and are eaten raw or cooked by travelers.
A. tucuma Mart.
Upper Amazon and Rio Negro. The fleshy part of the fruit is esteemed
for food by the Indians. The yellowish, fibrous pulp is eaten by the
natives.
A tree of the Moluccas. Its subacid leaves are cooked as a sauce for fish.
A. matthioli Wulf.
Australia. Its aromatic bark has been, used as a substitute for tea.
A. compta Mart.
Amazon region. Batesn says the fruit is similar in size and shape to the
date and has a pleasantly flavored, juicy pulp. The Indians did not eat
it but he did, although its wholesomeness was questionable.
Europe. The Germans call this species a native plant and say that it
grows wild among grain. It is cultivated in mountainous districts of
Europe, as in those of Auvergne and Forez, because it ripens quickly,
where the country people call it piedo de mouche, or fly's leg, because
of the appearance of the dark awns. In some parts of France, on
account of its excellence for fodder, it is called avoine a fourrage.
Europe, the Orient and Asia. This is the common wild oat of California.
It may have been introduced by the Spaniards but it is now spread over
the whole country many miles from the coast. The grain is gathered by
the Indians of California and is used as a bread corn. In 1852,
Professor Buckman sowed a plat of ground with seeds collected in
1851 and in 1856 had for the produce poor, but true, samples of what
are known as the potato and Tartarean oat. In 1860, the produce was
good white Tartarean and potato oats.
Southern Europe and the Orient. Although the name leads to the
supposition that this oat had its origin in the dry table-lands of Asia,
yet we are not aware, says Lindley, that any evidence exists to show that
it is so. We only know it as a cultivated plant. Phillips4 says the
Siberian oat reached England in. 1777, and Unger says it was brought
from the East to Europe at the end of the preceding century.
East Indies and China. The fruit is of the form and size of a gherkin,
with a smooth, thin, pale green, translucent rind like that of a ripe
grape. When ripe, the flesh is as soft as butter and has somewhat the
flavor of an unripe gooseberry, too acid to be eaten except when cooked.
Brandis speaks of it as pickled or preserved in sugar, and Smith writes
that the flowers are made into conserves.
East Indies and China. This plant has been cultivated for its fruit for
ages in tropical and subtropical India. The form of the fruit is oblong,
with five prominent angles; its skin is thin, green at first and yellowish
afterwards; the flesh is soft and exceedingly juicy like a plum, with a
grateful, acid flavor. In Hindustan and Ceylon, the fruit is sometimes as
big as the two fists. In Sumatra, there are two sorts which are used
chiefly in cookery. In Bengal, there are two varieties, one with acid, the
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other with sweet fruit, as also in Burma. The fruit is used as a pickle by
Europeans and the flowers are said to be made into a conserve.
Region of the Caspian. This plant transudes a gum which the natives of
New Zealand esteem as a food. The kernels are bitter but edible.
Brazil. The Portugese of the Rio Negro, a branch of the Amazon, gather
the aromatic seeds, known in trade by the names of the pichurim bean
and toda specie. The seed is grated like nutmeg.
South Africa. The root is sometimes boiled and eaten by the colonists at
the Cape.
B. sapida Muell.
East Indies and Malay. This plant is cultivated for its agreeable fruits.
The Hindus call it lutqua
B. sp.?
India. Royle says the plant yields the tampui, a fruit ranking in point of
taste and flavor along with the lausch.
Venezuela. On the Amazon, says Bates, this plant does not grow wild
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but has been cultivated from time immemorial by the Indians. The fruit
is dry and mealy and may be compared in taste to a mixture of
chestnuts and cheese. Bunches of sterile or seedless fruit sometimes
occur at Ega and at Para. It is one of the principal articles of food at Ega
when in season and is boiled and eaten with treacle and salt. Spencer
compares the taste of the mealy pericarp, when cooked, to a mixture of
potato and chestnut but says it is superior to either. Seemann says in
most instances the seed is abortive, the whole fruit being a farinaceous
mass. Humboldt says every cluster contains from 50 to 80 fruits, yellow
like apples but purpling as they ripen, two or three inches in diameter,
and generally without a kernel; the farinaceous portion is as yellow as
the yolk of an egg, slightly saccharine and exceedingly nutritious. He
found it cultivated in abundance along the upper Orinoco. In Trinidad,
the peach palm is said to be very prolific, bearing two crops a year, at
one season the fruit all seedless and another season bearing seeds. The
seedless fruits are highly appreciated by natives of all classes.
West Indies. The fruit is the size of an egg with a succulent, purple coat
from which wine may be made. The nut is large, with an oblong kernel
and is sold in the markets under the name of cocorotes.
Brazil. This palm has a fruit of a pleasant, acid flavor from which a
vinous beverage is prepared.
Jamaica. The fruit is dark purple, the size of a cherry and contains an
acid juice which Jacquin says is made into a sort of wine. The fruit is
edible but not pleasant.
Northwestern America. The thick roots of this species are eaten raw by
the Nez Perce Indians and have, when cooked, a sweet and rather
agreeable taste.
Northwestern America. The roots are eaten by the Nez Perce Indians in
Oregon, after being cooked on hot stones. They have a sweet and rather
agreeable taste. Wilkes mentions the Orgeon sunflower of which the
seeds, pounded into a meal called mielito, are eaten by the Indians of
Puget Sound.
Bambusa. Gramineae.
East Indies. The seeds of this and other species of Bambusa have often
saved the lives of thousands in times of scarcity in India, as in Orissa in
1812, in Kanara in 1864 and in 1866 in Malda. The plant bears
whitish seed, like rice, and Drury says these seeds are eaten by the
poorer classes.
Europe and temperate Asia. This herb of northern climates has been
cultivated in gardens in England for a long time as an early salad and
also in Scotland, where the bitter leaves are eaten by some. In early
times, rocket was held in some repute but is now banished from
cultivation yet appears in gardens as a weed. The whole herb, says Don,
has a nauseous, bitter taste and is in some degree mucilaginous. In
Sweden, the leaves are boiled as a kale. In New Zealand, the plant is
used by the natives as a food under the name, toi. Rocket is included in
the list of American garden esculents by McMahon, in 1806. In 1832,
Bridgeman says winter cress is used as a salad in spring and autumn
and by some boiled as a spinage.
B. butonica Forst.
Islands of the Pacific. This plant has oleaginous seeds and fruits which
are eaten green as vegetables.
B. careya F. Muell.
B. edulis Seem.
Fiji Islands. The rather insipid fruit is eaten either raw or cooked by the
natives.
B. excelsa Blume.
India, Cochin China and the Moluccas. The fruit is edible and the
young leaves are eaten cooked and in salad.
East Indies. The pulp of the fruit is eatable. The juice is extracted from
the flowers and made into sugar by the natives. It is sold in the Calcutta
bazaar and has all the appearance of date sugar, to which it is equal if
not superior in quality. An oil is extracted from the seeds, and the oil
cake is eaten as also is the pure vegetable butter which is called chooris
and is sold at a cheap rate.
East Indies. The succulent flowers fall by night in large quantities from
the tree, are gathered early in the morning, dried in the sun and sold in
the bazaars as an important article of food. They have a sickish, sweet
taste and smell and are eaten raw or cooked. The ripe and unripe fruit
is also eaten, and from the fruit is expressed an edible oil.
East Indies. The flowers are eaten by the natives of Mysore, either dried,
roasted, or boiled to a jelly. The oil pressed from the fruits is to the
common people of India a substitute for ghee and cocoanut oil in their
curries.
B. lingua DC.
B. malabarica Roxb.
East Indies, Burma and China. The flower-buds are pickled and eaten
as a vegetable.
Asia and tropical Africa. The seeds are eaten in the Punjab, and the
leaves are eaten by natives of the Philippines as a substitute for vinegar.
East Indies. The pods are roasted and the seeds are eaten. Its seeds
taste, when ripe, like the cashew-nut.
East Indies, Burma and China. There are two varieties, one with
purplish, the other with whitish flowers. The leaves and flower-buds are
eaten as a vegetable and the flower-buds are often pickled in India.
East Indies and Burma. The leaves, called tengoor, are eaten by the
natives as a pot-herb. Hooker says the stems of many species are eaten
in the Himalayas, when cooked, being pleasantly acid. The stems are
made into a sauce in Sikkim.
Himalayas. The leaves have an acid taste and are used as food.
Europe and the adjoining portions of Asia. Lightfoot says the taste of
the leaves is somewhat acid, and, in scarcity of garden-stuff, they have
been used in some countries as a pot-herb
B. brasiliensis Naud.
Asia and African tropics. This annual plant is cultivated in India for its
very large, handsome, egg-shaped gourd. The gourd is covered with a
pale greenish-white, waxen bloom. It is consumed by the natives in an
unripe state in their curries. This gourd is cultivated throughout Asia
and its islands and in France as a vegetable. It is described as delicate,
quite like the cucumber and preferred by many. The bloom of the fruit
forms peetha wax and occurs in sufficient quantity to be collected and
made into candles. This cucurbit has been lately introduced into
European gardens. According to Bret-schneider, it can be identified in a
Chinese book of the fifth century and is mentioned as cultivated in
Chinese writings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1503-
08, Ludovico di Varthema describes this gourd in India under the name
como-langa. In 1859, Naudin says it is much esteemed in southern
Asia, particularly in China, and that the size of its fruit, its excellent
keeping qualities, the excellence of its flesh and the ease of its culture
should long since have brought it into garden culture. He had seen two
varieties: one, the cylindrical, ten to sixteen inches long and one
specimen twenty-four inches long by eight to ten inches in diameter,
from Algiers; the other, an ovoid fruit, shorter, yet large, from China.
The long variety was grown at the New York Agricultural Experiment
Station in 1884 from seed from France. The fruit is oblong-cylindrical,
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resembling very closely a watermelon when, unripe but when ripe
covered with a heavy glaucous bloom.
India. This is a rare Himalayan species with the largest flowers and fruit
of any of the thirteen species found on that range. In Sikkim, it is a
shrub four or more feet in height, growing at an elevation of from
11,000 to 13,000 feet, where it forms a striking object in autumn from
the rich golden and red coloring of its foliage. The fruit is edible and less
acid than that of the common species.
East Indies. The Nepal barberry produces purple fruits covered with a
fine bloom, which in India are dried in the sun like raisins and used like
them at the dessert. It is native to the mountains of Hindustan and is
called in Arabic aarghees. The plants are quite hardy and fruit
abundantly in English gardens. Downing cultivated it in America but it
gave him no fruit. In Nepal, the berries are dried by the Hill People and
are sent down as raisins to the plains.
B. glauca DC.
An evergreen of the Himalayas. The fruits are dried as raisins in the sun
and sent down to the plains of India for sale.
B. sinensis Desf.
B. trifoliolata Moric.
Western Texas. The bright red, acid berries are used for tarts and are
less acid than those of B. vulgaris
Brazil. This is one of the most majestic trees of Guiana, Venezuela and
Brazil. It furnishes the triangular nuts of commerce everywhere used as
a food. It was first described in 1808. An oil is expressed from the
kernels and the bark is used in caulking ships.
Europe and north Africa. The beet of the garden is essentially a modem
vegetable. It is not noted by either Aristotle or Theophrastus, and,
although the root of the chard is referred to by Dioscorides and Galen,
yet the context indicates medicinal use. Neither Columella, Pliny nor
Palladius mentions its culture, but Apicius, in the third century, gives
recipes for cooking the root of Beta, and Athenaeus, in the second or
third century, quotes Diphilus of Siphnos as saying that the beet-root
was grateful to the taste and a better food than the cabbage. It is not
mentioned by Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth century, but the word
bete occurs in English recipes for cooking in 1390.
Another form is the flat-bottomed red, of which the Egyptian and the
Bassano of Vilmorin, as figured, may be taken as the type. The Bassano
was to be found in all the markets of Italy in 1841, and the Egyptian
was a new sort about Boston in 1869. Nothing is known concerning the
history of this type.
Chard was the beta of the ancients and of the Middle Ages. Red chard
was noticed by Aristotle about 350 B. C. Theophrastus knew two
kinds—the white, called Sicula, and the black (or dark green), the most
esteemed. Dioscorides also records two kinds. Eudemus, quoted by
Athenaeus, in the second century, names four; the sessile, the white,
the common and the dark, or swarthy. Among the Romans, chard finds
frequent mention, as by Columella, Pliny, Palladius and Apicius. In
China is was noticed in writings of the seventh, eighth, fourteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; in Europe, by all the ancient
herbalists.
Chard has no Sanscrit name. The ancient Greeks called the species
teutlion; the Romans, beta; the Arabs, seig; the Nabateans, silq.
Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, uses the word acelga, the
present name in Portugal and Spain.
The wild form is found in the Canary Isles, the whole of the
Mediterranean region as far as the Caspian, Persia and Babylon,
perhaps even in western India, as also about the sea-coasts of Britain. It
has been sparingly introduced, into kitchen-gardens for use as a chard.
The red, white, and yellow forms are named from quite early times; the
red by Aristotle, the white and dark green by Theophrastus and
Disocorides. In 1596, Bauhin describes dark, red, white, yellow, chards
with a broad stalk and the sea-beet. These forms, while the types can
be recognized, yet have changed their appearance in our cultivated
plants, a greater compactness and development being noted as arising
from the selection and cultivation which has been so generally accorded
in recent times. Among the varieties Vilmorin describes are the White,
Swiss, Silver, Curled Swiss, and Chilian.
SEA BEET.
The leaves of the sea beet form an excellent chard and in Ireland are
collected from the wild plant and used for food; in England the plant is
sometimes cultivated in gardens. This form has been ennobled by
careful culture, continued until a mangold was obtained.
SWISS CHARD.
SILVER-LEAF BEET.
CHILEAN BEET.
The Chilean beet is a form usually grown for ornamental purposes. The
stalks are often very broad and twisted and the colors very clear and
distinct, the leaf puckered and blistered as in the Curled Swiss. In the
Gardeners' Chronicle, 1844, it is said that "these ornamental plants
were introduced to Belgium some ten or twelve years previously." It is
yellow or red and varies in all the shades of these two colors. In 1651, J.
Bauhin speaks of two kinds of chard as novelties: the one, white, with
broad ribs; the other, red. He also speaks of a yellow form, differing
from the kind with a boxwood-yellow root. In 1655, Lobel describes a
chard with yellowish stems, varied with red. The forms now found are
described by their names: Crimson-veined Brazilian, Golden-veined
Brazilian, Scarlet-ribbed Chilean, Scarlet-veined Brazilian, Yellow-
ribbed Chilean and Red-stalked Chilean.
The modern chards are the broad-leaved ones and all must be
considered as variables within a type. This type may be considered as
the one referred to by Gerarde in 1597, whose "seedes taken from that
plant which was altogether of one colour and sowen, doth bring foorth
plants of many and variable colours." Our present varieties now come
true to color in most instances but some seeds furnish an experience
such as that which Gerarde records.
Mangolt was the old German name for chard, or rather for the beet
species, but in recent times the mangold is a large-growing root of the
beet kind used for forage purposes. In the selections, size and the
perfection of the root above ground have been important elements, as
well as the desire for novelty, and hence we have a large number of very
distinct-appearing sorts: the long red, about two-thirds above ground;
the olive-shaped, or oval; the globe; and the flat-bottomed Yellow
d'Obendorf. The colors to be noted are red, yellow and white. The size
often obtained in single specimens is enormous, a weight of 135
pounds has been, claimed in California, and Gasparin in France
vouches for a root weighing 132 pounds.
SUGAR BEET.
The sugar beet is a selected form from the common beet and scarcely
deserves a separate classification. Varieties figured by Vilmorin are all of
the type of the half-long red, and agree in being mostly underground
and in being very or quite scaly about the collar. The sugar beet has
been developed through selection 6f the roots of high sugar content for
the seedbearers. The sugar beet industry was born in France in 1811,
and in 1826 the product of the crop was 1,500 tons of sugar. The use
of the sugar beet could not, then, have preceded 1811; yet in 1824 five
varieties, the grosse rouge, petite rouge, rouge ronde, jaune and
blanche are noted and the French Sugar, or Amber, reached American
gardens before 1828. A richness of from 16 to 18 per cent of sugar is
now claimed for Vilmorin's new Improved White Sugar.
RED BEETS.
I.
Beta rubra. Lob. 124. 1576; Icon. 1:248. 1591; Matth. 371. 1598.
B. rubra Romana. Dod. 620. i6i6.
Common Long Red. Mawe. 1778.
Betterave rouge grosse. Vilm. 38. 1883.
Long Blood. Thorb. 1828, i886.
II.
Beta rubra. Cam. Epit. 256. 1586; Lugd. 535. 1587; Pancov. n. 607.
1673.
Betiola rossa. Durc. 71. 1617.
Betterave rouge naine. Vilm. 37. 1883.
Pineapple beet.
III.
Beta erythorrhizos Dodo. Lugd. 533. 1587.
Beta rubra radice crassa, alia species. Bauh. J. 2:961. 1651.
B. rubra . . . russa; Beta-rapa. Chabr. 303. 1677.
Turnip-pointed red. Mawe. 1778.
Turnip-rooted red. Bryant 26. 1783.
Early Blood Turnip. Thorb. 1828, i886.
YELLOW BEETS.
IV.
Beta quarto radice buxea. Caesalp. 1603 from Mill. Diet. 1807.
Yellow-rooted. Mill. Diet. 1807.
Betterave jaune grosse. Vilm. 41. 1883.
V.
VI.
Beta sylvestris spontanea marina. Lob.Obs.125. 1576.
B. sylvestris maritima. Bauh. Phytopin. 191. 1596.
Sea Beet. Ray Hist. l :204. 1686.
WHITE BEET.
VII.
Beta alba lactucaeand rumicis folio, etc. Advers. 93. 1570. B. alba vel
pallescens, quawi Cicia officin. Bauh. Pin. n8. 1623. White Beet. Ray
204. 1686. Beta cicla. Linn. Sp. 322. 1774. Common White-Leaved.
Mawe. 1778. White-leaved. McMahon 187. 18o6. Spinach-Beet.
Loudon. 1860. Poiree blonde ou commune. Vilm. 421. 1883.
SWISS CHARD.
VIII.
Beta alba? 3. Gerarde 251. 1597.
The Sicilian Broad-Leaved Beet. Ray 205. 1686.
White Beet. Townsend. 1726.
Chard, or Great White Swiss Beet. Mawe. 1778.
Swiss, or Chard Beet. Mill. Diet. 1807.
Swiss Chard, or Silver Beet. Buist. 1851.
Silver-Leaf Beet. Burr 292. 1863.
Poiree a carde blanche. Vilm. 421. 1883.
SILVER-LEAF BEET.
IX.
Poiree blonde a carde blanche. Vilm. 1883.
X.
Curled-Leaf Beet. Burr 291. 1863.
Beck's Seakale Beet. Card. Chron. 1865.
Poiree a blanche frises. Vilm. 1883.
Persia, Northwestern India, Nubia and tropical Arabia. The leaves are
eaten crude.
Tropical America. The roots are round and succulent and when boiled
are said to be a light and delicate food. A farinaceous or mealy
substance is also made of them, from which cream is made, wholesome
and very agreeable to the taste. The roots are sold under the name of
white Jerusalem artichoke.
B. glaucescens Baker.
B. salsilla Mirb.
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Chile. The tubers are available for human food.
South America. The leaves and buds, when young and tender, are very
mucilaginous, like okra, and are boiled as greens by the negroes of
Jamaica. The fleshy petals of the flowers are sometimes prepared as
food by the Chinese. The tree is called god-tree in the West Indies,
where it is native.
East Indies, Malay and China. The calyx of the flower-bud is eaten as a
vegetable.
B. septenatum Jacq.
Greece and the Orient. This plant was noticed as early as 1573 by
Rauwolf, who spoke of it as the true chrysogomum of Dioscorides. The
Persians roast or boil the tubers and use them as food, while the leaves
are eaten as are those of sorrel.
A water plant of Burma. All the green parts are eaten by the Burmese as
pot-herbs, for which purpose they are collected in great quantity and
carried to the market at Ava.
Chile. The berries, about the size of a pea, are eaten in Chile. It is
commonly called in Chile, baquil-blianca.
The Palmyra palm is cultivated in India. The pulp of the fruit is eaten
raw or roasted, and a preserve is made of it in Ceylon. The unripe seeds
and particularly the young plant two or three months old are an
important article of food. But the most valuable product of the tree is
the sweet sap which runs from the peduncles, cut before flowering, and
is collected in bamboo tubes or in earthern pots tied to the cut
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peduncle. Nearly all of the sugar made in Burma and a large proportion
of that made in south India is the produce of this palm. The sap is also
fermented into toddy and distilled. Drury says the fruit and fusiform
roots are used as food by the poorer classes in the Northern Circars.
Firminger says the insipid, gelatinous, pellucid pulp of the fruit is eaten
by the natives but is not relished by Europeans. A good preserve may,
however, be made from it and is often used for pickling.
South Africa. At the Cape of Good Hope, in 1772, Thunberg found the
country people making tea of the leaves.
African tropics. The seeds are eaten by the negroes of the Senegal.
Tropics of Africa. Though growing wild, the trees are carefully watched
and even sometimes propagated. The resin is used in the East for
chewing as is that of the mastic tree.
This large, succulent fern is boiled and eaten in the Himalayas as well
as in New Zealand.
South Africa. The Hottentots eat it, says Thunberg, after peeling off the
edges and prickles.
Burma. The fruit is eaten, that of one variety being intensely sour, of
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another insipidly sweet.
West Indies. The berries are the size of a pea, shining, saffron or orange-
colored, pulpy, sweet, succulent and eatable.
South Africa. Thunberg says the Hottentots eat the fruit of this shrub
and that it is sometimes used by the country people instead of coffee,
the outside rind being taken off and the fruit steeped in water to deprive
it of its bitterness; it is then boiled, roasted and ground like coffee;
South Africa. This genus furnishes edible roots in South Africa and
those of some species are esteemed as a preserve by the Dutch
inhabitants.
Peru. This Mexican palm, called palma dulce and soyale, has a fruit
which is a succulent drupe of a yellow color and cherry-size, sweet and
edible.
Southern United States. A fecula was formerly prepared from the pith
by the Florida Indians.
Europe and the adjoining portions of Asia. The cultivated plant appears
to have been brought from central Asia to China, where the herbage is
pickled in winter or used in spring as a pot-herb. In 1542, Fuchsius, a
German writer, says it is planted everywhere in gardens. In 1597, in
England, Gerarde says it is not common but that he has distributed
the seed so that he thinks it is reasonably well known. It is mentioned
in American gardens in 1806. The young leaves, cut close to the
ground before the formation of the second series or rough leaves
appear, form an esteemed salad.
In the fifteenth century, Booth says the turnip had become known to
the Flemings and formed one of their principal crops. The first turnips
that were introduced into England, he says, are believed to have come
from Holland in 1550. In the time of Henry VIII (1509-1547) according
to Mclntosh, turnips were used baked or roasted in the ashes and the
young shoots were used as a salad and as a spinach. Gerarde describes
them in a number of varieties, but the first notice of their field culture is
by Weston in 1645. Worlidge, 1668, mentions the turnip fly as an
enemy of turnips and Houghton speaks of turnips as food for sheep in
1684. In 1686, Ray says they are sown everywhere in fields and
gardens. In 1681, Worlidge says they are chiefly grown in gardens but
are also grown to some extent in fields. The turnip was brought to
America at a very early period. In 1540, Cartier sowed turnip seed in
Canada, during his third voyage. They were also cultivated in Virginia
in 1609; are mentioned again in 1648; and by Jefferson in 1781. They
are said by Francis Higginson n to be in cultivation in Massachusetts in
1629 and are again mentioned by William Wood, 1629-33. They were
plentiful about Philadelphia in 1707. Jared Sparks planted them in
Connecticut in 1747. In 1775, Romans in his Natural History of Florida
mentions them. They are also mentioned in South Carolina in 1779. In
1779, General Sullivan destroyed the turnips in the Indian fields at the
present Geneva, New York, in the course of his invasion of the Indian
country. The common flat turnip was raised as a field crop in
Massachusetts and New York as early as 1817.
This turnip differs from the Brassica rapa oblonga DC. by its smooth
and glaucous leaves. It surpasses other turnips by the sweetness of its
flavor and furnishes white, yellow and black varieties. It is known as the
Navet, or French turnip. This was apparently the napa of Columella.1
This turnip was certainly known to the early botanists, yet its
synonymy is difficult to be traced from the figures. However, the
following are correct:
Napus. Trag. 730. 1552; Matth. 240. 1664; Pin. 144. 1561; Cam. Epit.
222. 1586; Dod. 674. 1616; Fischer 1646.
Bunias sive napus. Lob. Icon. 1 :200. 1591.
Bunias silvestris lobelii. Ger. 181. 1597.
Napi. Dur. C. 304. 1617.
Bunias. Bodaeus 733. 1644.
Napus dulcis. Blackw. t. 410. 1765.
Navet petit de Berlin. Vilm. 360. 1883.
Teltow turnip. Vilm. 580. 1885.
This turnip has a large root expanding under the origin of the stem into
a think, round, fleshy tuber, flattened at the top and bottom. It has
white, yellow, black, red or purple and green varieties. It seems to have
been known from ancient times and is described and figured by the
earlier botanists. The synonymy is as follows:
This race of turnip differs from the preceding in having a long or oblong
tuber tapering to the radicle. It seems an ancient form, perhaps the
Cleonaeum of Pliny.
RAPE.
Bentham classes rape with B. campestris Linn. and others are disposed
to include it as an agrarian form of B. oleracea Linn. Darwin says B.
napus Linn., in which he places rape, "has given rise to two large
groups, namely Swedish turnips (by some believed to be of hybrid
origin) and colzas, the seeds of which yield oil." It can be believed quite
rationally that the Swedish turnip may have originated in its varieties
from B. campestris and from hybridization with B. napus. To this
species, Lindley refers some of the rapes, or coles, the navette, navette
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d'hiver, or rabette of the French, and the repo, ruhen or winter reps of
the Germans, while the summer rapes he refers to B. praecox. Rape is
used as an oil plant but is inferior to colza. It is also used in a young
state as a salad plant. Of this species there is also a fleshy-rooted
variety, the Tetlow turnip, or navet de Berlin petit of the French, the
root long and spindle-shaped, somewhat resembling a carrot. Its
culture in England dates from 1790 but it was well known in 1671 and
is noticed by Caspar Bauhin in his Pinax. It is much more delicate in
flavor than our common turnip. In Prance and Germany, this Tetlow
turnip is extensively cultivated. To what extent our common turnips are
indebted to the rapes, seems impossible to say, for Metzger, by culture,
converted the biennial, or winter rape, into the annual, or summer rape,
varieties which Lindley believes to be specifically distinct. The Bon
Jardinier says, in general, the early turnips of round form and growing
above ground belong to B. napus and names the Yellow Malta, Yellow
Finland and Montmaquy of our catalogs.
RUTABAGA.
The rutabagas of our gardens include two forms, one with white flesh,
the other with yellow. The French call these two classes chou-navets
and rutabagas respectively. The chou-navet, or Brassica napo-brassica
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communis DC., has either purple or white roots; the rutabaga, or B.
napo-brassica Ruta-baga A. P. DC., has a more regular root, round or
oval, yellow both without and within. In English nomenclature, while
now the two forms are called by a common name, yet formerly the first
constituted the turnip-rooted cabbage. In 1806, the distinction was
retained in the United States, McMahon describing the turnip-rooted
cabbage and the Swedish turnip, or Rutabaga. As a matter of
convenience we shall describe these two classes separately.
B. cretica Lam.
The chief characteristics of this species of Brassica are that the plants
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are open, not heading like the cabbages, nor producing eatable flowers
like the cauliflowers and broccoli. The species has every appearance of
being one of the early removes from the original species and is
cultivated in many varieties known as kale, greens, sprouts, curlico,
with also some distinguishing prefixes as Buda kale, German greens.
Some are grown as ornamental plants, being variously curled,
laciniated and of beautiful colors. In 1661, Ray journeyed into Scotland
and says of the people that "they use much pottage made of coal-wort
which they call keal." It is probable that this was the form of cabbage
known to the ancients.
The form of kale known in France as the chevalier seems to have been
the longest known and we may surmise that its names of chou caulier
and caulet have reference to the period when the word caulis, a stalk,
had a generic meaning applying to the cabbage race in general. We may
hence surmise that this was the common form in ancient times, in like
manner as coles or coleworts in more modern times imply the
cultivation of kales. This word coles or caulis is used in the generic
sense, for illustration, by Cato, 200 years B. C.; by Columella the first
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century A. D.; by Palladius in the third; by Vegetius in the fourth
century A. D.; and Albertus Magnus in the thirteenth. This race of
chevaliers may be quite reasonably supposed to be the levis of Cato,
sometimes called caulodes.
I.
Brassica laevis. Cam. Epit. 248. 1586; Matth. Op. 366. 1598.
Br. vulgaris sativa. Ger. 244. 1597.
Cavalier branchu. DeCand. Mem. 9. 1821.
Thousand-headed. Burr 236. 1863.
Chou branchu du Poitou. Vilm. 135. 1883.
Chou mille teles. Vilrn. 1. c.
II. a. viridis.
II. b. rubra.
III.
Brassica vulgaris sativa. Lob. Obs. 122. 1576; Icon. 1:243. 1591; D
Br. alba vulgaris. Dalechamp 520. 1587.
Brassica. Dur. C. 76. 1817.
Chou a feuilles de Chene. De Cand. Mem. 10. 1821.
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Buda kale. Vilm. 141. 1885.
IV. a.
IV. b.
V.
De Candolle does not bring these into his classification as offering true
types, and in this perhaps he is right. Yet, olericulturally considered,
they are quite distinct. There are but few varieties. The best marked is
the Dwarf Curled, the leaves falling over in a graceful curve and
reaching to the ground. This kale can be traced through variations and
varieties to our first class, and hence it has probably been derived in
recent times through a process of selection, or through the preservation
of a natural variation. There is an intermediate type between the Dwarf
Curled and the Tall Curled forms in the intermediate Moss Curled.
Two kales have the extensive rib system and the general aspect of the
Portugal cabbage. These are the chou brocoli and the chou frise de
mosbach of Vilmorin. These bear the same relation to Portugal cabbage
that common kale bears to the heading cabbages.
It is certainly very curious that the early botanists did not describe or
figure broccoli. The omission is only explainable under the supposition
that it was confounded with the cauliflower, just as Linnaeus brought
the cauliflower and the broccoli into one botanical variety. The first
notice of broccoli is quoted from Miller's Dictionary, edition of 1724, in
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which he says it was a stranger in England until within these five years
and was called "sprout colli-flower," or Italian asparagus. In 1729,
Switzer says there are several kinds that he has had growing in his
garden near London these two years: "that with small, whitish-yellow
flowers like the cauliflower; others like the common sprouts and flowers
of a colewort; a third with purple flowers; all of which come mixed
together, none of them being as yet (at least that I know of) ever sav'd
separate." In 1778, Mawe, names the Early Purple, Late Purple, White
or Cauliflower-broccoli and the Black. In 1806, McMahon mentions the
Roman or Purple, the Neapolitan or White, the Green and the Black. In
1821, Thorbum names the Cape, the White and the Purple, and, in
1828, in his seed list, mentions the Early White, Early Purple, the Large
Purple Cape and the White Cape or Cauliflower-broccoli.
The first and third kind of Switzer, 1729, are doubtless the heading
broccoli, while the second is probably the sprouting form. These came
from Italy and as the seed came mixed, we may assume that varietal
distinctions had not as yet become recognized, and that hence all the
types of the broccoli now grown have originated from Italy. It is
interesting to note, however, that at the Cirencester Agricultural College,
about 1860, sorts of broccoli were produced, with other variables, from
the seed of wild cabbage.
Authors have stated that brussels sprouts have been grown from time
immemorial about Brussels, in Belgium; but, if this be so, it is strange
that they escaped the notice of the early botanists, who would have
certainly noticed a common plant of such striking appearance and have
given a figure. Bauhin, indeed, 1623, gives the name Brassica ex
capitibus pluribus conglobata, and adds that some plants bear 50
heads the size of an egg, but his reference to Dalechamp would lead us
to infer that the plant known to him was of the same character as that
figured by Dalechamp above noted. Lobel, 1655, refers to a cabbage
like a Brassica polycephalos, but, as he had not seen it, he says he will
affirm nothing. Ray, 1686, refers to a like cabbage.
But two classes are known, the tall and the dwarf, and but a few minor
variations in these classes. The tall is quite distinct in habit and leaf
from the dwarf, the former having less crowded sprouts and a more
open character of plant, with leaves scarcely blistered or puckered. As,
however, there is considerable variation to be noted in seedlings,
furnishing connecting links, the two forms may legitimately be
considered as one, the difference being no greater than would be
explained by the observed power of selection and of the influence for
modification which might arise from the influence of cabbage pollen.
This fact of their being of but one type, even if with several variables,
would seem to indicate a probability that the origin is to be sought for
in a sport, and that our present forms have been derived from a
suddenly observed variable of the Savoy cabbage type and, as the lack
of early mention and the recent nature of modern mention presupposes,
at some time scarcely preceding the last century.
Allied to this class is the Tree cabbage, or Jersey cabbage, which attains
an extreme height of 16 feet, bearing a comparatively small, open
cabbage on the summit, the Thousand-headed cabbage, the Poiton
cabbage, and the Marrow cabbage, the stems of which last are
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succulent enough to be boiled for food. In 1806, McMahon describes
brussels sprouts, but he does not include them in his list of American
garden esculents so they were not at that time in very general use.
Fessenden, 1828, mentions the Thousand-headed cabbage but it does
not seem to have been known to him personally. Thorbum, in his
catalog for 1828, offers its seed for sale, but one variety only, and in
1881, two varieties.
Few plants exhibit so many forms in its variations from the original type
as cabbage. No kitchen garden in Europe or America is without it and it
is distributed over the greater part of Asia and, in fact, over most of the
world. The original plant occurs wild at the present day on the steep,
chalk rocks of the sea province of England, on the coast of Denmark
and northwestern France and, Lindley says, from Greece to Great
Britain in numerous localities. At Dover, England, wild cabbage varies
considerably in its foliage and general appearance and in its wild state
is used as a culinary vegetable and is of excellent flavor. This wild
cabbage is undoubtedly the original of our cultivated varieties, as
experiments at the garden of the Royal Agricultural College and at
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Cirencester resulted in the production of sorts of broccoli, cabbages and
greens from wild plants gathered from rocks overhanging the sea in
Wales. Lindley groups the leading variations as follows: If the race is
vigorous, long jointed and has little tendency to turn its leaves inwards,
it forms what are called open cabbages (the kales); if the growth is
stunted, the joints short and the leaves inclined to turn inwards, it
becomes the heart cabbages; if both these tendencies give way to a
preternatural formation of flowers, the cauliflowers are the result. If the
stems swell out into a globular form, we have the turnip-rooted
cabbages. Other species of Brassica, very nearly allied to B. oleracea
Linn., such as B. balearica Richl., B. insularis Moris, and B. cretica
Lam., belong to the Mediterranean flora and some botanists suggest
that some of these species, likewise introduced into the gardens and
established as cultivated plants, may have mixed with each other and
thus have assisted in, giving rise to some of the many races cultivated at
the present day.
The ancient Greeks held cabbage in high esteem and their fables
deduce its origin from the father of their gods; for, they inform us that
Jupiter, laboring to explain two oracles which contradicted each other,
perspired and from this divine perspiration the colewort sprung.
Dioscorides mentions two kinds of coleworts, the cultivated and the
wild. Theophrastus names the curled cole, the swath cole and the wild
cole. The Egyptians are said to have worshipped cabbage, and the
Greeks and Romans ascribed to it the happy quality of preserving from
drunkenness. Pliny mentions it. Cato describes one kind as smooth,
great, broadleaved, with a big stalk, the second ruffed, the third with
little stalks, tender and very much biting. Regnier says cabbages were
cultivated by the ancient Celts.
FLAT-HEADED CABBAGE.
ROUND CABBAGE.
EGG-SHAPED CABBAGE.
ELLIPTIC CABBAGE.
CONICAL CABBAGE.
It is very remarkable, says Unger, that the European and Asiatic names
used for different species of cabbage may all be referred to four roots.
The names kopf kohl (German), cabus (French), cabbage (English),
kappes, kraut, kapost, kaposta, kapsta (Tartar), kopee (Beng.), kopi
(Hindu), have a manifest relation to the Celto-Slavic root cap or kap,
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which in Celtic means head. Brassica of Pliny is derived from the Celtic,
bresic cabbage. The Celto-Germanico-Greek root caul may be detected
in the word kaol, the Grecian kaulion of Theophrastus, the Latin caulis;
also in the words caulx, cavolo, coan, kohl, kale, kaal (Norwegian), kohl
(Swedish), col (Spanish), kelum (Persian); finally, the Greco-Germanic
root cramb, krambe, passes into krumb, karumb of the Arabians. The
want of a Sanscrit name shows that the cabbage tribe first found its
way at a later period to India and China. This tribe is not mentioned as
in Japan by Thunberg, 1775.
The first certain mention of this cabbage is in 1570, in Pena and Lobel's
Adversarial and figures are given by Gerarde, 1597, Matthiolus, 1598,
Dodonaeus, 1616, and J. Bauhin, 1651. These figures are all of the
spherical-headed type. In 1638, Ray notices the variability in the colors
upon which a number of our seedsmen's varieties are founded. The
oblong or the pointed-headed types which now occur cannot be traced.
The solidity of the head and the perfectness of the form in this class of
cabbage indicate long culture and a remote origin. In England, they
have never attained much standing for general use, and, as in this
country, are principally grown for pickling.
COLLARDS OR COLEWORT.
I.
Caulorapum. Cap. Epit. 251. 1586.
II.
Rapa Br. peregrine, caule rapum gerens. Lob. Icon. 246. 1591.
Br. caule rapum gerens. Dod. Pempt. 625. 1616.
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Rapa brassica. Bodaus 777. 1644.
III.
Caulo rapum longum. Ger. 250. 1597.
Br. caulorapa. Bauh. J. 2:830. 1651.
Br. caulorapa sive Rapo caulis. Chabr. 270. 1677.
IV.
Caulorapum rotundum. Ger. 250. 1597.
Brassica gongylodes. Matth. Opera 367. 1598.
V.
Brassica raposa. Dalechamp 522. 1587.
Bradica raposa. Dur. C. 1617. app.
Matthiolus, as we have stated, says the plant came into Germany from
Italy; Pena and Lobel say it came from Greece; Gerarde, that it grows in
Italy, Spain and Germany, whence he received seeds. This plant was an
inmate of the Old Physic Garden in Edinburgh before 1683. In 1734, it
was first brought into field culture in Ireland; in Scotland in 1805; and
in England in 1837. In the United States, it was mentioned by
McMahon, 1806. Fessenden, 1828, names two varieties, one the above-
ground and the other the below-ground tumip-rooted. Darwin speaks
of the recently formed new race, already including nine subvarieties, in
which the enlarged part lies beneath the ground like a turnip. Two
varieties are used in France in ornamental gardening, the leaves being
cut and frizzled, and the artichoke-leaved variety is greatly prized for
decoration by confectioners. These excerpts indicate a southern origin,
for this vegetable and the Marrow cabbage are very sensitive to cold.
The more highly improved forms, as figured in our synonymy, are in
authors of northern or central Europe, while the unimproved forms are
given by more southern writers. This indicates that the present kohl-
rabi received its development in northern countries. The varieties now
grown are the White and Purple, in early and late forms, the Curled-
leaf, or Neapolitan, and the Artichoke-leaved.
American tropics. The fruit, boiled with salt-fish, pork, beef or pickle,
has frequently been the support of the negro and poorer sorts of white
people in times of scarcity and has proved a wholesome and not
unpleasant food.
A tree of the islands of the Pacific, China and Japan. It is cultivated for
the inner bark which is used for making a paper as well as textile
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fabrics. The fleshy part of the compound fruit is saccharine and edible.
Muddy tropical shores from Hindustan to the Samoan Islands. Its fruit,
leaves and bark are eaten by the natives in the Malayan Archipelago.8\
Europe and adjoining Asia. Loudon says the young shoots of red
bryony are edible. Masters says that the plant has a fetid odor and
possesses acrid, emetic and pungent properties.
East Indies and Burma. The tender, unripe fruit is eaten by the natives
in their curries.
B. latifolia Roxb.
Tropical India and Burma. The fruit, says Brandis, has a pleasant,
sweetish, sub-acid flavor and is an important article of food of the hill
tribes of central India. The kernel of the seed tastes somewhat like the
pistachio nut and is used largely in native sweetmeats. Drury says
these kernels are a general substitute for almonds among the natives
and are much esteemed in confectionery or are roasted and eaten with
milk.
Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. This plant is called dikaia retka on the
Lower Volga. Its stems are eaten raw. This rocket was cultivated in
1739 by Philip Miller in the Botanic Garden of Chelsea and was first
introduced into field culture in England as a forage plant, by Arthur
Young. The young leaves are recommended by Vilmorin either as a
salad or boiled.
Europe, Orient, Northern Asia and Himalayan region. The leaves are
used for food in China and Japan.
B. octoradiatum Bunge.
B. icicariba Baill.
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Brazil. The tree is said to have edible, aromatic fruit. It yields the elemi
of Brazil.
B. javanica Baill.
Java. This plant is the tingulong of the Javanese, who eat the leaves and
fruit.
Europe and adjoining Asia. Unger says, in Norway, the rhizomes serve
as material for a bread. Johns says, in the north of Asia, the root is
roasted and eaten. Lindley says the rhizomes are acrid and bitter, as
well as the seeds but are eaten among the savages. In France, it is
grown in flower gardens as an aquatic.
Tropical west Africa. Shea, or galam, butter is obtained from the kernel
of the fruit and serves the natives as a substitute for butter. This butter
is highly commended by Park. The tree is called meepampa in
equatorial Africa.
Europe, Orient and temperate Asia. In France and some other parts of
the continent, the leaves of the box have been. used as a substitute for
hops in beer, but Johnson says they cannot be wholesome and would
probably prove very injurious.
A small tree of New Granada and Panama. The small, acid berries are
eaten.
Tropical America. The yellow, acid berries are good eating but
astringent.
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Cadaba farinosa Forsk. Capparideae.
A shrub of tropical Africa and Arabia. Spinach is made from the leaves.
Cosmopolitan tropics. The green seeds are eaten raw and have the taste
of peas.
Europe, northern Africa and North America. Kalm says the sea rocket
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furnishes a root in Canada which is pounded, mixed with flour and
eaten, when there is a scarcity of bread.
South America. The corms are eaten roasted or boiled. The leaves are
eaten, boiled as a vegetable, in the West Indies.
East Indies. Thunberg saw the fruit of the rattan exposed for sale in
Batavia. When ripe this fruit is roundish, as large as a hazelnut and is
covered with small, shining scales, laid like shingles, one upon the
other. The natives generally suck out the subacid pulp which
surrounds the kernel by way of quenching their thirst. Sometimes the
fruit is pickled with salt and eaten at tea-time. This palm furnishes
rattan canes.
Europe, Northern Asia and North America. The rootstocks of this plant
yield eatable starch, prepared by drying and grinding them and then
heating the powder until the acrid properties are dissipated.
East Indies. The bark has a peculiar, subaromatic and slightly bitter
taste and is chewed by the Cinghalese when they cannot obtain betel
leaves.
Caspian region, Russia and Siberia. The roots when pounded are said
to furnish a mucilaginous, edible substance resembling gum
tragacanth.
C. polygonoides Linn.
Armenia, Persia and northwestern India. The abortive flowers, which fall
in great numbers, are, in the south Punjab and sometimes in Sind,
swept up, made into bread, or cooked with ghee and eaten.
Europe and North America. The Celtic tribes had a method of preparing
an intoxicating drink from a decoction of heath. This beverage, mixed
with wild honey, was their common drink at feasts. In the Hebrides,
says Johnson, a kind of beer is formed by fermenting a mixture of two
parts of heath tops and one of malt. The Picts had a mode of preparing
beer or wine from the flowers of the heath.
Western United States. This plant has a small, bulbous root about the
size of a walnut, very palatable and nutritious and much used by the
Indian tribes of Utah as an article of food. The Mormons during their
first years in Utah consumed the root in large quantities.
Old world tropics. The fruit when ripe is red and sweet and is eaten by
the natives. An oil is expressed from it and is used in lamps.
South Brazil. Mueller says the flower-buds can be used as cloves; the
berries, as allspice.
C. obscura DC.
C. schiediana Berg.
Temperate climates. It has edible stalks which are eaten by the Hindus.
The roots are said to be boiled and eaten by the Chinese, who manage,
says Smith, to cook and digest almost every root or tuber in spite of the
warnings of botanists and chemists.
Temperate climates. The tender stalks of the sea bindweed are pickled.
The young shoots, says Johnson, were gathered formerly by the people
on the southern coasts of England and pickled as a substitute for
samphire.
Northwestern America. The root forms the greater part of the vegetable
food of the Indians on the northwest coast of America and Vancouver
Island and is called kamosh or quamash. This bulbous root is said to
be of delicious flavor and highly nutritious, but Lewis says it causes
bowel complaints if eaten in quantity. This plant covers many plains
and is dug by the women and stored for eating, roasted or boiled. The
bulbs, when boiled in water, yield a very good molasses, which is much
prized and is used on festival occasions by various tribes of Indians. In
France, it is an inmate of the flower garden.
Japan and China. This plant was introduced from China to England in
1811. It yields a nut from which an oil is expressed in China, equal, it is
said, to olive oil. In Japan the dried leaves are mixed with tea to give it a
grateful odor.
China. This is the species to which the cultivated varieties of tea are all
referred. In its various forms it is now found in China and Japan, in the
mountains that separate China from the Burmese territories, especially
in upper Assam, in Nepal, in the islands of Bourbon, Java, St. Helena
and Madeira, in Brazil and experimentally in the United States. The first
mention of tea seems to have been by Giovanni Pietro Maffei in his
Historiae Indicae, 1589, from which it appears that it was then called
by the Chinese chia. Giovanni Botero in his Delia Cause della
grandezza...delta citta, 1589, says the Chinese have an herb from
which they extract a delicate juice, which they use instead of wine. In
1615, an Englishman in Japan, in the employment of the East India
Company, sent to a brother official at Macao for a "pot of the best
chaw," and this is supposed to be the earliest known mention by an
Englishman. Adam Olearius describes the use of tea in Persia in 1633,
and says—his book being published in 164 —"this herb is now so well
known in most parts of Europe, where many persons of quality use it
with good success." In 1638, Mandelslo visited Japan and about this
time wrote of the tsia or tea of Japan.
In 1810, the first tea plants were carried to Rio Janeiro, together with
several hundred Chinese experienced in its culture. The government
trials do not seem to have resulted favorably but later, the business
being taken up by individuals, its culture seems to be meeting with
success and the tea of Brazil, called by its Chinese name of cha, enters
quite largely into domestic consumption. In 1848, Junius Smith, of
South Carolina, imported a number of shrubs and planted them at
Greenville. At about the same time some 32,000 plants were imported
from China and distributed through the agency of the Patent Office. In
1878, the Department of Agriculture distributed 69,000 plants. In
Louisiana, in 1870, a plantation of tea shrubs, three to four hundred in
number, is said to have existed.
Europe and north Asia. This plant has been used as food in England
but has long since fallen into disuse. In France it is called cloche and is
grown as a flowering plant.
Europe, Orient, north Africa and northern Asia. This biennial plant was
formerly much cultivated in gardens for its roots as well as its leaves.
Loudon says the latter are excellent, eaten raw as a salad or boiled as a
spinach, and the root, which has the flavor of walnuts, is also eaten raw
like a radish or mixed with salads, either raw or boiled and cold. It is
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much cultivated in France and Italy, says Johns.
Canary Islands. The fleshy capsule, roots and young shoots are said to
be edible."
A tree native of China and Cochin China, Anam and the Philippines.
The fruit is pickled and used as olives.
Moluccas. This fine-looking tree is cultivated for the sake of its fruit
which, in taste, is something like an almond. An oil is expressed from
the seed which in Java is used in lamps and when fresh is mixed with
food. Bread is also made from its nuts in the island of Celebes. In
Ceylon, the nut is called wild almond by Europeans and is eaten.
C. edule Hook. f.
Tropical Africa. This is the safu of the island of St. Thomas in the Gulf of
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Guinea, where its fruit is much esteemed. In taste, the fruit is bitter and
astringent; it is usually roasted.
C. pimela Kon.
Cochin China, China and Java. The black fruit is sometimes pickled.
C. sylvestre Gaertn.
South Africa. This plant is said to furnish tubers used as food in Peru
and Chile. It is one of the species cultivated in the West Indies for the
manufacture of the arrowroot known as tous les mois according to
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Balfour.
East Indies. This plant is said by Mueller and Balfour to yield the tous
les mois of the West Indies.
C. edulis Ker-Gawl.
C. glauca Linn.
Mexico and West Indies. This is one of the West Indian arrowroot
cannas.
Northern Africa, Arabia and East Indies. In India, the bud of this plant
is eaten as a potherb, and the fruit is largely consumed by the natives,
both green and ripe and is formed into a pickle. In Sind, the flower-
buds are used as a pickle, and the unripe fruit is cooked and eaten.
Both the ripe and unripe fruit, prepared into a bitter-tasting pickle, is
exported into Hindustan. Its fruit, before ripening, is cooked and eaten
by the Banians of Arabia. The African species is described by Barth as
forming one of the characteristic features in the vegetation of Africa from
the desert to the Niger, the dried berries constituting an important
article of food, while the roots when burned yield no small quantity of
salt.
Tropical Asia and Malays. In the southern Punjab and Sind, the fruit is
pickled.
Tropical America. Lunan says the leaves not only resemble those of tea
but make an equally agreeable decoction. Titford says an infusion of
them is a very good beverage.
Capsicum. Solanaceae.
Tropical America. Ancient Sanscrit or Chinese names for the genus are
not known. The first mention that is on record is by Peter Martyr in his
epistle dated Sept. 1493, when he says Columbus brought home with
him "pepper more pungent than that from Caucasus." In his Decades
of the Ocean he says: "There are innumerable Kyndes of Ages, the
varietie whereof, is known by theyr leaves and flowers. One kind of
these, is called guanaguax, this is white both within and without.
Another named guaraguei is of violet colour without and white within.
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Squi are whyte within and without. Tunna is altogether of violet colours.
Hobos is yelowe both of skynne and inner substance. There is an other
named atibunicix, the skynne of this is of violet coloure and the
substance white. Aniguamar hath his skynne also of violet coloure and
is white within. Guaccaracca hath a white skynne and the substance of
violet colour. There are many other, which are not yet brought to us."
This variability indicates an antiquity of cultivation.
Veytia says the Olmecs raised chilis before the time of the Toltecs.
Sahagun mentions capsium more frequently than any other herb
among the edible dishes of the Aztecs. Acosta says it is the principal
sauce and the only spice of the Indians. Bancroft says it was eaten by
the Nahuathan natives both green and dry, whole and ground.
Gardlasso de la Vega speaks of it as an ancient vegetable in Peru, and
one variety was especially valued by royalty. The earliest reference to
this genus seems to be by Chanca, physician to the fleet of Columbus,
in his second voyage, and occurs in a letter written in 1494 to the
Chapter of Seville. Capsicum and its uses are more particularly
described by Oviedo, who reached tropical America from Spain in 1514.
Tropical regions. Booth says this species was introduced into Europe
by the Spaniards and that it was cultivated in England in 1548. The
fruits are variable, some being yellow, others red and others black. The
pods, according to London, are long or short, round or cherry-shaped.
In lower Hungary, the variety now very largely cultivated for commercial
purposes, has a spherical, scarlet fruit. It is cultivated in India, in
America, and, indeed, almost everywhere in warm countries.
GROUPS OF CAPSICUM.
This history of the botany of the groups can best be seen by the
synonymy, which is founded upon figures given with the descriptions.
This form seems to have been the first introduced and presents fruits of
extreme pungency and is undoubtedly that described as brought to
Europe by Columbus. It presents varieties with straight and recurved
fruit and the fruit when ripe is often much contorted and wrinkled.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
This character perhaps results only from the swollen condition of the
fruit as produced by selection and culture. As, however, it appears
constant in our seedsmen's varieties, it may answer our purpose here.
This group includes the Bell, Sweet Mountain, Monstrous, and Spanish
Mammoth of Vilmorin; the Giant Emperor, Golden Dawn, etc. of
American seedsmen. The varieties of this class seem referable to
Capsicum annuum rugulosum Fing., C. grossum pomiforme Fing. and
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C. angulosum Fing. but these have not yet been sufficiently studied.
Group V embraces the sweet peppers and none other. A sweet kind is
noted by Acosta, 1604, and it is perhaps the rocot uchu of Peru, as
mentioned by Garcilasso de la Vega. Sweet peppers are also referred to
by Piso, 1648.
Siberia. The seeds are of culinary value but are used particularly for
feeding poultry.
Europe and northern Asia. Lightfoot says the young leaves are acrid
and bitter but do not taste amiss in salads. Johnson says the leaves are
often employed by country people in salads, their caste, although
pungent and bitter, is not unpleasant.
North America. The long, crisp rootstocks taste like water cress. Pursh
says they are of a pungent, mustard-like taste and are used by the
natives as mustard.
Capt. Cook found this scurvy plant in plenty about the Strait of
Magellan in damp places and used it as an antiscorbutic.
Temperate and subtropical regions. Ross calls this the scurvy grass of
Tierra del Fuego; it is edible. Lightfoot says the young leaves, in
Scotland, make a good salad, and Johns says the leaves and flowers
form an agreeable salad. In the United States, Elliott6 and Dewey both
say the common bitter cress is used as a salad.
C. nasturtioides Bert.
Northern America. The leaves, says Gray, "have just the taste of the
English water-cress."
C. sarmentosa Forst. f.
African Tropics. This plant bears a fruit the size of an orange, eatable
but insipid.
C. microcarpa Jacq.
Dr. Morris read before the Maryland Academy of Science a paper by Mr.
Lugger in which the fruit is said to attain a weight of 15 pounds, is
melon-shaped, and marked as melons are with longitudinally-colored
stripes. The fruit may be sliced and pickled. The ripe fruit is eaten with
sugar or salt and pepper. The seeds are egg-shaped, strong-flavored
and used as a spice. The leaves have the property of making meat
wrapped up in them tender. Brandis also says, meat becomes tender by
washing it with water impregnated with the milky juice, or by
suspending the joint under the tree. Williams says, the Chinese are
acquainted with this property and make use of it sometimes to soften
the flesh of ancient hens and cocks by hanging the newly-killed birds in
the tree, or by feeding them upon the fruit beforehand. The Chinese also
eat the leaves. Hemdon says, on the mountains of Peru, the fruit is of
the size of a common muskmelon, with a green skin and yellow pulp,
which is eaten and is very sweet and of a delicate flavor. Hartt says the
mamao, a species of Carica in Brazil, furnishes a large and savory fruit
full of seeds. Brandis calls the ripe fruit in India sweet and pleasant,
and says the unripe fruit is eaten as a vegetable and preserved. Wilkes
says, it is prized by the natives of Fiji, and Gray says the fruit is a
favorite esculent of the Sandwich Islanders. The tree bears in a year or
18 months from seed and is cultivated in tropical climates.
C. posopora Linn.
Peru and Chile. This species bears yellow, pear-shaped, edible fruit.
South Africa. The flavor is subacid and agreeable and the fruit is much
prized in Natal for preserving.
Europe and northern Asia. The receptacles of the flowers are used like
an artichoke.
C. speciosa Arruda.
A climbing shrub of Sierra Leone. The fruit has a sharp, acid taste, with
some little bitterness, which prevents its being agreeable; it is, however,
much liked by the natives.
Europe and Asia. The tuberous roots serve as a culinary vegetable and
the fruit as a condiment. Lightfoot says the roots are bulbous and taste
like a chestnut; in some parts of England they are boiled in broth and
served at the table. Pallas says the roots are eaten by the Tartars.
C. capense Sond.
The seeds of caraway were found by O. Heer in the debris of the lake
habitations of Switzerland, which establishes the antiquity of the plant
in Europe. This fact renders it more probable that the Careum of Pliny
is this plant, as also its use by Apicius would indicate. It is mentioned
as cultivated in Morocco by Edrisi in the twelfth century. In the Arab
writings, quoted by Ibn Baytar, a Mauro-Spaniard of the thirteenth
century, it is likewise named; and Fleuckiger and Hanbury think the
use of this spice commenced at about this period. Caraway is not
noticed by St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville in the seventh century,
although he notices dill, coriander, anise, and parsley; nor is it named
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by St. Hildegard in Germany in the twelfth century. But, on the other
hand, two German medicine books of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries use the word cumick, which is still the popular name in
southern Germany. In the same period the seeds appear to have been
used by the Welsh physicians of Myddvai, and caraway was certainly in
use in England at the close of the fourteenth century and is named in
Turner's Libellus, 1538, as also in The Forme of Cury, 1390.
Europe, north Africa and northern Asia. This small plant is very much
cultivated during the cold season in Bengal, where it is called ajowan,
ajonan or javanee. The seeds have an aromatic smell and warm
pungent taste and are used in India for culinary purposes as spices
with betel nuts and paw leaves and as a carminative medicine. The
seeds are said to have the flavor of thyme.
C. ferulaefolium Boiss.
A little later, Galen, 164 A. D., praises parsley as among the commonest
of foods, sweet and grateful to the stomach, and says that some eat it
with smyrnium mixed with the leaves of lettuce. Palladius, about 210
A. D., mentions the method of procuring the curled form from the
common and says that old seed germinates more freely than fresh seed.
(This is a peculiarity of parsley seed at present and is directly the
opposite to that of celery seed.) Apicius, 230 A. D., a writer on cookery,
makes use of the apium viride and of the seed. In the thirteenth
century, Albertus Magnus speaks of apium and petroselinum as being
kitchen-garden plants; he speaks of each as being an herb the first
year, a vegetable the second year of growth. He says apium has broader
and larger leaves than petroselinum and that petroselinum has leaves
like the cicuta; and that the petroselinum is more of a medicine than a
food.
Booth states that parsley was introduced into England in 1548 from
Sardinia. In addition to its general use, in Cornwall where it is much
esteemed, it is largely used in parsley pies. The plant is now naturalized
in some parts of England and Scotland. Parsley is mentioned as seen on
the coast of Massachusetts by Verazzano, about 1524, but this is
undoubtedly an error. Two kinds, the common and curled, are
mentioned for our gardens by McMahon, 1806. Pessenden, 1828,
names three sorts, and Thor-burn, 1881, four sorts.
At the present time we have five forms; the common or plain-leaved, the
celery-leaved or Neapolitan, the curled, the fem-leaved and the
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Hamburg, or turnip-rooted.
I.
PLAIN-LEAVED PARSLEY.
The plain-leaved form is not now much grown, having been superseded
by the more ornamental, curled forms. In 1552, Tragus says there is no
kitchen-garden in Germany without it and it is used by the rich as well
as the poor. Matthiolus, 1558 and 1570, says it is one of the most
common plants of the garden. In 1778, Mawe says it is the sort most
commonly grown in English gardens but many prefer the curled kinds;
in 1834, Don says it is seldom cultivated. It was in American gardens in
1806.
Apium hortense. Matth. 362. 1558; 512. 1570; 562. 1598; Pin.
333. 1561; Dalechamp 700. 1587; Lob. Icon. 706. 1591; Ger. 861.
1597; Dod. 694. 1616.
Garden parsley. Lyte Dod. 696. 1586.
Common parsley. Ray 448. 1686; McMahon 127. 18o6.
Plane parsley. Mawe 1778.
Common plain-leaved. Don 3:279. 1834.
Plain parsley. Burr. 433. 1863.
Persil commun. Vilm. 403. 1883.
II
CURLED PARSLEY.
Of these, there are many varieties, differing but in degree, such as the
Curled, Extra Curled, Moss Curled and Triple Curled. Pena and Lobel,
1570, mention this form and say it is very elegant and rare, brought
from the mountains the past year and grown in gardens, the leaves
curled on the borders, very graceful and tremulous, with minute
incisions. In the synonymy, many of the figures do not exhibit the
curled aspect which the name and description indicate; hence, we make
two divisions, the curled and the very curled. The curled was in
American gardens preceding 1806.
IV. FERN-LEAVED PARSLEY. The Fem-leaved has leaves which are not
curled but are divided into a very great number of small, thread-like
segments and is of a very dark green color. It is included in American
seed catalogs of 1878. This form seems, however, to be described by
Bauhin in his edition of Matthiolus, 1598, as a kind with leaves of the
coriander, but with very many extending from one branch, lacinate and
the stem-leaves unlike the coriander because long and narrow.
HAMBURG OR TURNIP-ROOTED.
Hamburg parsley is grown for its roots, which are used as are parsnips.
It seems to have been used in Germany in 1542, or earlier, but its use
was indicated as of Holland origin even then in the name used, Dutch
parsley. It did not reach England until long after. In 1726, Townsend, a
seedsman, had heard that "the people in Holland boil the roots of it and
eat it as a good dish." Miller is said to have introduced it in 1727 and
to have grown it himself for some years before it became appreciated. In
1778, it is said to be called Hamburg parsley and to be in esteem. In
1783, Bryant mentions its frequent occurrence in the London markets.
It was in American gardens in 1806.
C. sylvestre Baill.
Eastern North America. The nuts are edible but not prized.
North America. The pignut is a large tree of Eastern United States. The
nuts are variable in form, hard and tough, the kernel sweetish or
bitterish but occasionally eaten by children.
Pennsylvania to Illinois and Kentucky. The nuts of this tree are eaten by
the Indians and are considered of fine quality. This is one of the species
recommended for culture by the American Pomological Society.
Eastern North America. This hickory bears a nut with a very thick and
hard shell. The kernel is sweet and in some varieties is as large as in the
shellbark, but the difficulty of extracting it makes it far less valuable. A
variety is found with prominent angles, called square nut.
A high tree in Ecuador. The kernel of the nut is edible and has the taste
of almonds. This is the almendron of Mariquita. "The nuts are fine."
C. butyrosum Willd.
Guiana. This plant is cultivated for its nuts in Cayenne. These are
esculent and taste somewhat like a Brazil nut. It is called pekea by the
natives of Guiana. It furnishes a timber valuable for shipbuilding.
C. glabrum Pers.
A very large palm of the Mishmi Mountains in India. The central part of
the trunk is used by the natives as food.
Malabar, Bengal, Assam and various other parts of India. The center of
the stem is generally soft, the cells being filled with sago-like farina,
which is made into bread and eaten as gruel. But the main value of this
palm consists in the abundance of sweet sap which is obtained from the
cut spadix and which is either fermented or boiled down into syrup and
sugar.5
Mexico. This tree grows wild and is cultivated in the states of Sinaloa,
Durango and elsewhere in Mexico and is known by the name of zapote
blanco. The fruit is about an inch in diameter, pale yellow in color and
is most palatable when near decay. It has a very rich, subacid taste,
and the native Californians are very fond of it. Masters says its fruit has
an agreeable taste but induces sleep and is unwholesome and that the
seeds are poisonous.
C. fistula Linn.
Tropical Asia. This handsome tree has been introduced into the West
Indies and northern Africa, whence its-pods are imported for use in
medicine. In Mysore, stalks of it are put in the ground and worshipped.
It is classed by Unger as among the little-used vegetable foods, the pulp
apparently being eaten. This pulp about the seeds is, however, a strong
purgative.
Cosmopolitan tropics. Rafinesque says the pods of this plant are long,
with many seeds, which the countrymen use instead of coffee. It is
found in tropical and subtropical America and in both Indies. It has
been carried to the Philippines, and its seeds, while tender, are eaten by
boys. Naturalized in the Mauritius, the natives use the roasted seeds as
a substitute for coffee. Livingstone found the seeds used as coffee in
interior Africa.
The white drupes of this north Australian species are edible. The plants
are semi-parasitical and are often called dodder-laurel.
C. filiformis Linn.
Southern United States. Pursh l says the nuts are sweet and delicious;
Vasey, that they are not comparable to those of C. dentata but are
eaten by children.
Europe, Japan and North America. The native country of the chestnut
is given by Targioni-Tozzetti as the south of Europe from Spain to
Caucasus; Pickering says, eastern Asia. Other writers say it was first
introduced into Europe from Sardis in Asia Minor; it is called Sardinian
balanos by Dioscorides and Dios balanos by Theophrastus. It is
evident from the writings of Virgil that chestnuts were abundant in Italy
in his time. There are now many varieties cultivated. Chestnuts which
bear nuts of a very large size are grown in Madeira. In places, chestnuts
form the usual food of the common people, as in the Apennine
mountains of Italy, in Savoy and the south of France. They are used not
only boiled and roasted but also in puddings, cakes and bread.
Chestnuts afford a great part of the food of the peasants in the
mountains of Madeira. In Sicily, chestnuts afford the poorer class of
people their principal food in some parts of the isle; bread and
puddings are made of the flour. In Tuscany, they are ground into flour
and chiefly used in the form of porridge or pudding. In the coffee-
houses of Lucca, Peseta and Pistoja, pates, muffins, tarts and other
articles are made of chestnuts and are considered delicious. In Morea,
chestnuts now form the principal food of the people for the whole year.
Xenophon states that the children of the Persian nobility were fattened
on chestnuts. In the valleys inhabited by the Waldenses, in the
Cevennes and in a great part of Spain, the chestnut furnishes nutriment
for the common people. Charlemagne commended the propagation of
chestnuts to his people. In modern Europe, only the fruits of cultivated
varieties are considered suitable for food. This species is enumerated by
Thunberg n as among the edible plants of Japan.
A shrub of tropical Africa. The leaves are used by the Arabs in the
preparation of a beverage possessing properties analogous to those of
tea and coffee. Large quantities of twigs with the leaves attached are
annually brought to Aden from the interior. The shrub is called by the
natives cafta. Prior to the introduction of coffee, says Pickering, the use
of kat was established in Yemen by Alt Schadheli ben Omar. Various
virtues are attributed to the leaves which are eaten with avidity by the
Arabs.
Europe and temperate Asia. Gerarde calls this plant bastard parsley
and hen's foot. It is the sesslis of the Egyptians. It was called a potherb
by Dioscorides and Pliny, and Galen says it is pickled for salads in
winter.
Frigid regions of the Andes of Peru. This is a tall, evergreen shrub with
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pink, edible berries the size of a cherry.
North America. The leaves were used as a substitute for tea during the
American Revolution.
South America. Smith says, in China the leaves of this tree are eaten in
the spring when quite tender.
Mexico. This pretty and very fragrant plant is useful for putting in a
claret cup.
Peru. It has savory, alimentary buds. The seeds yield an edible oil.
C. trigyna Linn.
Southern and Western United States. This celtis is a fine forest tree. The
fruits are sweet and edible.
C. tala Gill.
Europe, north Africa and temperate Asia. The young stems and leaves,
according to Forskal, are eaten raw in Egypt.
C. chamaerhaponticum Ball.
This tree is indigenous in Spain and Algeria, the eastern part of the
Mediterranean region, in Syria; and is found in Malta, the Balearic
Islands, in southern Italy, in Turkey, Greece and Grecian Islands, in
Asia Minor, Palestine and the north of Africa.8 It was found by Denham
and Clapperton in the Kingdom of Bornu, in the center of Africa. The
pods being filled with a saccharine pulp, are eaten, both green and dry
and were a favorite food with the ancients; there are specimens
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preserved in the museum at Naples which were exhumed from a house
in Pompeii. The Egyptians extracted from the husk of the pod a sort of
honey, with which they preserved fruits; in Sicily, a spirit and a sirup
are prepared from them;l in the island of Diu or Standia, the luscious
pulp contained in the pod is eaten by the poor and children and is also
made into a sherbet. These pods are imported into the Punjab as food
for man, horses, pigs and cattle and are imported into England
occasionally as a cattle food. In 1854, seeds of this tree were distributed
from the United States Patent Office.
North America. The French Canadians use the flowers in salads and
pickles.
Mediterranean countries. The pods are gathered and used with other
raw vegetables by the Greeks and Turks in salads, to which they give
an agreeable odor and taste. The flowers are also made into fritters with
batter and the flower-buds are pickled in vinegar.
Texas. The fruit, rarely an inch long, is edible, and the fleshy part of the
stem is also eaten by the inhabitants of New Mexico. The fruit is of a
purplish color and very good, resembling a gooseberry. The Mexicans
eat the fleshy part of the stem as a vegetable, first carefully freeing it of
spines.
Southwestern North America. The ripe fruit, one to one and one-half
inches long, green or rarely purplish, is insipid or pleasantly acid.
Texas. This cactus yields a fruit sweet and delicious. The Indians collect
it in large quantities and make a sirup or conserve from the juice, which
serves them as a luxury as well as for sustenance. The Mexicans call the
tree suwarrow; the Indians, harsee. The sirup manufactured from the
juice is called sistor. Engelmann says the crimson-colored pulp is
sweet, rather insipid and of the consistency of a fresh fig. Hodge, in
Arizona, calls the fruit delicious, having the combined flavor of the
peach, strawberry and fig.
C. (Echinocereus)polyacanthus Engelm.
C. quisco C. Gay
New Mexico. This plant grows in the Papago Indian country on the
borders of Arizona and Sonora and attains a height of 18 to 20 feet and
a diameter of four to six inches and bears two crops of fruit a year. The
fruit is, according to Engelmann, three inches through, like a large
orange, of delicious taste, the crimson pulp being dotted with
numerous, black seeds. The seeds, after passing through the digestive
canal, are collected, according to Baegert and Clavigero, and pounded
into a meal used in forming a food. Venegas, in his History of
California, describes the fruit as growing to the boughs, the pulp
resembling that of a fig only more soft and luscious. In some, it is white;
in some red; and in others yellow but always of an exquisite taste; some
again are wholly sweet, others of a grateful acid. This cactus is called
pithaya by the Mexicans and affords a staple sustenance for the Papago
Indians.
C. tuberosa Roxb.
East Indies. Every part is esculent; the roots are eaten raw.
Europe and Asia Minor. In Bavaria, this vegetable is found growing wild
but is said to have been first introduced from Siberia. Burnett alludes
to it as deleterious, but Haller affirms that the Kalmucks eat the roots
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with their fish and commend them as a nutritive and agreeable food.
Booth says it is a native of France and, although known to British
gardeners since its introduction in 1726, it is only within the last few
years that attention has been directed to its culture as an esculent
vegetable. In size and shape, the root attains the dimensions of a small
Dutch carrot. It is outwardly of a grey color, but when cut the flesh is
white, mealy and by no means unpleasant to the taste. F. Webster,
consul at Munich, Bavaria, in 1864, sent some seed to this country and
says: "The great value of this vegetable, as an acquisition to an
American gardener, is not only its deliciousness to the epicure but the
earliness of its maturity, fully supplying the place of potatoes." The seed
is now offered in our seed catalogs. The wild plant is described by
Camerarius, 1588 and by Clusius, 1601, and is also named by
Bauhin, 1623. As a cultivated plant, it seems to have been first noted
about 1855, when the root is described as seldom so large as a
hazelnut, while in 1861 it had attained the size and shape of the French
round carrot. This chervil appeared in American seed catalogs in 1884,
or earlier, and was described by Burr for American gardens in 1863. It
was known in England in 1726 but was not under culture.
C. tuberosum Royle.
In the Himalayas, the tuberous roots are eaten and are called sham.
C. tepejilote Liebm.
Mexico. The flowers, when still enclosed in the spathes, are highly
esteemed as a culinary vegetable.
Northern and southern regions. Gerarde says: "it is one of the potherbes
that be unsavory or without taste, whose substance is waterish." The
fruit, though insipid, is said formerly to have been employed in cookery.
The leaves have a spinach-like flavor and may be used as a substitute
for it. Unger says even the blite or strawberry spinach finds consumers
for its insipid, strawberry-like fruit. The plant is found indigenous and
common from Western New York to Lake Superior and northward.
Blitum capitatum, if Linnaeus's synonymy can be trusted, was known
to Bauhin, 1623, and by Ray, 1686. Miller's Gardener's Dictionary
refers it to J. Bauhin who received the plant in 1651. The species was,
during this time, little known outside of botanical gardens.
North America and Japan. The berry is white, edible, juicy and of an
agreeable, subacid taste with a pleasant checkerberry flavor. The
Indians of Maine use the leaves of the creeping snowberry for tea.
China and Japan. This plant furnishes the flowers which serve to scent
some sorts of tea, particularly an expensive sort called chu-lan-cha.
Peru. This plant is called by the Peruvians wild grape on account of the
form of the fruit and its acid and not unpleasant flavor.
C. prenanthoides Vill.
This alga is found on the western coast of Ireland, England and Europe
and also on the eastern coast of the United States. It has been used as a
food and medicine by the Irish peasants from time immemorial. It is
collected for the market and is largely used as a food for invalids under
the names carrageen, Irish moss and pearl moss.
Central Asia. The leaves of this plant are described as a good, early
salad by Pallas in his Travels in Russia.
Europe. Johnson says the leaves may be eaten as salad. The plant is
the well-known flower of our fields, where it has become naturalized
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from Europe.
Europe, north Africa and western Asia. The stalks and leaves, "as
Dioscorides saith, are eaten as other pot herbes are." In northern Japan
and China, Miss Bird describes a cultivated form of chrysanthemum as
occurring frequently in patches and says the petals are partially boiled
and are eaten with vinegar as a dainty.
African tropics. This plant bears a damson-sized fruit with a black, thin
skin and is eaten.
African and American tropics. This tree-like shrub, with its fruit similar
to the damson, grows wild as well as cultivated in the forests along the
shores of South America and in Florida. Browne says in Jamaica the
fruit is perfectly insipid but contains a large nut inclosing a kernel of
very delicious flavor. The fruits in the West Indies, prepared with sugar,
form a favorite conserve with the Spanish colonists, and large quantities
are annually exported from Cuba. On the African coast it occurs from
the Senegal to the Congo. The fruit is eaten by the natives of Angola
and, according to Montiero, is like a round, black-purple plum,
tasteless and astringent. Sabine says: "the fruit is about the size of an
Orleans plum but is rounder, of a yellow color, with a flesh soft and
juicy, the flavor having much resemblance to that of noyau."
C. argenteum Jacq.
Martinique. The fruit, the size of a plum, contains a soft, bluish, edible
pulp.
West Indies This tree has been cultivated from time immemorial in the
West Indies but nowhere is found wild. It seems to have been observed
by Cieza de Leon in his travels in Peru, 1532-50, and is called
caymitos. Lunan says some trees bear fruit with a purple and some
with a white skin and pulp, which when soft is like jelly, with milky
veins and has a sweet and pleasant taste.
C. glabrum Jacq.
Martinique. The fruit is blue, of the form and size of a small olive and is
seldom eaten except by children.
C. michino H. B. & K.
New Granada. The fruit is yellow outside, whitish and clammy inside
and is very grateful.
C. microcarpum Sw.
West Indies. The fruit is oval and about the size of a Bergamot pear. It
contains a white, clammy juice when fresh, which, after being kept a few
days, becomes sweet, and delicious. It frequently contains four or five
black seeds about the size of pumpkin seeds.
C. obovatum Sabine.
African tropics. The fruit is the size of an apple, with a short apex and is
much inferior to the star apple of the West Indies.
C. pruniferum F. Muell.
Europe, northern Asia and North America. The leaves are eaten as a
salad in the Vosges Mountains.
C. oppositifolium Linn.
Europe, northern Asia and East Indies. In some countries, this plant is
eaten as a salad.6 The leaves are eaten in salad and soup.
The shape of the unripe seed, which singularly resembles a ram's head,
may account for its being regarded as unclean by the Egyptians of the
time of Herodotus. It was in common use in ancient Rome and varieties
are mentioned by Columella and Pliny, the latter naming the white and
black, the Dove of Venus pea, and many kinds differing from each other
in size. Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, mentions the red,
the white and the black sorts, and this mention of colors is continued
by the herbalists of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries. The white chick-pea is the sort now generally grown in
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France, where the dried seeds find large use in soups. The red variety is
now extensively grown in eastern countries, and the black sort is
described as more curious than useful.
There are two distinct forms of endive, the curled and the broad-leaved.
The first does not seem to have been known to the ancients, although
Dioscorides and Pliny name two kinds. In the thirteenth century,
Albertus Magnus names also two kinds, the one with narrower leaves
than the other; and in 1542 Fuchsius figures two kinds of like
description, and like forms are noted in nearly all the earlier botanies. A
curled, broad-leaved form is figured by Camerarius, 1586; Dalechamp,
1587; and Gerarde, 1597. Endive is described in the Adversarial 1570.
The authors named furnish what may reasonably be considered as the
types of the four kinds of broad-leaved endives described by Vilmorin.
The origin of the curled endives, of which Vilmorin describes twelve, is
difficult to trace. The peculiar truncate appearance of the seed-stalks is
very conspicuous, and this feature would lead one to suspect that the
type is to be seen in the Seris sativa of Lobel, but the resemblances are
quite remote. This is the Cichorium latioris folii of Dodonaeus, 1616.
The endives were in English gardens as well-known plants in 1778 and
were named among seedsmen's supplies in 1726. They were in the
United States prior to 1806.
Europe and the Orient. Wild chicory has been used from time
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immemorial as a salad-plant and, forced in darkness, affords the
highly-esteemed vegetable in France known as barbe de capuchin. It
has also large-rooted varieties and these, when treated in like manner,
form the vegetable known in Belgium as witloof.
At the present time, chicory is grown for the use of its leaves in salads
and for its root to be used as an adulterant for coffee. The smooth,
tapering root, which seems such an improved form in our modern
varieties, is beautifully figured by Camerarius in 1586. The common
chicory grown for salads is but the wild plant little changed and with
the divided leaves as figured by the herbalists. The entire-leaved form
with a tendency to a red midrib also occurs in nature and may be
considered as the near prototype of the Magdeburg large-rooted and of
the red Italian sorts. The variegated chicory, the curled-leaved and the
broad-leaved may have their prototypes in nature if sought for but at
present must remain unexplained. The common, the spotted-leaved
and the large-rooted were in French culture in 1826.
China, Sumatra, Ceylorf and other parts of eastern Asia. This plant
yields a cinnamon of commerce. Cinnamon seems to have been known
to the ancient natives inhabitating the countries bordering on the
Levant. It is the kinnamomon of Herodotus, a name which he states the
Greeks learned from the Phoenicians. It is spoken of in Exodus, is
referred to by Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Pliny and others of the ancient
writers. The inner bark of the shoots is the portion used. Nearly every
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species of the genus yields its bark to commerce, including not less
than six species on the Malabar coast and in Ceylon, and nearly twice
as many more in the eastern part of Asia and in the islands of the
Eastern Archipelago. Cassia bark resembles the true cinnamon but is
thicker, coarser and not as delicately flavored. Both are used for
flavoring confectionery and in cooking.
C. culilawan Blume.
Malays, China, Moluccas and Cochin China. The bark of this species is
said to have the flavor of cloves and is used as a condiment.
C. iners Reinw.
Burma, Malays, tropical Hindustan and Siam. In India, the natives use
the bark as a condiment in their curries. In southern India, the more
mature fruits are collected for use but are very inferior to the Chinese
cassia buds. Among the Ghauts, the bark is put in curries as a spice.
C. loureirii Nees.
Cochin China and Japan. From the bark of this plant is made a
cinnamon of which the finest kind is superior to that of Ceylon.
C. nitidum Blume.
C. sintok Blume.
East Indies and Malays. This plant is largely cultivated in Ceylon for its
bark. Its cultivation is said to have commenced about 1770, but the
plant was known in a wild state long before. Herodotus says: "the bark
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was the lining taken from birds' nests built with clay against the face of
precipitous mountains in those countries where Bacchus was
nurtured." It has been cultivated for some time in Mauritius, the West
Indies, Brazil and other tropical countries.
Australia. A species of this genera is the native orange and orange thorn
of the Australian colonists. The fruit is an orange berry with a leathery
skin, subglobular, about one and one-half inches through and is eaten
by the natives.
They must have been early introduced to America, for Humboldt says
"it would seem as if the whole island of Cuba had been originally a
forest of palm, lemon and wild orange trees," and he thinks the oranges,
which bear a small fruit, are probably anterior to the arrival of
Europeans, who transported thither the agrumi of the gardens. Cald-
louch says the Brazilians affirm that the small, bitter orange, which
bears the name of loranjo do terra and is found wild far from the
habitations of man, is of American origin, De Soto, 1557, mentions
oranges in the Antilles as bearing fruit all the year, and, in 1587.
Cavendish found an orchard with lemons and oranges at Puna, South
America, and off San Bias lemons and oranges were brought to the
ships. In 1693-94, Phillips speaks of the wild orange as apparently
indigenous in Mexico, Porto Rico, Barbados and the Bermudas, as well
as in Brazil and the Cape Verde Islands.
The citron appears to have been the only one of this genus known in
ancient Rome and is probably the melea persike of Theophrastus and
the persika mala of Dioscorides. Lindley says those who have bestowed
the most pains in the investigation of Indian botany, and in whose
judgment we should place the most confidence, have come to the
conclusion that the citron, orange, lemon, lime and their numerous
varieties now in circulation, are all derived from one botanical species.
BERGAMOT.
TANGERINE. MANDARIN.
This fruit is rare in China but abundant in Cochin China. The fruit is
round, a little compressed, red inside as well as out. It is the most
agreeable of all oranges. Loudon says the thin rind is loose, so much so
that when ripe the pulp may be shaken about as a kernel in some nuts.
The flesh, of a deep orange color, possesses a superior flavor. Williams
says it is the most delicious of the oranges of China.
Tropical Asia. The shaddock was first carried from China to the West
Indies early in the eighteenth century. It occurs in several varieties and
both the red and white kinds are considered by Wilkes indigenous to
the Fiji Islands. In 1777, they were somewhat distributed by Capt.
Cook in his voyage of discovery.
Japan and China. The fruit is about the size of a cherry or gooseberry.
It is cultivated in China and Japan and is found near Canton in China.
The small, oblong, reddish-yellow fruit contains but five sections under
a very thin skin; the pulp is sweet and agreeable.
Java. This cultivated species bears small, roundish, slightly acid fruits.
Tropical Asia. De Candolle says the lemon was unknown to the ancient
Romans and Greeks, and that its culture extended into the West only
with the conquests of the Arabs. It is mentioned in the Book of
Nabathae on Agriculture which is supposed to date from the third or
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fourth century of our era. The Arabs brought the lemon in the tenth
century from the gardens of Omar into Palestine and Egypt. Jacques de
Vitry, writing in the thirteenth century, very well describes the lemon,
which he had seen in Palestine. About 1330, Friar Jordanus, saw in
India "other lemons sour like ours" which would indicate its existence
in India before that date. It was cultivated in Genoa, about the middle of
the fifteenth century and as early as 1494 in the Azores. From the north
of India, the lemon appears to have passed eastward into Cochin China
and China and westward into Europe; it has become naturalized in the
West Indies and various parts of America. There are numerous
varieties. Some are cultivated in Florida to a limited extent. They are
mentioned in California in 1751-68 by Father Baegert.
LIME.
SWEET LEMON.
The fruit has the rind and the flesh of a lemon but the pulp is sweet.
There are many varieties in Italy.
East India and Malay Archipelago. This shrub of China and the
Moluccas is cultivated in the West Indies. The fruit has a good deal the
taste of the grape, accompanied with a peculiar flavor, being very
grateful to the palate. The fruit is borne in clusters, resembling, when
ripe, a diminutive lemon, about the size of an acom. It contains three
large seeds which nearly fill the interior. The scanty pulp has an anise-
seed flavor. Williams says in China it is pleasantly acid and held in
esteem, as it also is in the Indian archipelago. About two bushels are
produced on a tree.
A genus of South American shrubs or small trees. The fruits are fleshy
and contain numerous seeds embedded in a pulp which is said to be
eatable. They vary in size, but are seldom larger than a pigeon's egg.
Eastern United States. This plant has edible bulbs much prized by
Indians.
Western North America. This plant has a long, fleshy taproot but it is
confined to the summits of the Rocky Mountains and is seldom
available.
C. tuberosa Pall.
Eastern United States. This species has edible bulbs, much prized by
the Indians.
East Indies. The seeds are used by the natives as a mustard in their
curries, on account of their pungency.
C. heptaphylla Linn.
C. viscosa Linn.
Old World tropics. This plant has an acrid taste, something like
mustard, and is eaten by the natives among other herbs as a salad. The
seeds, being pungent, are used in curries as a mustard. Its seeds are
eaten as a condiment like mustard. The seeds are used in curries.
Tropical India and Burma. Its flowers and leaves are eaten.
West Indies. Henfrey says the leaves of this plant furnish a tea in
Panama.
C. dependens D. Don.
South Africa. The leaves have been used in Africa as a tea substitute.6
East Indies and Malays. The maranta is cultivated in the East Indies for
arrowroot.
Europe and Asia Minor. This thistle is said to have been cultivated by
M. Lecoq in France and is pronounced by him a savory vegetable. The
receptacles of this plant, says Lightfoot, are pulpy and esculent, like
those of the artichoke.
C. oleraceus Linn.
Northern Europe and Asia. The leaves of this thistle are cooked and
eaten by the Russians. In France, it is in flower gardens. The plant is
included among vegetables by Vilmorin, although he says it does not
appear to be cultivated. The swollen rootstock, gathered before the
plant flowers, was formerly used as a table-vegetable. It does not
appear to have ever reached American gardens.
C. palustris Willd.
Europe and Asia Minor. In Evelyn's time, the stalks were employed, as
were those of the milk-thistle, for food. Lightfoot says the stalks are
esculent, after being peeled and boiled.
C. serratuloides Roth.
North America. The roots are about the size of carrots, are sweet and
well flavored but require a long preparation. They are eaten by the
western Indians.
Tropical Asia. The fruit of this plant, so common in every hedge, is eaten
by the natives in their curries and when fully ripe is eaten by birds.
C. moimoi M. Roem.
A woody vine of tropical Arabia. The ripe berries are acrid but edible,
and a spirituous liquor is obtained from them.
C. limacia DC.
C. danica Linn.
Paraguay. This palm bears a fruit somewhat the shape and size of an
acorn, with a pointed tip and is of a beautiful golden-yellow color
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somewhat tinged or spotted with red when ripe. At maturity, it is soft
and pulpy, the flesh yellow, succulent and somewhat fibrous. The flavor
is delicious, resembling that of a pineapple.
South America. This is the palma de vino of the Magdalena. This tree is
cut down and a cavity excavated in its trunk near the top. In three
days, this cavity is found filled with a yellowish-white juice, very limpid,
with a sweet and vinous flavor. During 18 or 20 days, the palm-tree
wine is daily collected; the last is less sweet but more alcoholic and
more highly esteemed. One tree yields as much as 18 bottles of sap,
each bottle containing 42 cubic inches, or about three and a quarter
gallons.
C. coronata Mart.
Brazil. This species yields a pith, which the Indians make into bread,
and a nut from which an oil is extracted.
Tropics. The centers of the geographical range of this palm are the
islands and countries bordering the Indian and Pacific oceans but it is
now extensively cultivated throughout the tropics. About 1330, it was
described in India, and quite correctly too, under the name of nargil, by
Friar Jordanus. In 1524, the cocoanut was seen by Pizarro in an Indian
coast village of Peru. In the vicinity of Key West and as far north as
Jupiter Inlet, the cocoanut is found, having been first introduced about
1840 by the wrecking of a vessel that threw a quantity of these nuts
upon the beach. Thirty species of cocoanut are said by Simmonds to be
described and named in the East. Firminger mentions ten varieties in
India. Captain Cook found several sorts at Batavia. Ellis says there are
many varieties in Tahiti. The nuts are much used as a food. When the
embryo is unformed, the fruit furnishes sweet palm-milk, a further
development supplies a white, sweet and aromatic kernel; it finally
becomes still firmer and then possesses a pleasant, sweet oil. In the Fiji
Islands, the kernel of the old nut is scraped, pressed through a grater,
and the pulp thus formed is mixed with grasses and scented woods and
suffered to stand in the sun, which causes the oil to rise to the top,
when it is skimmed off. The residuum, called kora, is pounded or
mashed, wrapped in banana leaves and then buried under salt water
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covered with piles of stones. This preparation is a common food of the
natives. Toddy or palm-wine, is also made from the sap of the flower-
spathes.
C. ventricosa Arruda.
Brazil. The oily pulp of the fruit and the almond of the inner stone is
eaten and is sold in the markets. The pith contains a fecula which is
extracted in times of want and is eaten.
Arabia and African tropics. This shrub is found wild in Abyssinia and
in the Sudan where it forms forests. It is mentioned as seen from the
mid-Niger to Sierra Leone and from the west coast to Monrovia. In the
territory west of Braganza, says Livingstone, wild coffee is abundant,
and the people even make their huts of coffee trees. On or about the
equator, says Grant, the m'wanee, or coffee, is cultivated in
considerable quantities but the berry is eaten raw as a stimulant, never
drunk in an infusion by the Wanyambo. The Ugundi, says Long, never
make a decoction of coffee but chew the grain raw; this is a general
custom. The Unyoro, says Burton, have a plantation of coffee about
almost every hut door. According to the Arabian tradition, says Krapf,
the civet-cat brought the coffee-bean to the mountains of the Arusi and
Ilta-Gallas, where it grew and was long cultivated, until an enterprising
merchant carried the coffee plant, five hundred years ago, to Arabia
where it soon became acclimated.
About the fifteenth century, writes Phillips, the use of coffee appears to
have been introduced from Persia to Aden on the Red Sea. It was
progressively used at Mecca, Medina, and Cairo; hence it continued its
progress to Damascus and Aleppo. From these two places, it was
introduced into Constantinople in the year 1554. Rauwolf, who was in
the Levant in 1573, was the first European author who made any
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mention of coffee, but the first who has particularly described it, is
Prosper Alpinus, 1591, and 1592. The Venetians seem to be the next
who used coffee. This beverage was noticed by two English travellers at
the beginning of the seventeenth century, Biddulph about 1603 and
William Finch in 1607. Lord Bacon mentions it in 1624. M. Thevenot
taught the French to drink coffee on his return from the East in 1657. It
was fashionable and more widely known in Paris in 1669. Coffee is said
to have been first brought to England in 1641, but Evelyn says in his
diary, 1637. It was first publicly known in London in 1652. According
to other accounts, the custom of drinking coffee originated with the
Abyssinians, by whom the plant had been cultivated from time
immemorial, and was introduced to Aden in the early part of the
fifteenth century, whence its use gradually extended over Arabia.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the Dutch transported the
plant to Batavia, and thence a plant was sent to the botanic gardens at
Amsterdam, where it was propagated, and in 1714 a tree was presented
to Louis XIV. A tree was imported into the Isle of Bourbon in 1720. One
account asserts that the French introduced it to Martinique in 1717
and another states that the Dutch had previously taken it to Surinam.
It reached Jamaica in 1728. It seems certain that we are indebted to the
progeny of a single plant for all the coffee now imported from Brazil and
the West Indies. It was introduced to Celebes in 1822. In Java and
Sumatra, the leaves of the coffee plant are used as a substitute for
coffee. In 1879, four trees were known to have been grown and
successfully fruited in Florida.
Tropical Asia. The seeds may be ground to flour and made into a coarse
but nourishing bread which is utilized in times of scarcity.
East Indies. This is the country borage of India. Every part of the plant
is delightfully fragrant, and the leaves are frequently eaten and mixed
with various articles of food in India. In Burma, it is in common use as
a potherb. A purple coleus was observed in cultivation in northern
Japan by Miss Bird, the leaves of which are eaten as spinach.
C. barbatus Benth.
C. spicatus Benth.
East Indies. Wilkinson 8 quotes Pliny as saying that the Egyptians grew
this plant for making chaplets and for food.
This plant is largely grown in Tahiti, and Ellis says the natives have
distinct names for 33 of the varieties. Nordoff says more than 30
varieties of kalo are cultivated in the Hawaiian Islands and adds that all
the kinds are acrid except one which is so mild that it may be eaten
raw. Simpson says, "Kalo forms the principal food of the lower class of
the Sandwich Islanders and is cultivated with great care in small
enclosures kept wet." From the root a sort of paste called poi is made.
Masters says it is called taro, and the rootstocks furnish a staple diet. It
is also grown in the Philippines and is enumerated by Thunberg among
the edible plants of Japan. In Jamaica, Sloane says the roots are eaten
as potatoes, but the chief use of the vegetable, says Lunan, is as a
green, and it is as delicate, wholesome, and agreeable a one as any in
the world. In soup it is excellent, for such is the tenderness of the leaves
that they, in a manner, dissolve and afford a rich, pleasing and
mucilaginous ingredient. It is very generally cultivated in Jamaica.
Adams found the boiled leaves very palatable in the Philippines but the
uncooked leaves were so acrid as to be poisonous. At Hongkong, the
tubers are eaten under the name of cocoas. In Europe and America it is
grown as an ornamental plant.
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C. indica Hassk.
Southern Asia. This plant is cultivated in Bengal for its esculent stems
and the small, pendulous tubers of its root, which are eaten by people
of all ranks in their curries. Roylel says it is much cultivated about the
huts of the natives. It is also cultivated in Brazil and is found in East
Australia. The acridity is expelled from this plant by cooking.
Tropical Africa. The Kaffirs call the fatty substance obtained from the
fruit chiquito. It is largely used by them as an admixture to their food
and is also exported.
The rhizomes contain a good deal of starch mixed with mucilage and
are therefore fit for food when cooked.
C. communis Linn.
C. latifolia Hochst.
C. striata?
Tropical America. Lunan says the fruit is eatable but not inviting. The
maiden plum of the West Indies, says Morris, is grown as a fruit in the
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Public Gardens of Jamaica.
Chile. The natives of the country make use of the root of this plant in
their soups and it is very pleasant to the taste. Molina says the bulbs,
when boiled or roasted, are an excellent food. It is called illmu.
Texas. This plant is a shrub of San Antonio, Texas and westward. The
small, deep red berry is acidulous, edible and is used in jellies.
C. spathulata A. Gray.
Green cakes are made of the slimy river confervae in Japan, which,
pressed and dried, are used as food.
Western Europe. The small, tuberous roots of this herb, when boiled or
roasted, are available for food and are known as earth chestnuts. In
England, says Don, the tubers are frequently dug and eaten by
children. When boiled, they are very pleasant. The roots, says Johnson,
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are edible but are little eaten in England except by children.
C. hymenaeifolia Moric.
C. antichorus Raeusch.
C. procumbens Boj.
C. tridens Linn.
C. trilocularis Linn.
C. obliqua Willd.
C. sebestena Linn.
Tropical Asia and Australia. This plant, common in the islands of the
Papuan Archipelago, is there cultivated. In the Samoan Islands, some
20 varieties, mostly edible, are distinguished by name. The thick, fleshy
roots contain large quantities of saccharine matter and, when baked,
become very agreeable to the taste. The baked ti root, says Ellis,
macerated in water, is fermented and then a very intoxicating liquor is
obtained from it by distillation. The large, tuberous roots are eaten by
the natives of Viti. The tuberous root often weighs from 10 to 14
pounds and, after being baked on hot stoves, much resembles in taste
and degree of sweetness stock licorice. The Fijians chew it, or use it to
sweeten puddings. The root is roasted and eaten.
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Coriandrum sativum Linn. Umbelliferae. CORIANDER.
Southern Europe and the Orient. The seeds of this plant were used as a
spice by the Jews and the Romans. The plant was well known in Britain
prior to the Norman conquest and was employed in ancient English
medicine and cookery. Coriander was cultivated in American gardens
prior to 1670. The seeds are carminative and aromatic and are used for
flavoring, in confectionery and also by distillers. The young leaves are
put into soups and salads. In the environs of Bombay, the seeds are
much used by the Musselmans in their curries. They are largely used
by the natives of India as a condiment and with betelnuts and pau
leaves. In Burma, the seeds are used as a condiment in curries. The ripe
fruits of coriander have served as a spice and a seasoning from very
remote times, its seeds having been found in Egyptian tombs of the
twenty-first dynasty; a thousand or so years later, Pliny says the best
coriander came to Italy from Egypt. Cato, in the third century before
Christ, recommends coriander as a seasoning; Columella, in the first
century of our era and Palladius, in the third, direct its planting. The
plant was well known in Britain prior to the Norman conquest and was
carried to Massachusetts before 1670. In China, it can be identified in
an agricultural treatise of the fifth century and is classed as cultivated
by later writers of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. In Cochin
China, it is recorded as less grown than in China. In India, it is largely
used by the natives as a condiment. Coriander has reached Paraguay
and is in especial esteem for condimental purposes in some parts of
Peru. Notwithstanding this extended period of cultivation, no indication
of varieties under cultivation is found.
Himalayan region and China. Brandis says the fruit is eaten but is said
to cause thirst or colic. J. Smith says the fruit is eaten and is not
unwholesome.
New Zealand. The fruit affords a refreshing wine to the natives but the
seeds are poisonous. It is called tutu.
C. capitata Wall.
Himalayan region, China and Japan. The round, smooth, small berries
are eaten in India.
Europe and Asia Minor. The cornelian cherry was formerly cultivated
for its fruits which were used in tarts. There are a number of varieties.
De Candolle mentions one with a yellow fruit. Duhamel says there are
three varieties in France and Germany; one with wax-colored fruit,
another with white fruit and a third with fleshy, round fruit. Don says
the fruit is gratefully acid and is called sorbet by the Turks. A. Smith
says the harsh, acid fruits are scarcely eatable but are sold in the
markets in some parts of Germany to be eaten by children or made into
sweetmeats and tarts. J. Smith says the fruit is of a cornelian color, of
the size of a small plum, not very palatable, but is eaten in some parts
as a substitute for olives; it is also preserved, is used in confectionery
and, in Turkey, serves as a flavoring for sherbets. In Norway, the flowers
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are used for flavoring distilled spirits.
Europe and northern Asia. The fruit is said to contain a large quantity
of oil used for the table and in brewing.
North America. Thoreau found the bark in use by the Indians of Maine
for smoking, under the name magnoxigill, Indian tobacco. Nuttall says
the fruit, though bitter and unpalatable, is eaten by the Indians of the
Missouri River.
North America. The berries are gathered in the autumn by the western
Eskimo and preserved by being frozen in wooden boxes out of which
they are cut with an axe. In central New York, this plant is called
kinnikinnik by the Indians.
Australia. Henfrey says the leaves are used by the Australian settlers for
a tea.
Northern Europe. This species has a tuberous root, which, when boiled,
furnishes the Kalmuck Tartars with a starchy substance much eaten by
them.
North America. This species bears well-flavored nuts but they are
smaller and thicker shelled than the European hazel. The nuts are
extensively gathered as a food by the Indians in some places.
Europe and Asia Minor. This species includes not only the hazelnut but
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all of the European varieties of filbert. It was cultivated by the Romans,
and Pliny says the name is derived from Abellina in Asia, supposed to
be the valley of Damascus. Pliny adds that it had been brought into
Greece from Pontus, hence it was also called nux pontica. The nut was
called by Theophrastus, keraclotic nuts, from Heraclea — now
Ponderachi — on the Asiatic shore of the Black Sea. These names
probably refer to particular varieties as the species is common in
Europe and adjoining Asia. In Peacham's Emblems, we find it stated
that the name filbert is derived from Philibert, a king of France, who
"caused by arte sundry kinds to be brought forth." There are a number
of varieties. The best nuts come from Spain and are known as
Barcelona nuts. Cobnuts and filberts are largely grown in Kent,
England. In Kazan, Russia, the nuts are so plentiful that an oil used as
food is expressed from them. Filberts were among the seeds mentioned
in the Memorandum of Mar. 16, 1629, to be sent to the Massachusetts
Company and are now to be occasionally found in gardens in Virginia
and elsewhere.
C. ferox Wall.
Asia Minor and Southern Europe. This species furnishes the Lombardy,
or Lambert's nut.
New Zealand. The pulp of the drupe of this tree is edible, but the
embryo is considered poisonous until steeped in salt water. Bennett
says it is valued for its fruit and seeds, the former of the size of a plum,
pulpy in the interior and sweet. The seeds are used in times of scarcity
and contain a tasteless, farinaceous substance. The new seeds are,
however, poisonous until steamed for a day and soaked.
East Indies and Malay. Ainslie says the natives of India preserve the
root and deem it very wholesome. Lunan says the roots of wild ginger
are sometimes used as ginger but are not as good. Browne says this
species is found everywhere in the woods of Jamaica.
C. spinosa Linn.
North America. The leaves are agreeably acid and are eaten.
C. guianensis Aubl.
Guiana. The seed is edible. The fruit contains a sweet oil like that of the
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almond.
Guiana and Cayenne. The pulp of the fruit is vinous, white, acid and
not disagreeable.
Persia and the Caucasus to Thibet and the Himalayas. The root and
foliage afford an esculent.
This plant is found growing upon the sandy shores of the North Sea,
the Atlantic Ocean and of the Mediterranean Sea. It appears to have
been known to the Romans, who gathered it in a wild state and
preserved it in barrels for use during long voyages. Although Crambe is
recorded by Pena and Lobel, Dalechamp, Gerarde, and Ray as wild on
the coast of Britain and as fit for food, yet it was brought into English
culture from Italy, a few years preceding 1765, and the seed sold at a
high price as a rarity. In 1778, it is said to "be now cultivated in many
gardens as a choice esculent;" in 1795, it was advertised in the London
market. According to Heuze, it was first cultivated in France by
Quintyne, gardener to Louis XIV, but it is not mentioned in Quintyne of
1693; it, however, is mentioned by the French works on gardening of
1824 and onward. Parkinson notices it in England in 1629 and Bryant
does also, about 1783, but Philip Miller first wrote upon it as an
esculent in 1731, saying the people of Sussex gather the wild plants in
the spring. It is recorded that bundles of it were exposed for sale in the
Chichester markets in 1753 but it was not known about London until
1767. In 1789, Lightfoot speaks of "the young leaves covered up with
sand and blanched while growing," constituting when boiled a great
delicacy. Sea kale is now very popular in English markets and is largely
used in France, the blanched stems and leaf-stalks being the parts
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used. It is mentioned by McMahon, 1609, in his list of American
esculents. In 1809, John Lowell, Roxbury, Massachusetts, cultivated it
and in 1814 introduced it to the notice of the public. In 1828,
Thorbum, in his seed catalog of that year, says it "is very little known in
the United States, though a most excellent garden vegetable and highly
deserving of cultivation." The same might be said now, although its
seeds are advertised for sale in all leading seed lists.
C. orientalis Linn.
Asia Minor and Persia. Pallas says the Russians use it. Its roots
resemble those of horseradish, but they are often thicker than the
human arm. The root is dug for the use of the table as a substitute for
horseradish, and the younger stalks may be dressed in the same
manner as broccoli.
Eastern Europe and northern Asia. This is a plant of the steppes region
along the Lower Danube, Dneiper and the Don. The root is fleshy, sweet
and the thickness of a man's arm. It is eaten raw as a salad in Hungary,
as well as cooked, as is the case with the young shoots of the stem. In
times of famine, it has been used as bread in Hungary and, says Unger,
it is probable that it was the chara caesaris which the soldiers of Julius
Caesar used as bread.
Tropical America. The fleshy and sweet root is preserved in sugar by the
Creoles as a delicacy.
Asia Minor and Persia. Azarole is much cultivated for its fruits, which
are the size of a cherry, red, with sometimes a tinge of yellow, and are
said to have a very agreeable flavor. The fruit is eaten in Sicily, in Italy
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and the Levant, being sometimes served as dessert, and is much used
for preserves. It is common about Jerusalem, where its fruit is collected
for preserves. It is, according to Stackhouse, the mespile anthedon of
Theophrastus.
C. coccinea Linn.
Eastern United States. Gray says the fruit is scarcely eatable. Elliott
says the fruit is red, large and eatable. The fruit is eaten fresh or
mingled with choke cherries and service berries and is pressed into
cakes and dried for winter use by the western Indians. The small,
purplish fruits are edible.
C. douglasii Lindl.
Michigan and the Northwest. This species bears a small, sweet, black
fruit ripening in August. It is largely collected by the Indians.
North America. The fruit is said by Elliott to be oval, red and well
flavored.
Greece and Asia Minor. In the Crimea, this species bears little apples,
sometimes of a bright yellow and at other times of a lively red color, an
agreeable fruit, much improved by grafting.
Europe and Asia. The plant grows wild in the hills west of Pekin. The
red fruit is much larger than the ordinary crataegus; it is collected and
an excellent sweetmeat is prepared therefrom.
C. pubescens Steud.
Mexico. A jelly is made from the fruit, resembling that of the quince.
C. sanguinea Pall.
C. subvillosa Schrad.
Eastern Asia and North America. The large, red fruit, often downy, is
edible and of an agreeable flavor.
C. tanacetifolia Pers.
C. obovata Vahl.
C.religiosa Forst. f.
Old World tropics. In equatorial Africa, the fresh shoots are made into
spinach and the young branches into tooth-scrubbers. In India, this
plant furnishes food for man.
South America. The fruit is edible but not very good. It is the size of a
small orange, eatable but not pleasant. In Jamaica, the fruit is
spherical, orange-sized, with a hard, brown shell, a mealy pulp like that
of a pear, sweetish, smelling like garlic, and near the center there are
many kidney-shaped seeds. It is edible but not very pleasant.
Tropical America. The fruit of this tree resembles a gourd. The plant is
found wild or cultivated in various parts of tropical America and in the
West Indies. The hard, woody shell of the fruit is made to serve many
useful domestic purposes in the household economy of the people of
these countries, such as basins, cups, spoons, water-bottles and pails.
Wafer, apparently, speaks of this tree and of C. cucurbitina during his
visit to the Isthmus, 1679-86: "There are two sorts of these trees but the
difference is chiefly in the fruit; that of the one being sweet, the other
bitter. The substance of both is spongy and juicy. That of the sweeter
sort does not incline to a tart, sourish taste. The Indians, however, eat
them frequently on a march, tho they are not very delightful. They only
suck out the juice and spit out the rest. The bitter sort is not eatable."
Henfrey says the subacid pulp of the fruit is eaten; Seemann, that it
affords food to the negroes. Nuttall says the plant is found at Key West,
Florida, and that the fruit is eaten by the Indians in time of scarcity
while the unripe fruit is candied with sugar.
Europe. This is a seaside plant, found on rocky shores from the Crimea
to Land's End, England, and extends even to the Caucasus. The whole
plant is "of a spicie taste with a certaine saltnesse" on which account it
has been long held in great repute as an ingredient in salads. It was
declared by Gerarde to be "the pleasantest sauce." Samphire is
cultivated in English gardens for its seed pods, which make a warm,
aromatic pickle, and for its leaves, which are used in salads, but it is
oftener collected from the shores. In Jamaica, as Titford declares, it
forms an agreeable and wholesome pickle. In France, it is cultivated for
its leaves which, pickled with vinegar, enter into salads and seasonings.
The first mention of its culture is by Quintyne, in France, 1690; it is
again mentioned by Stevenson, in England, 1765; and its use as a
potherb by the poor, as well as a pickle, is noticed by Bryant8 1783. It
is noticed in American gardens in 1821.
Greece and Asia Minor. This plant was formerly cultivated in England
and is now spontaneous. It is cultivated in Austria, France and Spain
for the deep, orange-colored stigmas of the flowers, which are used for
coloring. It was not cultivated in France before the Crusades, the bulbs
from Avignon being introduced about the end of the fourteenth century.
Loudon says saffron is used in sauces and for coloring by the
Spaniards and Poles. In England and France, it enters into creams,
biscuits, preserves and liquors and is used for coloring butter and
cheese. The Mongols use it in cooking. Under the Hebrew name,
carcom, the plant is alluded to by Solomon; and as krokos, by Homer,
Hippocrates, Theophrastus and Theocritus. Virgil and Columella
mention it and Cilicia and Sicily are both alluded to by Dioscorides and
Pliny as localities celebrated for this drug. Throughout the middle ages,
frequent notices are found of its occurrence in commerce and in
cultivation.
African tropics. The people of Madi eat its flowers, pods and leaves as
spinach.
C. laburnifolia Linn.
C. peumus Nees.
C. longipes Hook. f.
Old World tropics. Naudin divides the varieties of melon into ten
sections, which differ not only in their fruits but also in their leaves and
their entire habit or mode of growth. Some melons are no larger than
small plums, others weigh as much as 66 pounds; one variety has a
scarlet fruit; another is only one inch in diameter but three feet long and
is coiled in a serpentine manner in all directions. The fruit of one variety
can scarcely be distinguished from cucumbers; one Algerian variety
suddenly splits up into sections when ripe. The melons of our gardens
may be divided into two sections: those with green flesh, as the citron
and nutmeg; those with yellow flesh, as the Christiana, cantaloupe and
Persian melons, with very thin skins and melting honey-like flesh of
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delicious flavor. In England, melons with red, green, and white flesh are
cultivated.
By the earlier and unscientific travellers, the term melon has been used
to signify watermelons, the Macock gourd of Virginia, and it has even
been applied to pumpkins by our early horticulturists. The names used
by the ancient writers and translated by some to mean melon, seem
also in doubt. Thus, according to Fraas, the sikua of Theophrastus was
the melon. In Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, the definition is given "a fruit
like the melon or gourd but eaten ripe." Fraas says the melon is the
pepon of Dioscorides. The Lexicon says "sikuos pepon, or more
frequently o pepon, a kind of gourd or melon not eaten till quite ripe."
Fraas says " he melon is the melopepon of Galen and the melo of Pliny."
Andrews' Latin Lexicon gives under melopepo "an apple-shaped melon,
cucumber melon, not eaten till fully ripe." Pliny, on the other hand, says
in Greece in his day it was named peponia. In Italy, in 1539, the names
of pepone, melone and mellone were applied to it. In Sardinia, where it
is remarked by De Candolle that Roman traditions are well preserved, it
is called meloni. As a summary, we may believe that although "a kind of
gourd not eaten until fully ripe " may have been cultivated in ancient
Greece and Rome, or even by the Jews under their Kings, as Unger
asserts, yet the admiration of the authors of the sixteenth century for
the perfume and exquisite taste of the melon, as contrasted with the
silence of the Romans, who were not less epicurean, is assuredly a proof
that the melon had not at that time, even if known, attained its present
luscious and perfumed properties, and it is an indication, as De
Candolle observes, "of the novelty of the fruit in Europe." When we
consider, moreover, the rapidity of its diffusion through the savage
tribes of America to remote regions, we cannot believe that a fruit so
easily transported through its seed could have remained secluded
during such a long period of history.
The culture of the melon is not very ancient, says De Candolle, and the
plant has never been found wild in the Mediterranean region, in Africa,
in India or the Indian Archipelago. It is now extensively cultivated in
Armenia, Ispahan, Bokhara and elsewhere in Asia; in Greece, South
Russia, Italy and the shores of the Mediterranean. About 1519, the
Emperor Baber is said to have shed tears over a melon of Turkestan
which he cut up in India after his conquest, its flavor bringing his native
country to his recollection. In China, it is cultivated but, as Loureiro
says, is of poor quality. In Japan, Thunberg, 1776, says the melon is
much cultivated, but the more recent writers on Japan are very sparing
of epithets conveying ideas of qualities. Capt. Cook apparently
distributed the melon in suitable climates along his course around the
world, as he has left record of so doing at many places; as, the Lefooga
Islands, May 1777, at Hiraheime, October, 1777.
Muskmelons are said to have been grown in Virginia in 1609 and are
again mentioned in 1848. In 1609, melons are mentioned by Hudson
as found on the Hudson River. Muskmelons are mentioned by Master
Graves in his letter of 1629 as abounding in New England and again by
Wm. Woods, 1629-33. According to Hilton's Relation, musk-melons
were cultivated by the Florida Indians prior to 1664. In 1673 the melon
is said to have been cultivated by the Indians of Illinois, and Father
Marquette n pronounced them excellent, especially those with a red
seed. In 1822, Woods says: ''There are many sorts of sweet melons, and
much difference in size in the various kinds. I have only noticed musk,
of a large size, and nutmeg, a smaller one; and a small, pale colored
melon of a rich taste, but there are other sorts with which I am
unacquainted." In 1683, some melon seeds were sown by the
Spaniards on the Island of California. The Indians about Philadelphia
grew melons preceding 1748, according to Kalm. In Brazil, melons are
mentioned by Nieuhoff, 1647, and by Father Angelo, 1666.
Arabia and tropical Africa. The flesh of this cucumber is scanty and too
bitter to be edible, says Vilmorin, who includes it among the plants of
the kitchen garden. Burr says the fruit is sometimes eaten boiled, but is
generally pickled in its green state like the common cucumber and
adds that it is not worthy of cultivation.
East Indies. The origin of the cucumber is usually ascribed to Asia and
Egypt. Dr. Hooker believes the wild plants inhabit the Himalayas from
Kumaun to Sikkim. It has been a plant of cultivation from the most
remote times, but De Candolle finds no support for the common belief
of its presence in ancient Egypt at the time of the Israelite migration into
the wilderness, although its culture in western Asia is indicated from
philological data as more than 3000 years old. The cucumber is said to
have been brought into China from the west, 140-86 B. C.; it can be
identified in a Chinese work on agriculture of the fifth century and is
described by Chinese authors of 1590 and 1640. Cucumbers were
known to the ancient Greeks and to the Romans, and Pliny even
mentions their forced culture. They find mention in the Middle Ages
and in the botanies from Ruellius, 1536, onward. The cucumber is
believed to be the sikus hemeros of Dioscorides, and the sikuos of
Theophrastus. Pliny says cucumbers were much grown in Africa as
well as in Italy in his time, and that the Emperor Tiberius had
cucumbers at his table every day in the year. We find reference to them
in France in the ninth century, for Charlemagne ordered cucumbers to
be planted on his estate. In Gough's British Topography, cucumbers
are stated to have been common in England in the time of Edward III,
1327, but during the wars of the houses of York and Lancaster, their
cultivation was neglected, the plant was lost, and they were
reintroduced only in 1573. In 1629, Parkinson says "in many countries
they use to eate coccumbers as wee doe apples or Peares," and they are
thus eaten and relished at the present day in southern Russia and in
Japan.
There are a great number of varieties varying from the small gherkin to
the mammoth English varieties which attain a length of twenty inches
or more. The cultivated gherkin is a variety used exclusively for pickling
and was in American gardens in 1806. At Unyanyembe, Central Africa,
and other places where the cucumber grows almost wild, says Burton,
the Arabs derive from its seed an admirable salad oil, which in flavor
equals and perhaps surpasses the finest produce of the olive. Vilmorin
in Les Plantes Potageres, 1883, describes 30 varieties. Most, if not all, of
these as well as others including 59 different names have been grown
on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. While
some of the varieties grown differ but little, yet there are many kinds
which are extraordinarily distinct.
TYPES OF CUCUMBERS.
The types of our common cucumbers are fairly well figured in the
ancient botanies, but the fruit is far inferior in appearance to those we
grow today, being apparently more rugged and less symmetrical. The
following synonymy is established from figures and descriptions:
I.
II.
A second form, very near to the above, but longer, less rounding and
more prickly has a synonymy as below:
III.
IV.
The fourth form includes those known as English, which are distinct in
their excessive length, smoothness and freedom from seeds, although in
a botanical classification they would be united with the preceding, from
which, doubtless, they have originated. The synonymy for these would
scarcely be justified had it not been observed that the tendency of the
fruit is to curve under conditions of ordinary culture:
V.
The Bonneuil Large White Cucumber, grown largely about Paris for the
use of perfumes, is quite distinct from all other varieties, the fruit being
ovoid, perceptibly flattened from end to end in three or four places, thus
producing an angular appearance. We may suspect that Gerarde
figured this type in his cucumber, which came from Spain into
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Germany, as his figure bears a striking resemblance in the form of the
fruit and in the leaf:
VI.
The squashes of our markets, par excellence, are the marrows and the
Hubbard, with other varieties of the succulent-stemmed. These found
representation in our seed catalog in 1828, in the variety called Corn.
Porter's Valparaiso, which was brought from Chile shortly after the war
of 1812. In the New England Farmer, September 11, 1824, notice is
made of a kind of melon-squash or pumpkin from Chile, which is
possibly the Valparaiso. The Hubbard squash is said by Gregory, its
introducer in 1857, to be of unknown origin but to resemble a kind
which was brought by a sea captain from the West Indies. The
Marblehead, also introduced by Gregory and distributed in 1867, is
said to have come directly from the West Indies. The Autumnal Marrow
or Ohio, was introduced in 1832 and was exhibited at the rooms of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
THE SQUASH.
Nativity undetermined. The word " squash " seems to have been derived
from the American aborigines and in particular from those tribes
occupying the northeastern Atlantic coast. It seems to have been
originally applied to the summer squash. Roger Williams writes the
word "askutasquash,"—"their vine apples,—which the English from
them call squashes; about the bigness of apples, of several colors."
Josselyn gives another form to the word, writing, "squashes," "but more
truly 'squoutersquashes,' a kind of mellon or rather gourd, for they
sometimes degenerate into gourds. Some of these are green, some
yellow, some longish, like a gourd; others round, like an apple; all of
them pleasant food boyled and buttered, and seasoned with spice. But
the yellow squash — called an apple squash (because like an apple),
and about the bigness of a pome water—is the best kind." This apple
squash, by name at least, as also by the description so far as
applicable, is even now known to culture but is rarely grown on
account of its small size.
The word "squash," in its early use, we may conclude, applied to those
varieties of cucurbits which furnish a summer vegetable and was
carefully distinguished from the pumpkin. Kalm, in the eighteenth
century, distinguishes between pumpkins, gourds and squashes. The
latter are the early sorts; the gourd includes the late sorts useful for
winter supplies; and under the term pompion, or melon, the latter name
and contemporary use gives the impression of roundness and size, are
included sorts grown for stock. Jonathan Carver, soon after Kalm, gives
indication of the confusion now existing in the definition of what
constitutes a pumpkin and a squash when he says "the melon or
pumpkin, which by some are called squashes," and he names among
other forms the same variety, the crookneck or craneneck, as he calls it,
which Kalm classed among gourds.
At the present time, the word squash is used only in America, gourds,
pumpkins, and marrows being the equivalent English names, and the
American use of the word is so confusing that it can only be defined as
applying to those varieties of cucurbits which are grown in gardens for
table use; the word pumpkin applies to those varieties grown in fields
for stock purposes; and the word gourd to those ornamental forms with
a woody rind and bitter flesh, or to the Lagenaria.
THE PUMPKIN.
The word "pumpkin" is derived from the Greek pepon, Latin pepo. In the
ancient Greek, it was used by Galen as a compound to indicate ripe
fruit as sikuopepona, ripe cucumber; as, also, by Theophrastus
peponeas and Hippocrates sikuon peponia. The word pepo was
transferred in Latin to large fruit, for Pliny says distinctly that
cucumeres, when of excessive size, are called pepones. By the
commentators, the word pepo is often applied to the melon. Fuchsius,
1542, figures the melon under the Latin name pepo, German, pfeben;
and Scaliger, 1566, Dalechamp, 1587, and Castor Durante, 1617,
apply this term pepo or pepon likewise to the melon. The derivatives
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from the word pepo appear in the various European languages as
follows:
In English, the words "melon" and "million" were early applied to the
pumpkin, as by Lyte 1586, Gerarde 1597 and 1633, and by a number
of the early narrators of voy ages of discovery. Pumpkins were called
gourds by Lobel, 1586, and by Gerarde, 1597, and the word gourd is
at present in use in England to embrace the whole class and is
equivalent to the French courge. In France, the word courge is given by
Matthiolus, 1558, and Pinaeus, 1561, and seems to have been used as
applicable to the pumpkin by early navigators, as by Cartier, 1535. The
word courge was also applicable to the lagenarias 1536, 1561, 1586,
1587, 1597, 1598, 1617, 1651, 1673 and 1772, and was shared with
the pumpkin and squash in 1883.
I.
II.
CHEESE PUMPKIN.
The fruit is much flattened, deeply and rather regularly ribbed, broadly
dishing about cavity and basin. It varies somewhat widely in the
proportional breadth and diameter.
III.
The fruit is rounded, a little deeper than broad, flattened at the ends,
and rather regularly and more or less prominently ribbed.
The fruit is oval, much elongated, the length nearly, or often twice, the
diameter, of large size, somewhat ribbed, but with markings less
distinct than those of the Common Yellow.
These forms just mentioned, all have that something in their common
appearance that at once expresses a close relationship and to the
casual observer does not express differences.
The Nantucket pumpkin occurs in various forms under this name, but
the form referred to, specimens of which have been examined, belongs
to Cucurbita pepo Cogn., and is of an oblong form, swollen in the
middle and indistinctly ribbed. It is covered more or less completely
with warty protuberances and is of a greenish-black color when ripe,
becoming mellowed toward orange in spots by keeping. It seems closely
allied to the courge sucriere du Bresil of Vilmorin. It is not the
Cucurbita verrucosa of Dalechamp, 1587, nor of J. Bauhin, 1651, as in
these figures the leaves are represented as entire and the fruit as melon-
formed and ribbed.
THE GOURD.
The word, gourd, is believed to be derived from the Latin cucurbita, but
it takes on various forms in the various European languages. It is
spelled " gowrde " by Turner, ^S; "gourde" by Lobel, 1576; and "gourd"
by Lyte, 1586. In France, it is given as courgen and cohurden by
Ruellius, 1536, but appears in its present form, courge, in Pinaeus,
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1561. Dalechamp used coucourde, 1587, a name which now appears
as cougourde in Vilmorin. The Belgian name appears as cauwoord in
Lyte, 1586; and the Spanish name, calabassa, with a slight change of
spelling, has remained constant from 1561 to 1864, as has the zucca of
the Italians and the kurbs of the Germans.
TYPES OF GOURDS.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Whether the lagenaria gourds existed in the New World before the
discovery by Columbus, as great an investigator as Grayl considers
worthy of examination, and quoted Oviedo for the period about 1526 as
noting the long and round or banded and all the other shapes they
usually have in Spain, as being much used in the West Indies and the
mainland for carrying water. He indicates that there are varieties of
spontaneous growth as well as those under cultivation. The occurrence,
however, of the so-called fancy gourds of Cucurbita pepo, of hard rind,
of gourd shape, and often of gourd bitterness, render difficult the
identification of species through the uses. The Relation of the Voyage
of Amerigo Vespucci 1489, mentions the Indians of Trinidad and of the
coast of Paris as carrying about their necks small, dried gourds filled
with the plant they are accustomed to chew, or with a certain whitish
flour; but this record could as well have been made from the Cucurbita
pepo gourds as from the lagenaria gourds. The further mention that
each woman carried a cucurbita containing water might seem to refer to
gourds.
Mexico. The sweet, chestnut-like seeds are used in the West Indies as a
food." The seeds have the flavor of chestnut or sweet acoms and are
used on the banks of the Orinoco to make a fermented liquor.
East Indies. The fresh root possesses the smell of a green mango and is
used in India as a vegetable and condiment.
Himalayan region. The root had long been an article of food amongst
the natives of India before it was particularly noticed by Europeans. It
furnishes an arrowroot of a yellow tinge which does not thicken in
boiling water. This East Indian arrowroot is exported from Travancore.
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It forms a good substitute for the West Indian arrowroot and is sold in
the bazaars.
C. leucorhiza Roxb.
Tropical Asia. This plant is extensively cultivated in India for its tubers
which are an essential ingredient of native curry powders, according to
Dutt. The substance called turmeric is made from the old tubers of this
and perhaps other species. The young, colorless tubers furnish a sort of
arrowroot.
C. rubescens Roxb.
East Indies. This plant furnishes an excellent arrowroot from its tubers,
which is eaten by the natives and sold in the bazaars.
East Indies. This species is cultivated about Bombay for the sake of the
pods which are eaten like French beans, and is grown also by the
natives of Burma who esteem it a good vegetable. Wight "says" the
young beans are with reason much prized by the natives as a culinary
pulse and merit more attention from Europeans, as they are a pleasant
and delicate vegetable."
South Africa. A kind of onion is obtained from this plant and roasted for
the table by the farmers of Kaffraria.
The pith of this plant, a coarse sago, is eaten in times of scarcity in New
Zealand. In the Voyage of the Novara it is said that the whole stalk,
often 20 feet high, is edible and is sufficient to maintain a considerable
number of persons. The pith, when cooked and dried in the sun, is an
excellent substitute for sago. It is also to be found in Queensland and
the Pacific isles.
C. revoluta Thunb.
C. subternata Vog.
Australia. The tubers of this plant are used by the blacks of Wide Bay.
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Cymopterus fendleri A. Gray. Umbelliferae.
C. glomeratus DC.
Vilmorin describes five varieties: the Cordon de Tours, the Cordon plein
inerme, the Cordon d'Espagne, the Cardan Puvis, and the Cordon a
cotes rouges.
The first of these, the Cordon de Tours, is very spiny and we may
reasonably believe it tc be the sort figured by Matthiolus, 1598, under
the name of Carduus aculeatus. It is named in French works on
gardening in 1824, 1826 and 1829. Its English name is Prickly-Solid
cardoon; in Spain it is called Cardo espinoso. It holds first place in the
estimation of the market gardeners of Tours and Paris.
The Cordon plein inerme is scarcely spiny, is a little larger than the
preceding but otherwise closely resembles it. J. Bauhin had never seen
spineless cardoons. It is spoken of in 1824 in French books on
gardening. It is called, in England, Smooth-Solid cardoon and has also
names in Germany, Italy and Spain.
The Cordon d'Espagne is very large and not spiny and is principally
grown in the southern portions of Europe. We may resonably speculate
that this is the sort named by Pliny as coming from Cordoba. Cordons
d'Espagne have their cultivation described in Le Jardinier Solitaire,
1612. A "Spanish cardoon" is described by Townsend in England,
1726, and the same name is used by McMahon in America, 1806. This
is the Cynara integrifolia of Vahl.
ARTICHOKE.
A second division is made from the form of the heads, the conical-
headed and the globe.
I. CONICAL-HEADED.
II.
GLOBULAR-HEADED .
The color of the heads also found mention in the early writers. In the
first division, the green is mentioned by Tragus, 1552; by Mawe, 1778;
and by Miller's Dictionary, 1807; the purple by Quintyne, 1693. In the
Globe class, the white is named by Gerarde, 1597; and by Quintyne,
1693; and the red by Gerarde, 1597; by Quintyne, 1693; and by Mawe,
1778; and Parkinson, 1629, named the red and the white.
The so-called wild plants of the herbalists seem to offer like variations to
those we have noted in the cultivated forms, but the difficulty of
identification renders it inexpedient to state a fixed conclusion. The
heads are certainly no larger now than they were 250 years ago, for the
Hortus Eystettensis figures one 15 inches in diameter. The long period
during which the larger part of the present varieties have been known
seems to justify the belief that modern origination has not been
frequent. Le Jardinier Solitaire, 1612, describes early varieties, le
blanc, le rouge and le violet. Worlidge, 1683, says there are several
kinds, and he names the tender and the hardy sort. McMahon names
the French and two varieties of the Globe in America in 1806. In 1824,
in France, there were the blanc, rouge, violet and the gros vert de Laon.
Petit 1826, adds Sucre de genes to the list. Noisette, 1829, adds the
camus de Brittany.
Spain. The plants are of large size, the midribs being very succulent
and solid.
Africa and East Indies. Drury says the roots are used as flour in times
of scarcity in India and are eaten roasted or boiled, tasting like
potatoes. Royle says they are palatable.
South Europe and north Africa; introduced in America and now runs
wild on the banks of the Delaware and other rivers from Pennsylvania to
Carolina. The roots are very sweet and are eaten by children. The chufa
was distributed from the United States Patent Office in 1854 and has
received a spasmodic culture in gardens. It is much cultivated in
southern Europe, Asia and Africa, becoming of importance at Valence,
in Galicia, and in the environs of Rosetta and Damietta, Egypt. In
Hungary, it is grown for the seeds, to be used as a coffee substitute, but
in general for its tubers which are sweet, nutty and palatable. These
bulbs, says Bryant, are greatly esteemed in Italy and some parts of
Germany and are frequently brought to table by way of dessert. At
Constantinople, the tubers appear in the markets and are eaten raw or
made into a conserve. Gerarde, 1633, speaks of their extensive use in
Italy, and of their being hawked about the streets and, at Verona, eaten
as dainties. They now appear in the English markets under the name of
Zulu nuts. The chufa must also have been esteemed in ancient times,
for tubers have been found in Egyptian tombs of the twelfth dynasty, or
from 2200 to 2400 years before Christ. Notwithstanding the long
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continued culture of this plant, there are no varieties described.
Sicily, Syria and tropical Africa. This plant is the ancient papyrus. Hogg
says it was used as food by the ancients, who chewed it either raw,
boiled or roasted, for the sake of its sweet juice.
South Africa. The Hottentots are said to eat the tuberous roots of at
least one species of these herbaceous, twining plants.
C. digitata Wild.
New Granda. The berry is reddish, about the size of a pigeon's egg and
is two-celled. It appears to be the fruit sold in the markets of Lima,
where it is commonly used for cooking in lieu of the ordinary tomato,
the flavor of which it resembles. Tweddie says it is used in Buenos
Aires.
A lofty tree of New Zealand. The fleshy cup of the nut is eatable, and a
beverage like spruce-beer is made from its young shoots.
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Dahlia variabilis Desf. Compositae. DAHLIA.
Mexico. The dahlia was first introduced into Spain in 1787, and three
specimens reached Paris in 1802. Its petals may be used in salads. It
was first cultivated for its tubers but these were found to be uneatable.
Europe and Asia Minor. The berries are eaten but are said to cause
nausea and vomiting. On the Sutlej a spirit is distilled from them.
Texas. The bases of the leaves and the young stems are full of
nutritious pulp which supplies, when cooked, a useful and palatable
food.
Europe and the adjoining portions of Asia and introduced in North and
South America, China and Cochin China. The root, says Don, is
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slender, aromatic and sweetish. The roots are employed in the Hebrides
as an article of food, being eaten raw, and are collected by the young
women for distribution as dainties among their acquaintances on
Sundays and at their dances. This wild plant is the original of the
cultivated carrot, for, by cultivation and selection, Vilmorin-Andrieux
obtained in the space of three years roots as fleshy and as large as those
of the garden carrot from the thin, wiry roots of the wild species. Carrots
are now cultivated throughout Europe and in Paris are a most popular
vegetable. In some regions, sugar has been made from them but its
manufacture was not found profitable. In Germany, a substitute for
coffee has been made of carrots chopped up into small pieces and
browned. In Sweden, carrots grow as high as latitude 66° to 67° north.
In Asia, the carrots of the Mahratta and Mysore countries are
considered to be of especially fine quality.
The carrot and the parsnip, if known to them, seem to have been
confounded in the description by the ancients, and we find little
evidence that the cultivated carrot was known to the Greek writers, to
whom the wild carrot was certainly known. The ancient writers usually
gave prominence to the medical efficacy of herbs; and if our supposition
is correct that their carrots were of the wild form, we have evidence of
the existence of the yellow and red roots in nature, the prototypes of
these colors now found in our cultivated varieties. Pliny says: "They
cultivate a plant in Syria like staphylinos, the wild carrot, which some
call gingidium, yet more slender and more bitter, and of the same
properties, which is eaten cooked or raw, and is of great service as a
stomachic; also a fourth kind, resembling a pastinaca somewhat, called
by us Gallicam, but by the Greeks daucon." This comparison with a
parsnip and also the name is suggestive of the cultivated carrot. Galen,
a Greek physician of the second century, implies cultivation of the
carrot when he says the root of the wild carrot is less fit to be eaten than
that of the domestic. In the thirteenth century, however, Albertus
Magnus treats of the plants under field culture, garden culture,
orchard culture and vineyard culture, and yet, while naming the
parsnip, makes no mention of the carrot — if the word pastinaca really
means the parsnip. One may believe, however, that the pastinaca of
Albertus Magnus is the carrot for, in the sixteenth century, Ammonius
gives the name for the carrot pastenei, as applying to Pastinaca sativa
and agrestis. Barbarus, who died in 1493, and Virgil both describe the
carrot under the name pastinaca; and Apicius, a writer on cookery in
the third century, gives directions for preparing the Carota sen
pastinaca, which can apply only to the carrot. Dioscorides uses the
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word carota as applying to Pastinaca silvestris in the first century.
Columella and Palladius both mention the pastinaca as a garden plant
but say nothing that cannot better apply to the carrot than to the
parsnip. Macer Floridus also treats of what may be the carrot under
pastinaca and says no roots afford better food.
Hence, we believe that the carrot was cultivated by the ancients but was
not a very general food-plant and did not attain the modern
appreciation; that the word pastinaca, or cariotam, or carota, in those
times was applied to both the cultivated and the wild form; and we
suspect that the word Gallicam, used by Pliny in the first century,
indicates that the cultivated root reached Italy from France, where now
it is in such exaggerated esteem.
The siasron of Dioscorides and the siser of Columella and Pliny may
have been a form of the carrot but we can attain no certainty from the
descriptions. The fact that the grouping of the roots which occurs in the
skirret, into which authors translate siser, is not mentioned by the
ancients — a distinction almost too important to be overlooked — and
that the short carrot was called siser by botanists of the sixteenth
century, are arguments in favor of siser being a carrot. On the other
hand, we should scarcely expect a distinction being made between
pastinaca and siser, were both as similar in the plant as are the two
forms of carrot at present.
TYPES OF CARROTS.
The types of modem carrot are the tap-rooted and the premorse-rooted
with a number of subtypes, which are very distinct in appearance. The
synonymy, in part, is as below:
I.
II.
PREMORSE-ROOTED FORMS.
The premorse forms offer a number of subtypes which are very distinct,
some being nearly spherical, others cylindrical, and yet others tapering,
but all ending abruptly at the base, the tap-root starting from a flat, or
nearly flat, surface. This appearance seems to be modem.
The cylindrical.— The carrots of this type are remarkably distinct and
have foi types the Carentan and the Coreless of Vilmorin. The first was
in American seed-catalogs in 1878.
D. gingidium Linn.
Japan. The plant is called janatsi-itsigo or toon itsigo. Its berries are
edible.
Himalayas. The fruit is of a pale yellow color and is full of a white, juicy
pulp that is very sweet and pleasant; the fruit is eagerly sought after by
the Lepchas.
Australia. This orchid, found growing upon rocks, has large pseudo-
bulbs, the size of cucumbers, which are said to be eaten by the natives.
Himalayas. This stately bamboo is called pao by the Lepchas and wah
by the Mechis in Sikkim. The young shoots are boiled and eaten.
Tropical Africa. The fruits are about the size of an apricot. Underneath
the thin outer covering there is a quantity of green, farinaceous, edible
pulp intermixed with stringy fibres that proceed from the inner and
bony covering which encloses the single seed. There are two varieties;
one bitter, the other sweet. The latter is sold in the markets and is
prized by the negroes.
Tropical Africa. The pod, about the size and form of a filbert, is covered
with a black, velvety down, while the farinaceous pulp, which
surrounds the seeds, has an agreeably acid taste and is commonly
eaten.
Java. The plant has a delicious pulp, resembling that of the tamarind
but not quite so acid.
D. ovoideum Thw.
Ceylon. The fruits are sold in the bazaars. They have an agreeable, acid
flavor.
D. pentagyna Roxb.
East Indies. The flower-buds and young fruits have a pleasant, acid
flavor and are eaten raw or cooked in Oudh and central India. The ripe
fruits are also eaten.
Himalayan region. The fleshy leaves of the calyx have a pleasantly acid
taste and are used in curries. In Burma, the green fruit is brought to
the bazaars and is considered a favorite vegetable.
D. serrata Thunb.
Malay. The fruit is the size of an orange and has a sweetish, acid taste.
It is eaten in the Eastern Archipelago.
Under the general name of yams the large, fleshy, tuberous roots of
several species of Dioscorea are cultivated in tropical and subtropical
countries. Many varieties known only in cultivation are described as
species by some authors. In the Fiji Islands alone, says Milne, there are
upwards of 50 varieties, some growing to an enormous size,
occasionally weighing from 50 to 80 pounds but the general average is
from two to eight pounds. In Australia, according to Drummond, there
is a native yam which affords the principal vegetable food of the natives.
Tropical Asia. This plant is cultivated in the tropics of the whole earth.
Unger says the Indian Archipelago and the southern portions of the
Indian continent is the starting point of this yam, thence it was carried
first to the eastern coast of Africa, next to the west coast and thence to
America, whence the names yam and igname are derived from the
negroes. In the negro daliect of Guinea, the word yam means "to eat."
This is the species most generally cultivated in the Indian Archipelago,
the small islands of the Pacific and the Indian continent. It is universally
cultivated in the Carnatic region. There are several varieties in Jamaica,
where it is called white yam.
Tropical Asia. Less cultivated than many others, this yam is found wild
in the Indian Archipelago, upon the Indian continent as far as Silhet
and Nepal to Madagascar. Grant found it in central Africa. The bulbs
are like the Brazil-nut in size and shape cut like a potato when unripe
and are very good boiled. Schweinfurth says it is called nyitti and the
bulbs which protrude from the axils of the leaves, in shape like a great
Brazil-nut, resemble a potato in taste and bulk. In the Samoan and
Tonga group of islands, the root is not considered edible. In India, the
flowers and roots are eaten by the poorer classes, the very bitter root
being soaked in lye to extract the bitterness, but a variety occurs which
is naturally sweet. In Jamaica, it is cultivated by the negroes for the
bulbs of the stem. It was seen in a garden at Mobile, Alabama, by Wm.
Bartram, about 1733, under cultivation for its edible roots.
D. cayenensis Lam.
D. daemona Roxb.
East Indies. The plant is called kywae and its very acrid root is eaten by
the Karens in times of scarcity.
D. decaisneana Carr.
China. The root is edible and was introduced into France as a garden
plant but is now forgotten, although it is perhaps valuable.
D. deltoidea Wall.
East Indies. This species occurs both wild and cultivated in the Indian
Archipelago ; its roots are eaten.
East Indies. This species is much cultivated in India as yielding the best
kind of yam and is much esteemed both by Europeans and natives.
Roxburgh says it is the most esteemed yam in Bengal, but Firminger
thinks it not equal in quality to other varieties. In Burma, Mason says it
is the best of the white-rooted kinds.
Australia. The tubers are largely consumed by the aborigines for food,
and this is the only plant on which they bestow any kind of cultivation.
D. japonica Thunb.
Japan. The roots, cut into slices and boiled, have a very pleasant taste.
East Indies. This is a common but very excellent yam of India, as good
perhaps as any in cultivation. The tuber is of great size, crimson-red on
the outside and of a glistening white within.
Guiana. This is the smallest and most delicate of the yams grown in
Jamaica. It seldom exceeds eight or nine inches in length and two or
three in diameter and is generally smaller. The roots have a pleasant,
sweetish taste, very agreeable to most palates.
East Indies. This Indian tree has a cherry-like fruit which is very
palatable. The fruit is sweetish, clammy and subastringent but edible.
D. decandra Lour.
Cochin China. The berry is pale, with a sweetish, astringent, edible and
pleasant pulp.
D. embryopteris Pers.
East Indies. The fruit of this tree of India is not unlike a russet apple,
pulpy, of unattractive yellow color and covered with a rust-colored
farina. It is occasionally eaten but is not palatable. It is eaten by the
natives.
Japan. This plant has been cultivated in Japan for a long period and
has produced many varieties, some of which are seedless. The fruit, in
general, is as large as an ordinary apple, of a bright color, and contains
a semi-transparent pulp. The tree is cultivated in India and in China
and was seen in Japan by Thunberg, 1776. It was introduced into the
United States from Japan by the Perry expedition and one of these trees
is still growing at Washington. About 1864, others were imported; in
1877, 5000 plants in ten varieties were brought to America. This
persimmon is now grown in California, Georgia and elsewhere. The fruit
is described as delicious by all who have eaten the best varieties.
D. lanceaefolia Roxb.
Temperate Asia. The fruit is the size of a cherry, yellow when ripe, sweet
with astringency. The sweetish fruit is much prized by the Afghan
tribes, who eat it fresh or dried and use it in sherbets.
East Indies and Ceylon. The yellow fruit is about one to one and one-
half inches through, with soft, sweet, slightly astringent flesh, which is
eaten and is refreshing.
D. obtusifolia Willd.
South America. This is the sapota negro, with small, black, edible fruit.
D. pilosanthera Blanco.
Mexico. This is the black persimmon of the Americans and the sapote-
pieto of the Mexicans of western Texas. The black, cherry-like fruit is
melting and very sweet.
East Indies. The sweetish, clammy and subastringent fruit of this plant
is eaten.
D. toposia Buch.-Ham.
North America, found wild from the 42nd parallel to Texas, often
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attaining the size of a large tree. This plant is the persimmon, piakmine,
or pessimmon of America, called by the Louisiana natives ougoufle.
Loaves made of the substance of prunes "like unto brickes, also
plummes of the making and bigness of nuts and have three or four
stones in them" were seen by DeSoto on the Mississippi. It is called
mespilorum by LeMoyne in Florida; "mespila unfit to eat until soft and
tender" by Hariot on the Roanoke; pes-simmens by Strachey on the
James River; and medlars on the Hudson by the remonstrants against
the policy of Stuyvesant. The fruit is plum-like, about an inch in
diameter, exceedingly astringent when green, yellow when ripe, and
sweet and edible after exposure to frost. Porcher says the fruit, when
matured, is very sweet and pleasant to the taste and yields on
distillation, after fermentation, a quantity of spirits. A beer is made of it.
Mixed with flour, a pleasant bread may be prepared. Occasional
varieties are found with fruit double the size of the ordinary kind. The
best persimmons ripen soft and sweet, having a clear, thin, transparent
skin without any roughness. Flint, in his Western States, says when the
small, blue persimmon is thoroughly ripened, it is even sweeter than
the fig and is a delicious fruit. It is sometimes cultivated in America and
is also to be found in some gardens in Europe.
A palm of Brazil. The fruit, an ovate or obovate drupe, is yellow and has
a fibrous, acid-sweet flesh, which is eaten by the Indians.
East Indies and South Africa. This is a large tree called in Yemen dober;
the fruit is eaten.
Old World tropics. This is the horse grain of the East Indies. The bean
occurs in white, brown and black. The seeds are boiled in India for the
horses, and the liquor that remains is used by the lower class of
servants in their own food. There are varieties with gray and black
seeds; the natives use the seeds in their curries,
D. hastatus Lour.
East Africa. This plant is cultivated on the east coast of Africa and the
seeds are eaten by the natives.
The name, asparagus bean, comes from the use of the green pods as a
vegetable, and a tender, asparagus-like dish it is. The name at Naples,
fagiolo e maccarone, conveys the same idea. The pods grow very long,
oftentimes two feet in length, hence the name, yard-long bean, often
used. The asparagus, or yard-long, bean is mentioned for American
gardens in 1828 and probably was introduced earlier. It is mentioned
for French gardens under the name of haricot asperge in 1829. There
are no varieties known to our seedsmen, but Vilmorin offers one, the
Dolique de Cuba.
Japan. The seeds and pods are used in the preparation of a starch and
meal. There are several varieties of this plant under culture; some of
them are pole beans, others dwarf.
South America. The roots serve as food to the natives of the Pacific
isles.5
East Indies. "I have been informed," says Ainslie, "that the leaves are
amongst those which are occasionally eaten as greens by the natives of
lower India but I am doubtful of this, considering the general character
of the genus."
Australia. The ripe fruit is black, Hooker says, and the whole plant is
highly aromatic and pungent, hence its seeds and berries are
sometimes used as pepper.
Malay Islands. This is probably the form of the durian from which the
cultivated species has originated.
Mexico. The ripe fruit is red and "as delicious as that of the strawberry
cactus."
E. horizonthalonius Lem.
Mexico. This species furnishes fruits which are sliced, candied and sold
as confections.
E. longihamatus Gal.
E. viridescens Nutt.
E. wislizeni Engelm.
Europe. The roots of prickly samphire are eatable, with the flavor of
parsnips, and the young leaves make excellent pickles.
E. elliptica DC.
Texas and Mexico. This plant is a small tree with fruit the size of a large
pea, yellow, with a thin, edible pulp.
E. laevis Roxb.
Asia and Australian tropics. The inner bark, in times of famine, is mixed
with flour and eaten. The fruit is tasteless but is eaten.
West Indies. The berries are the size of a currant and are frequently
eaten.
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Elaeagnus angustifolia Linn. Elaeagnaceae. OLEASTER. WILD
OLIVE.
Europe and northern Asia. The wild olive is a tree mainly cultivated for
its fruit, which, in general, is acid and eatable. In Greece, it is sweetish-
acid and mealy when ripe. The fruit is commonly sold in the markets of
Constantinople. It abounds in a dry, mealy, saccharine substance
which is sweet and pleasant. The fruit is eaten in Nepal; it is cultivated
in Thibet; and in Persia appears as dessert under the name of zinzeyd.
A spirit is distilled from the fruit in Yarkand.
Philippine Islands. The fruit of the Philippine oleaster has the taste of
the best cherries.
E. umbellata Thunb.
New Zealand. The pulp surrounding the stone of the fruit is eatable,
and in India the fruits are either used in curries or pickled like olives.
E. floribundus Blume.
Tropical Asia. The fruit is an article of food. In India, the fruit, called in
Bengal julpai, of the size and shape of an olive, is pickled.
E. munroii Mast.
Tropical Asia. This plant has been introduced from Ceylon under the
name of Ceylon tea.
E. sphaerophyllum Presl.
East Indies. This plant is grown in southern China for its roots, for
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which there is a great demand in all Chinese towns." Royle says it is the
pi-tsi of the Chinese and that the round, turnip-shaped tubers are
eaten. Loudon calls it the water-chestnut and says it is grown in tanks
by the Chinese for the tubers. Ainslie says the root is in high estimation
either for the pot or as a medicine. This rush can be subjected to
regular cultivation in ponds, says Mueller, for the sake of its edible,
wholesome tubers. It is largely cultivated all over China. The tuber is
sweet and juicy with a chestnut flavor and is universally used as food.
A kind of arrowroot is made from it.
East Indies. From time immemorial, great numbers of the natives have
derived a livelihood from the cultivation of this plant. The fruit is used
as an aromatic in medicine throughout the East Indies and is largely
consumed as a condiment. It furnishes the Ceylon cardamom and the
large cardamom of Guibourt mentioned in his history of drugs. It is
cultivated in Crete.
E. tocussa Fresen.
Europe and western North America. The seed of this grass is threshed
out and eaten by the Digger Indians. It is indigenous to France and is
used as an ornamental plant in gardens.
Himalayan region. The fruits are eaten in Sikkim as well as the leaves,
which are sour to the taste.
E. ribes Burm. f.
Tropical Asia. In Silhet, the berries are collected and used to adulterate
black pepper.
Asia and tropical Africa. The leaves are eaten raw in salads in China. Its
leaves are eaten raw in salads, according to Murray. In France, it is
grown in flower gardens.
Arctic and subarctic climates. The berries are eaten by the Scotch and
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Russian peasantry. The fruits are black, about the size of juniper
berries, of a firm, fleshy substance and are insipid in taste. They are
consumed in a ripe or dry state by the Indians of the Northwest, are
eaten by the Tuski of Alaska and are gathered in autumn by the
western Eskimo and frozen, for winter food.
South Africa. The interior of the trunk and the center of the ripe female
cones contain a spongy, farinaceous pith, made use of by the Kaffirs as
food. On the female cone, seeds as large as unshelled Jordan almonds
are contained between the scales, and are surrounded with a reddish
pulp, which is good to eat. Barrow says it is used by the Kaffirs as food.
The stem, when stripped of its leaves, resembles a large pineapple. The
Kaffirs bury it for some months in the ground, then pound it, and
extract a quantity of farinaceous matter of the nature of sago. This sago
is a favorite food with the natives and is not unacceptable to the Dutch
settlers when better food cannot be had.
Sumatra. The fruits are called berak laut, or sea fruit. The seeds are
slightly farinaceous and taste like chestnuts soaked in salt water. This
fruit is round, hairy and generally much covered with mud.
Tropical shores from India to the Polynesian Islands. The seeds are flat
and brown and are eaten cooked like chestnuts in Sumatra and Java,
and the pods furnish food in the West Indies. In Jamaica, Lunan says
the beans, after being long soaked in water, are boiled and eaten by
some negroes.
E. wahlbergia Harv.
East Indies, Malay and Australia. The leaves of this water plant are
eaten by the natives as a vegetable. It is the kingeka of Bengal.
China and south Russia. The fruit is eaten by the Russian peasants
and by the wandering hordes of Great Tartary. The fruit is eaten by the
Chinese and is mucilaginous, with a slightly acid or pungent flavor. The
fruit is ovoid, succulent, sweet, pale or bright red when ripe. It is eaten
in some places, as on the Sutlej.
Northern climates. In England, says Johnson, the leaves are much used
for the adulteration of tea. The leaves form a wholesome vegetable when
boiled, and the young shoots make a good substitute for asparagus.
The people of Kamchatka, says Lightfoot, eat the young shoots which
creep under the ground and they brew a sort of ale from the dried pith.
Richardson says the young leaves, under the name of l'herbe fret, are
used by the Canadian voyagers as a potherb.
E. latifolium Linn.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The starch contained in the tubers of the
rhizome is nutritious, according to Lindley. This is the plant which was
eaten by the Romans under the name equisetum. Coles, in his Adam in
Eden, speaking of horsetails, says, "the young heads are dressed by
some like asparagus, or being boyled are often bestrewed with flower
and fried to be eaten."
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E. hyemale Linn. DUTCH RUSH. HORSETAIL. SCOURING RUSH.
SHAVE GRASS.
Asia Minor and Persia. In May and June the young shoots are sold as a
vegetable in the villages of the Caucasus, Kurdistan and Crimea. The
flavor is intermediate between spinach and purslane and is by no
means a disagreeable vegetable.
Asia and tropical Africa. The fruit is eaten in India sometimes cooked
and sometimes raw. At Celebes, the seeds are eaten.
A shrub or small tree of Java and the islands of the Indian Archipelago.
The fruit is edible. A cider is made in Java from the pericarp of the fruit.
Brazil. The kernel of the red fruit is pleasant eating both raw and boiled.
By a process of boiling and leaving in running water for several weeks,
and then pounding in a mortar, it is made into a sort of butter, which is
eaten with fish and game, being mixed in the gravy. People who can get
over its vile smell, which is never lost, find it exceedingly savory.
E. jacquinianum Fisch.
Mediterranean region and western Asia. Rocket is called "a good salat-
herbe " by Gerarde, and Don says the leaves and tender stalks form an
agreeable salad. Syme says it is used in southern Europe as a salad. It
is cultivated for its leaves and stalks which are used as a salad. Walsh
says, it is a fetid, offensive plant but is highly esteemed by the Greeks
and Turks, who prefer it to any other salad. It was cultivated by the
ancient Romans. Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, speaks of
it in gardens; so also does Ruellius, 1536, who uses nearly the present
French name, roqueta. In 1586, Camerarius says it is planted most
abundantly in gardens. In 1726, Townsend says it is not now very
common in English gardens, and in 1807 Miller's Dictionary says it has
been long rejected. Rocket was in American gardens in 1854 or earlier
and is yet included by Vilmorin among European vegetables.
Asia Minor and the seashores along the Mediterranean and Atlantic as
far as Denmark. The young, tender shoots, when blanched, may be
eaten like asparagus. The roots are candied and sold as candied
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eryngo. When boiled or roasted, the roots resemble chestnuts and are
palatable and nutritious.
Europe and northern Asia. The Tartars collect and dry the bulbs and
boil them with milk or broth.
Interior Oregon. The roots of this plant are eaten by some Indians.
A shrub of the Peruvian Andes cultivated from early times for its leaves
which are used as a masticatory. This use of the leaves under the name,
coca, is common throughout the greater part of Peru, Quito, New
Granada, and also on the banks of the Rio Negro, where it is known as
spadic. It forms an article of commerce among the Indians and is
largely cultivated in Bolivia. These leaves contain an alkaloid analogous
to thein and exert, when chewed, a stimulant action.
Tropical America. The roots are said to be used for coloring gravies.
Australia. A manna called lerp is produced upon the leaves, which the
natives use for food. It is said to be a secretion from an insect.
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E. gunnii Hook. f. CIDER TREE.
Australia. This plant yields a cool, refreshing liquid from wounds made
in the bark during spring.
Australia. The water drained from the roots is clear and good and is
used by the natives of Queensland when no other water is obtainable.
E. terminalis F. Muell.
This is the jelly plant of Australia and is one of the best species for
making jelly, size and cement.
South Africa. The fleshy, glaucous, brownish fruits, the size of a pea,
are sweet and slightly astringent and are eaten by the natives of South
Africa under the name embolo.
E. undulata Thunb.
South Africa. The small, black berry is edible. This is the guarri bush of
South Africa. The sweet berries are eaten by the Hottentots or, bruised
and fermented, they yield a vinegar.
East Indies and West Indies. In Jamaica, the aromatic, astringent leaves
are often used in sauce and the berries for culinary purposes.8 In
Hindustan, it is called lung.
E. apiculata DC.
A tree of India, called lal jumrool. The fruit is the size of a small apple, is
of a waxy appearance and of somewhat aromatic taste but is hardly
eatable. There are two varieties, a white and a pale rose-colored fruit.
E. arnottiana Wight.
East Indies. The fruit is eaten by the natives of India, though, owing to
its. astringency, it is by no means palatable.
E. arrabidae Berg.
E. catinga Baill.
E. cauliflora Berg.
Brazil. The jacbuticaba grows wild in the woods of the south of Brazil
and is also cultivated in most of the gardens in the diamond and gold
districts. The fruit is black, about the size of a Green Gage plum, of a
pulpy consistency and very refreshing. Unger says the fruit is of the size
of an Oxheart cherry and under the tender, black epidermis there is a
white, soft and even juicy flesh in which are two or three seeds. It is
inferior in taste to our cherry. In Brazil, it is much esteemed. It has been
planted in the Antilles and even introduced into the East Indies.
E. cordifolia Wight.
E. darwinii Hook. f.
E. dichotoma DC.
E. djouat Perr.
E. dulcis Berg.
E. dysenterica DC.
E. floribunda West.
E. formosa Cambess.
E. guabiju Berg.
E. inocarpa DC.
Brazil. The fruit is about the size of a plum, with a fibrous., acid-sweet
flesh.
E. itacolumensis Berg.
Asia and Australian tropics. This tree yields in India, says Dutt, an
abundant crop of subacid, edible fruits. In some places, the fruit attains
the size of a pigeon egg and is of superior quality. Brandis says the fruit
has a harsh but sweetish flavor, somewhat astringent and acid, and is
much eaten by the natives of India. Firminger compares it to a damson
in appearance and to a radish in taste.
Tropical eastern Asia. The tree is cultivated in many parts of India for
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its fruit, which is of the size of a small apple, with a delicate, rose-water
perfume but dry and hardly worth eating. It can hardly be considered
eatable, being of a poor flavor and of a dry, pithy consistency but is
made into preserves. The tree was introduced into Jamaica in 1762.
The rind, says Lunan, has a sweetish, watery taste, with a flavor like
roses but it is not in much esteem as a fruit. It was introduced into
Florida by C. Codrington, Jacksonville, before 1877.
E. ligustrina Miq.
West Indies. A small tree of Tortola. The fruit is small and excellent for
dessert. It is also used for a preserve and forms a favorite cordial.
E. longipes Berg.
Florida. The small, red fruit with the flavor of cranberries is edible.
E. luschnathiana Klotzsch.
E. mabaeoides Wight.
E. macrocarpa Roxb.
E. myrobalana DC.
E. nhanica Cambess.
E. oblata Roxb.
E. operculata Roxb.
Tropical Asia. The fruit is round, of the size and appearance of small,
black cherries and is very generally eaten in Chittagong. The fruit is
eaten.
E. pseudopsidium Jacq.
E. pulchella Roxb.
E. pumila Gardn.
E. pyriformis Cambess.
E. rariflora Benth.
Fiji Islands. The fruit resembles a cherry in size and shape and is
edible.
E. revoluta Wight.
E. richii A. Gray.
Australia. The fruit is large, red, with small stone and is eaten when
ripe.
E. zeyheri Harv.
South Africa. The berries are the size of a cherry and are edible.
East Indies. This species furnishes the salep of the Indian bazaars
known as saleb misri.
China and Japan. In China, the leaves of this tree are eaten when
young.
Canary Islands. Its juice is thickened to a jelly and eaten by the natives.
E. canariensis Linn.
Canary Islands. The natives of Teneriffe are in the habit of removing the
bark and then sucking the inner portion of the stem to quench their
thirst.
E. edulis Lour.
Southern Europe. The seeds are used as a substitute for capers but,
says Johnson, they are extremely acrid and require long steeping in salt
and water and afterwards in vinegar.
E. montana R. Grah.
Brazil. Bates says the fruit forms a universal article of diet in all parts of
Brazil. It is the size of a cherry, round and contains but a small portion
of pulp, which is made, with the addition of water, into a thick, violet-
colored beverage. Mrs. Agassiz pronounces this diet drink as very good,
eaten with sugar and farina of the mandioc. The terminal leaf-bud is
used as a cabbage.
North America. The nuts are esteemed delicious and are found in
season in the Boston markets. Porcher says the young leaves are used
by the common people of the South as a potherb. In Maine, the buds
are eaten by the Indians.
Europe. In Hanover, the oil of the nut is used as a salad oil and as a
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substitute for butter. In France, the nuts are roasted and serve as a
substitute for coffee. Sawdust of beech wood is boiled in water, baked
and then mixed with flour to form the material for bread in Norway and
Sweden.
Southern Europe and the Orient. This plant has the same properties as
the cresses.
East Indies. The fruit is of the size of a large apple and is covered with a
hard, gray, scabrous, woody rind. The pulp is universally eaten on the
coast of Coromandel. The interior of the fruit, says Firminger, is filled
with a brown, soft, mealy substance, rather acid and smelling of rancid
butter. Brandis says a jelly is made of it in India, and Wight says that
this very pleasant jelly resembles black-currant jelly. Dutt says it is
cultivated in India for its fruit, the pulp of which is eaten and made into
a ckatni.
F. longifolia Fisch.
Islands of New Hebrides. This is a tropical species of fig whose fruit may
be eaten.
East Indies and African tropics. The sweetish fruit of the banyan is
eaten in India in times of scarcity.
F. brassii R. Br.
Europe, Orient and Africa. The fig is indigenous, says linger, in Syria,
Persia, Asia Minor, Greece and north Africa and has been cultivated in
these countries from time immemorial and even as far as southern
Germany. The fig had its place as a fruit tree in the garden of Alcinous.
According to one Grecian tradition, Dionysius Sycetes was the
discoverer of the fig tree; according to another, Demeter brought the
first fig tree to Greece; a third tradition states that the fig tree grew up
from the thunderbolt of Jupiter. The fig is mentioned by Athenaeus,
Columella and Macrobius, and six varieties were known in Italy in the
time of Cato. Pliny enumerates 29 sorts in his time. At the present time,
no less than 40 varieties are enumerated for Sicily by Dr. Presl. The fig
tree is enumerated among the fruit trees of Charlemagne. It was carried
to England in 1525 or 1548 by Cardinal Pole. Cortez carried the fig tree
to Mexico in 1560, and figs are mentioned as cultivated in Virginia in
1669 and were observed growing out of the ruins of Frederica, Georgia,
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by Wm. Bartram, about 1773, and at Pearl Island near New Orleans.
Downing describes 15 varieties as the most desirable sorts for this
country and says the fig reached here in 1790.
F. cooperi Hort.
F. cunia Buch.-Ham.
F. erecta Thunb.
Himalayas, China and Japan. In Japan, the small figs are sometimes
eaten.
F. forskalaei Vahl.
F. glomerata Roxb.
A large tree of tropical eastern Asia. The ripe fruit is eaten. In times of
scarcity, the unripe fruit is pounded, mixed with flour and made into
cakes. In the Konckans, the natives sometimes eat the fruit which
outwardly resembles the common fig. The fruit is edible but insipid and
is usually found full of insects. In Cebu, in times of drought, the
inhabitants have no other resources for water than cutting the root.
F. granatum Forst. f.
F. heterophylla Linn. f.
F. hirta Vahl.
F. infectoria Roxb.
F. palmata Forsk.
Tropical Asia, Arabia and East Indies. In the hills of India, this fig is
eaten largely and is succulent, sweet and pleasant.
F. persica Boiss.
A shrub found wild about Shiraz, Persia. The fruit is edible but not very
palatable.
F. roxburghii Wall.
Burma and Himalayan regions. The fruit is eaten by the natives in their
curries.
F. rumphii Blume.
F. sur Forsk.
East Indies. The puneala plum is a fruit of India, better in flavor than a
sloe but inferior to a poor plum. It makes an excellent stew.
F. montana J. Grah.
East Indies. It is called attuck ka jhar. The fruit, the size of a crab apple,
is eaten by the natives.
East Indies, Malay and Madagascar. The fruit is of the size of a plum, of
a sharp but sweetish taste. It is common in the jungles of India. The
fruit, when fully ripe, is of a pleasant acid taste and very refreshing. At
Bombay, the fruit is eaten but is by no means good. The fruit is eaten.
F. sepiaria Roxb.
East Indies and Malay. In Coromandel, the berries are sold in the
market. The fruit has a pleasant, acid taste and is very refreshing. At
Bombay, its berries are eaten.
Tropical shores from Africa to the Samoan Islands. In Fiji, the ears of
this plant are eaten.
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Flemingia tuberosa Dalzell. Leguminosae.
F. microcarpa Blume.
Old World tropics. The fruit, a white, globose, dehiscent berry, one-sixth
inch in diameter, is eaten. The berries are eaten by the natives of eastern
tropical Africa.
SWEET FENNEL.
FINOCCHIO.
The Latin word for the strawberry, Fraga, has given name to the
botanical genus Fragaria, which includes our edible species. Ruellius,
1536, says the French word fresas was applied to the fruit on account
of the excellent sweetness of its odor, odore suavissimum, and taste; in
1554, this was spelled frayses by Amatus Lusitanicus, but the modern
word fraise appeared in the form fraises, in Fuchsius, 1542, and
Estienne, 1545. The Italian fraghe and fragole, as used by Matthiolus,
1571, and fragola as used by Zvingerus, 1696, and the modern
Italians, appear to have come directly from the Latin; while the Spanish
fresa and fresera must have had the same immediate origin as the
French. Some of the ancient commentators and botanists seem to have
derived the Latin name from fragrans, sweet-smelling, for Turner in his
Libellus, 1538, says "fragum non fragrum (ut quidam scioli scribunt),"
and Amatus Lusitanicus, 1554, writes fragra. The latter quotes
Servius, a grammarian of the fifteenth century, as calling the fruit
terrestria mora,— earth mulberry,—(or, following Dorstenius who
wrote in 1540, "fructus terrae et mora terrestria)," whence the Spanish
and Portuguese murangaos, (the modern Portuguese moranguoiro).
The manner of the fruit-bearing, near the ground, seems to have been
the character of the plant more generally observed, however, than that
of the fruit, for we have Virgil's verse, "humi nascentia fraga," child of
the soil, and Pliny's epithet, "terrestribus fragis," ground strawberry, as
distinguishing from the Arbutus unedo Linn. or strawberry tree, as also
the modern vernacular appellations, such as the Belgian eertbesien,
Danish jordbeer, German erdbeere, Netherland aerdbesie, while even
the English strawberry, the Anglo-Saxon streowberie, spelled in
modern fashion by Turner in 1538, is said to have been derived from
the spreading nature of the runners of the plant, and to have come
originally from the observed strewed, anciently strawed, condition of
the stems, and reading as if written strawedberry plant. It was called
straeberry by Lidgate in the fifteenth century.
The classical history of the strawberry can be written very shortly. Virgil
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refers to the "humi nascentia fraga" in his third Eclogue; Ovid to the
"arbuteos fructus mon-tanaque fraga" in his Metamorphoses, book I,
v. 104, as furnishing a food of the golden age and again in the 13th
book, "mollia fraga;" and Pliny mentions the plant by name in his lib.
xxi, c. 50, and separates the ground strawberry from the arbutus tree
in his lib. xv, c. 28. The fruit is not mentioned in the cook-book
ascribed to Apicius Coelius, an author supposed to have lived about A.
D. 230. The Greeks seem to have had no knowledge of the plant or fruit;
at least there is no word in their writings which commentators have
agreed in interpreting as applying to the strawberry. Nicolaus
Myripsicus, an author of the tenth century, uses the word phragouli,
and Forskal, in the eighteenth century, found the word phraouli in use
for the strawberry by the Greeks about Belgrade. Fraas gives the latter
word for the modern Greek, and Sibthorp the word kovkoumaria, which
resembles the ancient Greek komaros or komaron, applied to the
arbutus tree, whose fruit has a superficial resemblance to the
strawberry.
---------
Europe and northern Asia. The fruits are greenish, tinged with red, of a
musky, rich, pineapple flavor. Prince enumerates four varieties as
cultivated.
Europe. The French call this class of strawberries caprons. The fruit has
a musky flavor which many persons esteem. Prince describes eight
varieties in cultivation.
This species is mentioned by Virgil, Ovid and Pliny as a wild plant. Lyte,
in his translation of Dodoens' Herball, refers to it as growing wild in
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1578 and first appearing in an improved variety in cultivation about
1660. A. De Candolle, however, states that it was cultivated in the
mediaeval period. Gray says it is indigenous in the United States,
particularly northward. In Scandinavia, it ripens beyond 70°. Prince
enumerates 10 varieties of the Wood, and 15 varieties of the Alpine,
under cultivation. In 1766, Duchesne says, "The King of England was
understood to have received the first seed from Turin." It was such a
rarity that a pinch of seed sold for a guinea.
St. Helena Islands. One of the few plants indigenous in the Island of St.
Helena but now, J. Smith says, believed to be extinct. Balfour says the
leaves were used in St. Helena as a substitute for tea.
Temperate regions of the Old World. The keys of the ash were formerly
pickled by steeping in salt and vinegar and were eaten as a condiment,
a use to which they are still put in Siberia. The leaves are sometimes
used to adulterate tea.
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F. ornus Linn. MANNA ASH.
Mediterranean region and the Orient. The manna ash is indigenous and
is cultivated in Sicily and Calabria. When the trees are eight or ten years
old, one cut is made every day from the commencement of July to the
end of September, from which a whitish, glutinous liquor exudes
spontaneously and hardens into manna. Manna is collected during
nine years, when the tree is exhausted and is cut down and only a
shoot left, which after four or five years becomes in turn productive.
Once a week the manna is collected. The yield is about 5 pounds of
select and 70 pounds of assorted manna per acre. This tree is the melia
of Dioscorides, the meleos of modern Greece. The seeds are imported
into Egypt for culinary and medicinal use and are called bird tongues.
Fraxinus excelsior Linn. furnishes a little manna in some districts of
Sicily.
New Zealand. The flowers, of a sweetish taste, are eagerly eaten, by the
natives of New Zealand. This plant is said by Curl to bear the best
edible fruit of the country.
F. milnei Seem.
Eastern Asia. The bitter tubers, says Hooker, are copiously eaten by the
Indians of Sitka and are known by the name of koch. This plant is
enumerated by Dall among the useful indigenous Alaskan plants. In
Kamchatka, the women collect the roots, which are used in cookery in
various ways; when roasted in embers, they supply the place of bread.
Captain Cook said he boiled and ate these roots as potatoes and found
them wholesome and pleasant. Royle says the bulbs are eaten in the
Himalayan region.
F. persicarius F. Muell.
Australia. The bark of the root of this small variety of the sandal tree is
roasted by the Murray tribe of Australian natives in hot ashes and
eaten. It has no taste but is very nutritious. The native name is
quantong.
Northern climates. The seeds form one of the best of the substitutes for
coffee, according to Johnson, and are so used in Sweden. The dried
plant is sometimes used as a tea.
G. cochinchinensis Choisy.
China. The fruit is about the size of a plum, of a reddish color when ripe
and has a juicy, acid pulp. The leaves are used in Amboina as a
condiment for fish.
G. cornea Linn.
East Indies. The fruit is eatable but not palatable. The cowa or cowa-
mangosteen, bears a ribbed and russet apricot-colored fruit of the size
of an orange and, were it not a trifling degree too acid, would be
accounted most delicious. It makes, however, a remarkably fine
preserve. In Burma, the fruit is eaten.
G. dulcis Kurz.
East Indies. This is a large tree of the coast region of western India
known by the natives as the conca. The fruit is the size of a small apple
and contains an acid, purple pulp. Garcia d'Orta, 1563, says that it has
a pleasant, though sour, taste and that the fruit serves to make a
vinegar. The oil from the seeds has been used to adulterate butter.
About Bombay, it is called kokum, and the fruit is eaten, and oil is
obtained from the seeds. It is called brindas by the Portuguese at Goa,
where cocum oil is used for adulterating ghee or butter.
East Indies and Malay; a small tree common in Siam and Cambodia.
The fruit is a pulpy drupe, about two inches in diameter, of a yellow
color and is esteemed as a dessert fruit. The plant furnishes the
gamboge, the orange-red gum-resin of commerce. It is called cochin
goraka and is cultivated in the Public Gardens of Jamaica.
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G. ovalifolia Oliver.
G. paniculata Roxb.
Himalayan region. The fruit is edible. The fruit of this species raised in
Calcutta is represented as about the size of a cherry, that of native
specimens received from Silhet about twice as large.
G. pedunculata Roxb.
Himalayan region. The fleshy part of the fruit which covers the seeds
and their juicy envelope, ,or aril, is in large quantity, of a firm texture
and of a very sharp, pleasant, acid taste. It is used by the natives in
their curries and for acidulating water.
G. xanthochymus Hook. f.
East Indies and Malay. The plant bears a round, smooth apple of
medium size, which, when ripe, is of a beautiful, yellow color. The seeds
are from one to four, large, oblong and immersed in pulp. The fruit is
very handsome and in taste is little inferior to many of our apples.
Firminger says the fruit is intolerably acid. Drury says that its orange-
like fruit is eaten; Unger, that it is pleasant-tasted.
G. gummifera Linn. f.
East Indies. The fruit is eaten. The fruit is eaten in the Circar Mountains
of India.
G. jasminoides Ellis.
Malay and East Indies. The fruit is eaten raw and pickled.
New Zealand. The root of this orchid is eaten by the natives of New
Zealand, who call it peri; it is about 18 inches long, as thick as the
finger and full of starch.
Northeastern America. The berries are often offered for sale in the
markets of Boston; they are pleasantly aromatic and are relished by
children. The oil is used for flavoring. The leaves are made into a tea by
the Indians of Maine.
Northwest Pacific Coast. The aromatic, acid berries are rather agreeable
to the taste. The fruit is much esteemed by the Indians of the northwest
coast and is dried and eaten in winter.
North America. The fruit is large, bluish, rather acid and is used for
puddings. The fruit is sweet and edible according to Gray. In the
southern states, the berries are eaten.
Islands of the Pacific and east Australia. The young shoots offer a fine
substitute for asparagus, according to Mueller.
Europe in the region of the Caucasus. The buds are pickled and used
in sauces as a caper substitute.
Europe. Linnaeus says the poorer people of Sweden use this species as
a hop to brew with their ale.
Europe and Asia Minor. The root contains sugar and mucilage, and in
Switzerland an esteemed liquor is prepared from it. It is an inmate of
the flower garden in France.
South America. Gardner says this plant produces a fleshy drupe about
the size of a walnut which is called umari by the Indians. In almost
every house, whether Indian or Brazilian, he observed a large pot of this
fruit being prepared. The taste of the kernel is not unlike that of boiled
beans. It is the almandora of the Amazon.
Northern temperate regions. Johnson says this plant was often used in
olden times to flavor ale and other liquors.
Malay. This bamboo attains the height of a hundred feet. The young
shoots are used as a vegetable.
Java. The plant grows to a height of 120 feet, with stems nearly a foot
thick. This is one of the most extensively cultivated of ail Asiatic
bamboos. The young shoots are used as a culinary vegetable.
China and Japan. The fruit of the ginko is sold in the markets in all
Chinese towns and is not unlike dried almonds, only whiter, fuller and
more round. The natives seem very fond of it, although it is rarely eaten
by Europeans. In Japan, the seeds furnish an oil used for eating and
burning. The fruit of the maiden-hair tree is called in China pa-kwo.
The Chinese consume the nuts of this tree at weddings, the shells being
dyed red; they have a fishy taste. This tree is largely cultivated as an
ornamental in Europe, Asia and North America.
South Africa. The bulb-like roots are edible and taste like chestnuts
when roasted.
North America. This tree, native of the region about the Mississippi and
its tributaries, is cultivated as an ornamental tree both in this country
and in Europe. The pods contain numerous seeds enveloped in a sweet,
pulpy substance, from which a sugar is said to have been extracted.
Porcher says a beer is sometimes made by fermenting the sweet pods
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while fresh.
Northern temperate regions. The seeds of this grass are collected on the
continent and sold as manna seeds for making puddings and gruel.3
According to Von Heer,4 it is cultivated in Poland.
Tropical Asia. This bean is much cultivated in tropical Asia for its seeds,
which are used as food in India, China and Japan. It is an ingredient of
the sauce known as soy. Of late, it has been cultivated as an oil plant.
In 1854, two varieties, one white- and the other red-seeded, were
obtained from Japan and distributed through the agency of the Patent
Office. At the late Vienna Exposition, samples of the seed were shown
among the agricultural productions of China, Japan, Mongolia,
Transcaucasia and India. Professor Haberland says this plant has been
cultivated from early ages and that it grows wild in the Malay
Archipelago, Java and the East Indies. In Japan, it is called miso. Of
late, its seeds have appeared among the novelties in our seed catalogs.
According to Bretschneider, a Chinese writing of 163-85 B. C. records
that Shen nung, 2800 B. C., sowed the five cereals, and another writing
of A. D. 127-200 explains that these five cereals were rice, wheat,
Panicum italicum Linn., P. miliaceum Linn. and the soja bean. The use
of this bean as a vegetable is also recorded in authors of the fifth,
fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. The first European mention of the
soja bean is by Kaempfer,9 who was in Japan in 1690. In his account
of his travels, he gives considerable space to this plant. It also seems to
be mentioned by Ray, 1704. This bean is much cultivated in China and
Cochin China. There are a large number of varieties. Seeds were
brought from Japan to America by the Perry Expedition on its return
and were distributed from the United States Patent Office in 1854. In
France; seeds were distributed in 1855. In 1869, Martens described 13
varieties.
Tropical Asia and Australia. This Asiatic tree is noted for the delicious
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flavor of its fruit. It is the mandarin orange of Jamaica and is grown as a
fruit tree in the Public Gardens of Jamaica. The ripe fruit is eaten.
Russia and central Asia. Pallas says the leaves are used by the
Kalmucks as a substitute for tea.
Southern Europe and the Orient. From the root of this herb, a portion
of the Italian licorice is prepared. The Russian licorice root is of this
species.
North America. The root is eaten by the Indians of Alaska and the
northwestern states.
Tropical India and Burma. The yellow drupe is eaten by the Gonds of
the Satpura who protect the tree near villages.
Malay. The seeds are eaten in Amboina, roasted, boiled or fried, and the
green leaves are a favorite vegetable, cooked and eaten as spinach.
This is a large tree of Chile called queule or keule. The fruit is the size of
a small peach; the eatable part is yellow, not very juicy, but is of a most
excellent and grateful taste.
Tropical America. Piso says the carpels are astringent and are not only
eaten raw, but that an oil is expressed from them, which is used in
salads.
Brazil. The oil expressed from the fruit is used for salads.
Ceylon. The roots are very fragrant and are said to contain camphor.
They are chewed by the Singhalese.
Tropical Asia. During the War of the Rebellion, cotton seed came into
some use as a substitute for coffee, the seed having been parched and
ground. The oil expressed from the seed makes a fine salad oil and is
also used for cooking and as a butter substitute.
West Indies. The stems are used for flavoring cooling beverages.
Chile. The sweet, pulpy fruits, called chupon, are greedily eaten by
children.
East Indies. This plant is cultivated in India, says Brandis, for the small,
not very succulent, pleasantly acid fruit. The bark of this tree is also
employed for making rope. Masters says the small, red fruits, on
account of their pleasant, acid taste, are commonly used in India for
flavoring sherbets. Firminger says the pea-sized fruits, with a stone in
the center, are sour and uneatable. The berries have a pleasant, acid
taste and are used for making sherbets.
G. hirsuta Vahl.
Tropical Asia. A shrub or small tree whose pleasant, acid fruit is much
used for making sherbets.
G. megalocarpa Beauv.
G. oppositifolia Buch.-Ham.
Hindustan. The berries have a pleasant, acid taste and are used for
sherbets. They are also eaten.
G. pilosa Lam.
East Indies and tropical Africa. The fruit of a shrub, probably this, is
called karanto on the Bassi hills of India and is eaten.
East Indies and tropical Africa. The fruit, with a scanty but pleasant
pulp, is eaten in Sind, where it is called gwigo. In the Punjab, it is called
gangee.
G. salvifolia Heyne.
G. sapida Roxb.
Himalayan region. This plant bears a small but palatable fruit, much
used for sherbets.
G. scabrophylla Roxb.
G. tiliaefolia Vahl.
G. villosa Wild.
East Indies. The fruit is of the size of a cherry, with a sweet, edible pulp
and is eaten in India.
Tropical America. The fruit, says St. Hilaire, is hard and woody but is
filled with a mucilage of a sweet and agreeable taste, which can be
sucked with pleasure. In Jamaica, says Lunan, the fruit is eaten by the
negroes, either raw or boiled as a green.
New Granada. The small fruits of this tree, according to Humboldt and
Bonpland, cause the body of the eater to turn yellow, and, after it
remains 24 or 48 hours, nothing can erase the color.
North America. This tree, which occurs in the northern United States
and in Canada, is often cultivated for ornamental purposes. The pods,
preserved like those of the tamarind, are said to be wholesome and
slightly aperient. The seeds were employed by the early settlers of
Kentucky as a substitute for coffee.
Arctic climates. Franklin says, when boiled with fish-roe or other animal
matter, this lichen is agreeable and nutritious and is eaten by the
natives.
Cold regions. This lichen forms a pleasanter food than the other species
of this genus.
Tropical Africa. The fruit has a pleasant, subacid flavor when ripe. In
size and shape it is similar to a grape.
North Carolina to Texas. The ripe fruit is eaten by some people and
when green is sometimes made into a pickle.
Northeastern United States. The seeds are used as food, says Balfour.
The kernels are oily and eatable, says Lindley. The source of such
statements, writes Gray, appears to be the Medical Flora of the
eccentric Rafinesque, who says the nuts are called pistachio nuts in the
Southern States, but Gray has never heard of the seeds being eaten.
They are about the size of a grain of barley and have a thick, bony coat.
Brazil. Gardner says the fruit is about the size of a large plum, streaked
a little with red on, one side. The flavor is most delicious. Hartt says the
fruit is very delicious.
Gerarde, in, England, writes: "We have found by triall, that the buds
before they be flowered, boiled and eaten with butter, vinegar and
pepper, after the manner of artichokes, an exceeding pleasant meat,
surpassing the artichoke far in procuring bodily lust. The same buds
with the stalks neere unto the top (the hairness being taken away)
broiled upon a gridiron and afterwards eaten with oile, vinegar, and
pepper have the like property." In Russia, this plant yields about 50
bushels of seed per acre, from which about 50 gallons of oil are
expressed and the oil-cake is said to be superior to that from linseed for
the feeding of cattle. This oil is used for culinary purposes in many
places in Russia. In Landeshut, Germany, the carefully dried leaf is
much used locally for a tobacco. The seed-receptacles are made into
blotting paper and the inner part of the stalk into a fine writing paper in
the manufactories of the province. The stalk, when treated like flax,
produces a silky fiber of excellent quality. The green leaves make
excellent fodder, and Sir Alien Crockden, in England, is said to grow the
plant at Sevenoaks, for the purpose of feeding his stock. The leaves,
dried and burned to powder, are valuable, mixed with bran, for milch
cows. The seeds are also said to be valuable as a food for sheep. The
dried seeds are pounded into a cake and eaten by the Indians of the
Northwest.
H. doronicoides Lam
North America. This coarse species with showy heads, of river bottoms
from Ohio to Illinois and southward, is most probably, says Gray, the
original of the Jerusalem artichoke.
Eastern North America. The Choctaws use the seeds ground to a flour
and mixed with maize flour for making a very palatable bread.
The history of the Jerusalem artichoke has been well treated by Gray
and Trumbull in the American Journal of Science, May, 1877, and
April, 1883. It was found in culture at the Lew Chew Islands about
1853.2 We offer a synonymy as below:
Flos Solis Farnesianus sive Aster Peruanus tubercosus. Col. 13. i6i6.
Helianthemum indicum tuberosum. Bauh. Pin. 277. 1623.
De Solis flore tuberoso, sen flore Farnesiano Fabii Columnae. Aldinus,
91. 1625.
Battatas de Canada. Park. Par. 1629.
Adenes Canadenses sen flos solis glandulosus. Lauremb. 132. 1632.
Flos Solis pyramidalis, parvo flore, tuberosa radice, Heliotropium
indicum. Ger. 1633.
Peruanus solis flos ex Indiis tuberosus. Col. in Hern. 878, 881. 1651.
Potatoes of Canada. Coles. 1657.
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Canada & Artischokki sub terra. H. R. P. 1665.
Chrysanthemum latifolium Brasilianum. Bauh. Prod. 70. 1671.
Chrysanthemum Canadense arumosum. Cat. H. L. B. 1672.
Helenium Canadense. Amman. 1676.
Chrysanthemum perenne majus fol, integris, americanum tuberum.
MOT. 1630.
Jerusalem Artichoke. Ray 335. i686.
Corona solis parvo flore, tuberosa radice. Tourn. 489. 1719.
Helianthus radice tuberosa esculenta, Hierusalem Artichoke. Clayton.
1739.
Helianthus foliis ovato cordatis triplinervus. Gronov. Virg. 129. 1762.
Helianthus tuberosus. Linn. Sp. 1277. 1763.
South Africa. This plant is used as a tea substitute under the name of
Hottentot tea.
South America. In the West Indies, the young shoots are eaten by the
natives.
H. minor Mill.
Northern Asia. In China, the young leaves are eaten and appear to
intoxicate or stimulate to some extent. The flowers are eaten as a relish
with meat. This species is said by Vilmorin to be a native of Siberia and
to be grown in French flower gardens.
Sicily. The root is black, sweet scented and is used as angelica by the
Sicilians.
Subarctic America. The roots and young stems are eaten by some of the
tribes along the Pacific and it is also used by the Crees of the eastern
side of the Rocky Mountains as a potherb.
The young shoots are filled with a sweet, aromatic juice and are eaten
raw by the natives of the Caucasus, where it is native. In France, it is
grown in the flower garden.
H. sibiricum Linn.
H. tuberosum Molina.
Chile. The bulbs are frequently six inches long and three broad; the
color is yellow; the taste is pleasant. The plant grows naturally in sandy
places near hedges and produces abundantly.
Old World tropics. The stem yields a hemp-like fiber sometimes called
Indian hemp, Deckaner hemp, or bastard jute. It is as much cultivated,
says Drury, for the sake of its leaves as its fibers. The leaves serve as a
sorrel spinach.
H. digitatus Cav.
In the southern United States, okra has long been a favorite vegetable,
the green pods being used when quite young, sliced in soups and
similar dishes, to which they impart a thick, viscous or gummy
consistency. The ripe seeds, washed and ground, are also said to
furnish a palatable substitute for coffee. Okra is mentioned by Kalm,
1748, as growing in gardens in Philadelphia; is mentioned by Jefferson
as cultivated in Virginia before 1781; and is included among garden
vegetables by McMahon, 1806, and all succeeding writers on American
gardening. The green seed pods are used in soups, or stewed and
served like asparagus, or when cold made into a salad. The green pods
may be preserved for winter use by cutting them in halves, stringing
and drying them. The young leaves and pods are also occasionally
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dried, pulverized and stored in bottles for future use. The stalks of the
plant are used for the manufacture of paper. This plant offers a highly
esteemed vegetable in southern States and is quite frequently, but
neither generally nor extensively, cultivated in northern gardens for use
of the pods in soups and stews.
The Spanish Moors appear to have been well acquainted with this
plant, which was known to them by the name of bamiyah. Abul-Abbas
el-Nebati, a native of Seville, learned in plants, who visited Egypt in
1216, describes in unmistakable terms the form of the plant, its seeds
and fruit, which last, he remarks, is eaten when young and tender with
meal by the Egyptians. The references to this plant in the early botanies
are not numerous and the synonymies offered are often incorrect. The
following, however, are justified:
Of these, the last only, that of Commelyn, represents the type of pod of
the varieties usually to be found in our gardens, but plants are
occasionally to be found bearing pods which resemble those figured in
the above list. There is little recorded, however, concerning variety, as in
the regions where its culture is particularly affected there is a paucity of
writers. Miller's Dictionary, 1807, mentions that there are different
forms of pods in different varieties; in some, not thicker than a man's
finger, and five or six inches long; in others, very thick, and not more
than two or three inches long; in some, erect; in others, rather inclined.
Lunan, in Jamaica, 1814, speaks of the pods being of different size and
form in the varieties. In 1831, Don describes a species, the H. bammia
Link., with very long pods. In 1863, Burr describes four varieties in
American gardens; two dwarfs, one pendant-podded and one tall and
white-podded. In 1885, at the New York Agricultural Experiment
Station, varieties were grown under 11 different names and from these
there were three distinct sorts only. Vilmorin, 1885, names but two
sorts, the long-fruited and the round-fruited.
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H. ficulneus Linn.
H. furcatus Willd.
H. hirtus Linn.
East Indies and Malay. This species furnishes a vegetable of Bengal and
the East Indies.
H. maculatus Lam.
H. micranthus Linn. f.
Old World tropics. Two varieties, the red and white, are cultivated in
most gardens of Jamaica for the flowers which are made, with the help
of sugar, into very agreeable tarts and jellies, or fermented into a cooling
beverage. Roselle is now cultivated in most gardens of India. The most
delicious puddings and tarts, as well as a remarkably fine jelly, are
made of the thick, succulent sepals which envelope the fruit. There are
two kinds, the red and the white. In Malabar, jellies and tarts are made
of the calyces and capsules freed from the seeds as also in Burma. In
Unyoro and Ugani, interior Africa, it is cultivated for its bark, seeds and
leaves. The bark makes beautiful but short cordage; the leaves make a
spinach and the seeds are eaten roasted. Roselle is now rather
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commonly grown in Florida.
Old World tropics. In China, the leaves are sometimes made into tea or
eaten when young.
H. tiliaceus Linn.
Santo Domingo and West Indies. The seeds are oily and sweet.
H. grahamii Wight.
Europe and temperate Asia. The fruit is acid and, though not very
agreeable in flavor, is eaten by children in England. The Siberians and
Tartars make a jelly from the berries and eat them with milk and
cheese, while the inhabitants of the Gulf of Bothnia prepare from them
an agreeable jelly which they use as a condiment with their fish. In
some districts of France, a sauce is made of the berries, to be eaten with
fish and meat. In Kunawar, the fruit is made into a condiment.
Himalayan regions. This is the kole-pot of the Lepchas; the fruit is eaten
in Sikkim but is mealy and insipid. This plant is called gophia and the
fruit is eaten.
Seashore and interior salines of the New World. The seeds are especially
in request among the Shoshones of southern Oregon. The maned, or
squirrel-tail, barley has been known in British gardens since 1782 as
an ornamental grass. Its awned spikes are dangerous to cattle.
This species furnished the varieties known as bere, or big barley, and
appears to be one of the varieties formerly cultivated in Greece. Its
native land seems unknown, although Olivier states it grew wild in the
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region between the Euphrates and the Tigris. Willdenow is inclined to
place its native country in the region of the Volga. It is enumerated by
Thunherg among the edible plants of Japan. It is cultivated in Scotland
as a spring crop and in Ireland as a winter crop. Nepal barley is
cultivated at great elevations on the Himalaya Mountains and in Thibet.
The seed has frequently been sent to Europe as a very hardy kind, of
quick maturity, but it is chiefly cultivated in botanical gardens. It is a
naked-seeded species with much the appearance of wheat. It was
introduced into Britain in 1817.
This alga abounds in the Arctic regions and affords wholesome food,
which is far preferable to the tripe de roche, as it has none of its
bitterness or purgative quality.
Himalayan region, China and Japan. The leaves of this plant are said to
be used as a potherb in Nepal. In France, it is an inmate of flower
gardens as an aquatic.
Himalayan regions, China and Japan. The tree is cultivated in India for
its fruit, which has a pleasant flavor like that of a Bergamot pear. The
round fruits, about the size of a pea, are seated at the end of the
recurved, fleshy peduncle, which is cylindrical, about an inch long, and
is the part eaten.
Northern Europe and not rare in the United States, especially westward
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on banks of streams. The scaly cones, or catkins, have been used from
the remotest period in the brewing of beer. The hop was well known to
the Romans and is mentioned by Pliny under the name lupus sal-
tetanus. Hop gardens are named as existing in France and Germany in
the eighth and ninth centuries, and Bohemian and Bavarian hops have
been known as esteemed kinds since the eleventh century. The hop was
mentioned by Joan di Cuba in his Ortus Samtatis as growing in
Holland prior to 1485. Hop roots were mentioned in the Memorandum
of Mar. 16, 1629, of seeds to be sent to the Massachusetts Company.
The plant was also cultivated in New Netherlands as early as 1646, and
in Virginia in 1648 it is said, "their Hopps are faire and large, thrive
well." Gerarde says, "The buds or first sprouts which come forth in the
Spring are used to be eaten in sallads; yet are they, as Pliny saith, more
toothsome than nourishing, for they yield but very small nourishment."
Dodoenaeus alludes to this plant as a kitchen herb. He says, "before its
tender shoots produce leaves, they are eaten in salads, and are a good
and wholesome meat." Hop shoots are now to be found in Covent
Garden market and are not infrequently to be seen in other European
markets.
Japan. The natives use the dried leaves as a substitute for tea. This tea
is called ama-tsja, tea-of-heaven.
Eastern North America. Barton says, in Kentucky, the young shoots are
eaten in the spring as a salad and are highly prized by all who eat them.
H. canadense Linn.
North America. Barton says the roots of this species were eaten by the
Indians in times of scarcity.
West Indies. The fruit is the size of a plum and is edible after roasting.
African tropics. The fruits which are produced in long clusters, each
containing between one and two hundred, are beautifully polished, of a
rich, yellowish-brown color and are of irregular form. In Upper Egypt,
they form part of the food of the poorer classes of inhabitants, the part
eaten being the fibrous, mealy husk, which tastes almost exactly like
gingerbread, but its dry, husky nature renders it unpalatable.
Chile. The root of this perennial herb is used for culinary purposes like
that of scorzonera.
H. brasiliensis Griseb.
Southern Brazil. This smooth, perennial herb has the aspect of a sow-
thistle. It is sometimes used like endive as a salad.
H. maculatea Linn.
Europe and north Africa. This weed of Britain, says Johnson, has been
cultivated in gardens but has fallen into disuse. The wild plant may be
boiled as a potherb.
H. scorzonerae F. Muell.
Japan. This large-growing tree is cultivated for its fruits, which are
many-seeded berries, the seeds lying in pulp.
Eastern North America. Romans says the leaves of the cassina were
roasted and made into a decoction by the Creek Indians. The Indians
attributed many virtues to the tea and permitted only men to drink it.
Along the coast region of Virginia and Carolina, the leaves of yaupon
are used as a tea and are an object of sale.
I. fertilis Reiss.
Brazil. This species yields the mild mate, considered equal to the best
Paraguay tea.
Eastern North America. Porcher says the leaves form a tea substitute.
I. fagifolia Willd.
Tropical America. The seeds are covered with a fleshy, edible pulp.
I. feuillei DC.
I. insignis Kunth.
I. marginata Willd.
Tropical America. The legume contains a sweet and sapid edible pulp.
I. spectabilis Willd.
Tropical America. This plant bears a pod with black seeds in sweet,
juicy cotton. It was called guavas by Cieza de Leon in his travels, 1532-
50. It is the guavo real of Panama and is commonly cultivated for the
white pulp about the seeds.
Tropical America. The pulp about the seeds is sweet and is eaten by
negroes.
Islands of the Pacific. The nuts of the ivi, or Tahitian chestnut, says
Seemann, are eaten in the Fiji Islands, roasted or in a green state, and
are soft and pleasant to the taste. They are much prized by the natives
of the Indian Archipelago and in Machian the inhabitants almost live on
them. Labillardiere says the fruit is eaten boiled by the natives of the
Friendly Islands and the flavor is very much like that of chestnuts.
Wilkes says it is the principal food of the mountaineers of Fiji. Voigt
says the nuts are edible but are by no means pleasant. The tree is
called in Tahiti, rata.
Old World tropics. In the Philippines, the root is cooked and eaten by
the natives. This species is often planted by the Chinese around the
edges of tanks and pools for the sake of its succulent leaves. It is largely
cultivated in central China as a vegetable; it is eaten in the spring and
somewhat resembles spinach in flavor.
Rumphius says that the Spaniards carried this root to Manilla and the
Moluccas, whence the Portuguese distributed it through the Indian
Archipelago. It is figured by Rheede and Rumphius as cultivated in
Hindustan and Amboina. In Batavia, it was cultivated in 1665.
Firminger speaks of it as one of the native vegetables in common
cultivation in all parts of India, the plant producing pink flowers with a
purple eye. In China, Mr. Fortune informed Darwin, the plant never
yields seeds. In the Hawaiian Islands, Wilkes says there are 33 varieties,
19 of which are of a red color and 14 white. In New Zealand, Tahiti and
Fiji, it is called by the same name. In New Zealand, there is a tradition
among the natives that it was first brought to the island in canoes
composed of pieces of wood sewed together.
I. batatilla G. Don.
Borders of the tropics. Ellis says, in Tahiti, the stalks of the pohue are
eaten in times of famine.
I. digitata Linn.
I. grandiflora Lam.
Tropical America. Ainslie says, in India, the seeds are eaten when
young.
I. hederacea Jacq.
Western North America. The wild potato vine is a showy plant of the
deserts of North America and is commonly called man-root or man-of-
the-earth, being similar in size and shape to a man's body. The
Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Kioways roast it for food when pressed by
hunger but it is by no means palatable or nutritious. Its enormous size
and depth in the ground make its extraction by the ordinary Indian
implements a work of much difficulty.
I. macrorrhiza Michx.
Georgia and Florida. Henfrey says this species has edible, farinaceous
roots. Dr. Baldwin has been informed that the negroes in the South
sometimes eat the roots.
I. mammosa Choisy.
Tropics. The edible tubers are much like the sweet potato in size, taste
and form.
I. turpethum R. Br.
Asia, tropical Australia, Society and Friendly Islands and the New
Hebrides. The soft, sweet stem is sucked by the boys of Tahiti.
"It is an unaccountable fact that this plant should have been long
confounded with Rhodymenia palmata — the true Irish eatable Dulse. I
have never seen I. edulis eaten, but Stackhouse tells us that in Cornwall
it is sometimes eaten by fishermen, who crisp it over the fire."
Himalayas and northern Asia. This iris is cultivated in Japan for the
rootstocks, which furnish starch.
I. japonica Thunb.
Japan. This species is grown in Japan and is used for the same
purpose as I. ensata.
Eastern Asia and Europe. The angular seeds, when ripe, are said to
form a good substitute for coffee but must be well roasted before eating.
I. setosa Pall.
Siberia. This species is grown in Japan and is used for the same
purpose as I. ensata.
Europe and northern Asia. This species is grown in Japan and is used
for the same purpose as I. ensata.
A tree of tropical Africa, called dika. Burton says the fruit forms the one
sauce of the Fans and is called ndika. The kernels are extracted from
the stones and roasted like coffee, pounded and poured into a mould.
This cheese is scraped and added to boiling meat and vegetables. It
forms a pleasant relish for the tasteless plantain. The French export it
to adulterate chocolate. The fruit is much used, says Masters, at Sierra
Leone.
China. This is the sieu-hing-hwa of China. The flowers are used for
scenting tea.
Tropical Asia; called mo-le-hwa in China. The flowers are used for
scenting tea.
West Indies. The nuts are edible and furnish an oil. They are very rich
in starch.
A tree valued for its timber, common in the western states of northeast
America. The kernel of the nut is sweet and less oily than the butternut
but greatly inferior to the Madeira nut. It is eaten and was a prized food
of the Indians.
This tree extends from Greece and Asia Minor over Lebanon and Persia
to the Himalayas. It is abundant in Kashmir, Nepal and neighboring
countries and is cultivated in Europe and elsewhere. It is referred to by
Theophrastus under the name of karuon. According to Pliny, it was
introduced into Italy from Persia, but it is mentioned as existing in Italy
by Varro, who was born B. C. 116. In many parts of Spain, France, Italy
and Germany, the nut forms an important article of food to the people,
and in some parts of France considerable quantities of oil are expressed
from the kernels to be used in cooking and as a drying oil in the arts. In
Circassia, sugar is said to be made from the sap. There are many
varieties; those of the province of Khosistan in Persia are much
esteemed and are sent in great quantities to India. In Georgia, they are
of a fine quality. In North China, an almost huskless variety occurs. In
France, there is a variety called Titmouse walnut because the shell is so
thin that birds, especially the titmouse, can break it and eat the kernel.
In the United States, it is called English walnut and two varieties
succeed well in Virginia. In western New York, it is occasionally seen in
lawns.
J. rupestris Engelm.
Western North America. The small nuts are sweet and edible.
Japan. The small nuts are of good flavor, borne in large clusters, a
dozen or more in one bunch.
Bermuda Islands. In 1609, Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Sommers
were wrecked on the Bermudas and in their account say "we have a
kinde of Berne upon the Cedar tree, verie pleasant to eat." In Newes
from Barmudas, 1612, it is said, " here are an infinite number of Cedar
trees (fairest I think in the world) and those bring forth a verie sweete
berrie and wholesome to eat."
North temperate and arctic regions. The berries are used by distillers to
flavor gin. The ripe berries were formerly used in England as a
substitute for pepper. In many parts of Germany, the berries are used
as a culinary spice. In Sweden, they are made into a conserve, also
prepared in a beverage and in some places are roasted and used as a
coffee substitute. In France, a kind of beer called genevrette is made by
fermenting a decoction of equal parts of juniperberries and barley. In
Germany, juniper is used for flavoring sauerkraut. In Kamaon, India,
the berries are added to spirits distilled from barley. In western North
America, the berries are an Indian food.
Greece, Asia Minor and Syria. The sweet, edible fruit is highly esteemed
throughout the Orient, according to Mueller.
Western North America. The plant bears a large and tuberculated berry,
sweet and nutritious, which has, however, a resinous taste. The berries
are largely consumed by the Indians of Arizona and New Mexico.
Mexico. The berries are purplish, globose, half an inch in diameter and
have a sweetish and palatable pulp.
Mexico. The berries are half an inch in diameter, and the Indians are
said to use them as food.
East Indies. The leaves are eaten as greens" and are called in Tamil
appakovay. Royle says the fruit is eaten.
A tree of tropical Africa. The fruit is often two or more feet long and is
filled with pulp containing numerous, roundish seeds. Grant says the
roasted seeds are eaten in famines.
China. The berries, when roasted, are eaten by the Chinese, in spite of
their apparent acidity. The leaves are used for food.
Henfrey says some species are used for food on the Rio Negro and other
parts of South America.
Europe. The stem, which is milky, is peeled and eaten raw by the
Laplanders; the taste is extremely bitter.
Europe and the Orient. Lettuce, the best of all salad plants, as a
cultivated plant has great antiquity. It is evident, by an ancedote related
by Herodotus, that lettuce appeared at the royal tables of the Persian
kings about 550 B. C. Its medicinal properties as a food-plant were
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noted by Hippocrates, 430 B. C.; it was praised by Aristotle, 356 B. C.;
the species was described by Theophrastus, 322 B. C., and
Dioscorides,560 A. D.; and was mentioned by Galen, 164 A. D., who
gives the idea of very general use. Among the Romans, lettuce was very
popular. Columella, A. D. 42, describes the Caecilian, Cappadocian,
Cyprian and Tartesan. Pliny,8 A. D. 79, enumerates the Alba, Caecilian,
Cappadocian, Crispa, Graeca, Laconicon, Nigra, Purpurea and Rubens.
Palladius, 210 A. D., implies varieties and mentions the process of
blanching. Martial, A. D. 101, gives to the lettuces of Cappadocia the
term viles, or cheap, implying abundance. In China, its presence can be
identified in the fifth century. In England, Chaucer, about 1340, uses
the word in his prologue, "well loved he garlic, onions and lettuce," and
lettuce is likewise mentioned by Turner, 1538, who spells the word
lettuse. It is mentioned by Peter Martyr, 1494, as cultivated on Isabela
Island. In 1565, Benzoni speaks of lettuce as abounding in Hayti. In
1647, Nieuhoff saw it cultivated in Brazil. In 1806, McMahon
enumerates for American gardens sorts. In 1828, Thorburn's seed
catalog offered 13 kinds, and in 1881, 23 kinds.
In the report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for 1885,
87 varieties are described with 585 names of synonyms. Vilmorin
describes, 1883, one hundred and thirteen kinds as distinct. The
numbers of varieties named by various writers at various times are as
follows: For France, in 1612, six; in 1690, twenty-one; in 1828, forty; in
1883, one hundred and thirteen. For Holland, in 1720, forty-seven. For
England, in 1597, six; in 1629, nine; in 1726, nine; in 1763, fifteen; in
1765, eighteen; in 1807, fourteen. For America, in 1806, sixteen; in
1885, eighty-seven.
The cabbage and cos lettuces are the sorts now principally grown but
various other kinds, such as the curled, are frequently, and the sharp-
leaved and oak-leaved are occasionally grown as novelities. In these
lettuces there can be offered only the synonymy of a few of the varieties
now known — those which indicate the antiquity of our cultivated
types.
Pena and Lobel, 1570, say that this form is but rarely grown in France
and Germany, although common in the gardens of Italy; and Heuze
says it was brought from Rome to France by Rabelais in 1537.
A.— This is the sort commonly grown, and the figures given in the
sixteenth century indicate that the heading habit was even then firmly
established. We have the following synonyms to offer, premising that
types are referred to:
The last identification is from tlie appearance of the young plant. The
old plant is remarkably different, forming a true rosette.
The minor variations which are now separated into varieties did not
receive the same recognition in former times, the same variety name
covering what now would be several varieties; thus, Quintyne, 1693,
calls perpignans both a green and a pale form. Green, light green, dark
green, red and spotted lettuces are named in the old botanies, hence we
cannot assert any new types have appeared in modern culture.
Tropics. This plant has been found growing wild with bitter fruit in
India, in the moist forests around Deyra Doon. It is also found wild in
Malabar, where it is cultivated in gardens for the gourd which is eaten.
This gourd is one of the commonest of the native vegetables of India,
says Firminger, the fruit being of moderate size and having the
appearance of two oval gourds united endwise, or, of an inflated
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bladder compressed by a cord around it. Cut up in slices, it affords a
palatable but rather insipid dish. About Constantinople, it is called
dolma and is cultivated, the gourd when young, being cut and boiled
with other foods. In Europe, the variety called trompette is eaten. In
China, its soft, downy herbage is sometimes eaten, and the fruit is also
eaten but is apt to purge.
East Indies. In India, a sweet gum exudes from wounds in the bark and
is eaten.
Asia Minor and Syria. The seeds are very rich in fat and are used for
food, as well as for lighting purposes, in the northwest districts of
Persia.
The tender stalks of the young fronds of this seaweed are eaten.
L. potatorum Labill.
L. saccharina Lam.
Europe and the Orient. The young leaves are boiled in the spring and
eaten as greens by the common people of Sweden.
Tropical Africa. This species furnishes the abo of tropical Africa, eaten
by the natives. Montiero describes a species of this genus, probably
this, as occurring in Angola, and called rubber tree. The fruit, the size of
a large orange, is yellow when ripe; the shell is hard and bitter and the
inside full of a soft, reddish pulp in which the seeds are contained. This
pulp is of an agreeable acid flavor and is much liked by the natives. On
the Niger, according to Barter,9 its fruit, which is very sour, is eaten by
the natives under the name of dboli.
L. owariensis Beauv.
Tropical Africa. This a climbing plant, the fruit of which is the size of an
orange and has a reddish-brown, woody shell and an agreeable,
sweetish-acid pulp. It is eaten by the natives and is called abo.
Schweinfurth says the fruit exceeds in sourness that of the citron and
the natives of Djur-land manufacture a beverage from it as refreshing as
lemonade.
A tree of eastern Asia, cultivated in China. Its fruit is sold in the Canton
markets. The fruit is the size of a pigeon's egg, of a yellowish color
without and whitish within. It is highly esteemed and is eaten fresh or
variously prepared. It is known in the East Indies as lansa, langsat,
lanseh, ayer-ayer or bejetlan. In, Borneo, Wallace calls it one of the
most delicious of the subacid, tropical fruits.
Tropical America. Sloane says the fruit is more juicy than that of other
species and is not unpleasant to eat.
Chile and Peru. The fruit is eatable and is sold in the market. The pulp
is sweet and grateful to the taste. It is called in Peru aquilboguil or
guilbogin and in Chile coguillvochi.
Europe and northern Asia. The Jakuts of northern Siberia grate the
inner bark and use it in a broth of fish, meal, and milk. A kind of
sugary matter exudes from the the larch in the summer and is collected
under the name of manna, or briancono. When the larch forests of
Russia take fire, a juice exudes from the scorched trunks which is
collected under the name of orenburgh gum.
Mexico. Travellers chew the twigs to alleviate extreme thirst. The plant is
a bright evergreen with foliage resembling that of Buxus.
Europe. The Romans, says Glasspole, used the root of lasewort, with
cumin, in seasoning preserved artichoke.
Bourbon Island. The fruit is eaten by the negroes, says Seemann, but
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that argues little for their taste, as it has a rather disagreeable flavor.
Europe and the Orient. The seeds, according to Lindley, are served
sometimes at table while young and tender but if eaten abundantly in
the ripe state are narcotic, producing severe headache.
Europe and the Orient. This species is an annual with red flowers,
occasionally grown in the south of Europe for its peas, but these are of
inferior quality and are said sometimes to be very unwholesome.
Vetches were carried to the West Indies by Columbus, says Pickering,
but their cultivation at the present day seems unknown in America.
Magellan region. The Cape Horn pea was eaten by the sailors of Lord
Anson in default of better vegetables but is inferior to the worst sort of
cultivated pea.
North America and Europe. The seeds are very bitter. In 1555, the
people of a portion of Suffolk County, England, suffering from famine,
supported themselves to a great extent by the seeds of this plant.
Europe and northern Asia. Bitter vetch is a native of Europe and the
adjoining portion of Asia and has been cultivated on a small scale in
kitchen gardens in Britain. The Highlanders of Scotland have great
esteem for the tubercles of the roots; they dry and chew them to give a
better relish to their whiskey. In some parts of Scotland a spirit is
extracted from them. The tubers are sweet in taste and very nutritious
and are sometimes boiled and eaten. In Holland and Flanders, the peas
are roasted and served as chestnuts. According to Sprengel, the peas
are eaten in Sweden and form an article of commerce. In England, the
plant is called heath pea.
Europe, north Africa and the Orient. This vetch is an annual forage
herb, the pods of which are available for culinary purposes. It is
superior, according to Langethal, to vetches in quality of fodder and
seed but is less productive. The flour from the peas makes a pleasant
bread but is unwholesome; its use in the seventeenth century was
forbidden in Wurtemburg by law. The peasants, however, eat it boiled
or mixed with wheat flour in the quantity of one-fourth without any
harm. In many parts of France the seed is used in soups.
Northern Old World and Uralian plains. In Holland, Don says, the plant
is cultivated for its roots, which are eaten there. Johnson says in
Holland and Germany the roots are roasted as food. Pallas says they
are eaten by the Kalmucks. These tubers are small but amylaceous
and are sometimes called Dutch mice.
The plant is now included among vegetables for the garden by Vilmorin,
although he says it is scarcely ever cultivated, but that the tubers are
often collected from the wild plant in France. Burr likewise includes this
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species among American garden plants but we know not upon what
authority. In 1783, Bryant says this French weed was cultivated in
Holland for its roots, which were carried to market. In Siberia, the
tubers are said to be much relished by the Tartars. They are used in
Germany. It can scarcely be considered a plant of culture.
This forms the greater part of what is now sold in the shops of Britain as
Corsican moss.
This lichen is found in Armenia and Algeria, blown about and heaped
up by the winds. It is ground with corn in times of scarcity to eke out
the scanty supply.
This lichen was found by Ledebour in the Kirghiz Steppe and in middle
Asia, frequently on a barren soil or in clefts of rocks, whence it is often
washed down after sudden and violent falls of rain, so as to be collected
in considerable quantity and easily gathered for food. The same species
was found by Paviot, who procured it in his journey to Ararat, where it
is eaten by the natives. In some districts of Persia, in 1828, it covered
the ground to a depth of five or six inches in so short a period of time
that the people thought it had been rained down from heaven. This
lichen is supposed by some to have been the manna of the children of
Israel.
L. minor Jacq.
New Granada. The fruit is two inches in diameter. The seeds are of an
agreeable taste.
Tropical America. The fruit is the size of a child's head and is prized for
its chestnut-like fruit.
Guiana. The nuts of this species are rather more than two inches long
and one wide, covered with a longitudinally-furrowed, corky shell and
grow in large, hard, woody fruits, shaped like urns, measuring about
six inches in diameter and having close-fitting lids at the top.
Northern climates. The leaves are said to have been used as a substitute
for tea during the Revolutionary War. Lindley says the leaves are used
to render beer heady.
Orient. This was probably one of the first plants brought under
cultivation by mankind for food. Lentils were known to the ancient
Greeks, Jews and Egyptians. The cultivation of the lentil is very ancient,
as it has been found in the Egyptian tombs of the twelfth dynasty, or
2200 to 2400 B. C. It has been found in the lacustrine debris of
Switzerland dating from the age of bronze. Lentils are now cultivated
extensively throughout most parts of the East, including Egypt, Nubia,
Syria and India; likewise in most of the countries of central and
southern Europe. Wilkinson states that in ancient Egypt much
attention was bestowed on the culture of this useful pulse, and certain
varieties became remarkable for their excellence, the lentils of Pelusium
being esteemed both in Egypt and in foreign countries. In Egypt and
Syria, the seeds are parched and sold in the shops. In France and
Spain, there are three varieties cultivated; the small brown or red sort is
preferred for haricots and soups, and the yellow lentil is readily
convertible into flour and serves as the base of certain adulterated
preparations. In England, lentils are but little cultivated, yet two
varieties are named: the French, of an ash-gray color; the Egyptian,
with a dark skin and of an orange-red color inside. In 1834, seeds of
the lentil were distributed from the United States Patent Office.
A tree of Peru, the fruit of which is called achocon. The fruits are the
size of a peach, with a rough, netted skin and sweet pulp, which is
eaten by the Peruvians and is much relished.
Brazil. The Indians of the Rio Negro collect the fruit in large quantities
and, by burning and washing, extract a floury substance which they
use as a substitute for salt.
A cress of Europe, north Africa, middle and north Asia. In Britain, this
cress was much used as a pungent condiment before the various
substances now employed for such purposes became cheap and hence
the common name, poor man's pepper. It was sometimes called
dittander, and under that name was cultivated in cottage gardens but
is now almost entirely discarded as a culinary vegetable. Loudon says it
has roots resembling horseradish, for which it may be used as a
substitute, and the leaves are excellent as greens and for salads.
Lightfoot mentions the use of the pungent leaves for salads, and Mueller
says it is much used for some select sauces.
I. COMMON CRESS.
Nasturtium hortense. Fuch. 362. 1542; Trag. 82. 1552; Pin. 221.
1561; Ger. 194. 1597; Dod. 711. 1616.
Gartenkress. Roezl. 188. 1550.
Nasturtium. Matth. 280. 1558; Lob. Obs. 107. 1576; Cam. Epit. 355.
1586; Matth. Op. 425. 1598; Chabr. 289. 1677.
Nasturtio. Pictorius Ed. Macer 75. 1581.
Nasturtium hortense commune. Bauh. Phytopin. 161. 1596.
Nasturtium hortense vulgatum. Baugh. Pin. 102. 1623.
Nasturtium vulgare. Baugh. J. 2:912. 1651.
Common Garden Cress. Ray 825. 1686; Vilm. 207. 1885.
Garden Cress. Townsend 1726.
Lepidium saticum. Linn. Sp. 899. 1763.
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Common Cress. Stevenson 1785; Bryant 103. 1783; Miller's Diet.
1807.
Common Small-Leaved. Mawe 1778.
Cresson alenois commun. Vilm. 194. 1883.
Tropical Africa. The natives of the Upper Nile make spinach of its
flowers and tender shoots.
Australia. The leaves were used by Captain Cook in his second voyage
as a tea and are reported as furnishing a beverage of a very agreeable,
bitter flavor, when the leaves were fresh.
Australia. The berries are said to have supported the French naturalist
Riche, who was lost for three days on the south coast of New Holland.
Guiana. The fruit is the size of a large olive and is dotted with red; the
pulp is white; melting, and of a sweetish taste; the shell, or nut, is bony.
Japan. In Japan, the bulbs are a common article of diet with the natives
and are sold everywhere as a vegetable in the market. When cooked,
they are sweet, mucilaginous and without any decided taste to make
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them objectionable to a newcomer.
North America. The roots are eaten by the Indians of the Northwest.
Japan. Miss Bird found the bulbs of the "white lily," perhaps this
species, cultivated and eaten as a vegetable.
L. lancifolium Thunb.
Eastern Asia. This lily is called by the Tartars askchep, and the roots
are collected for food. These bulbs constitute an important article of
food in Kamchatka and are eaten in China.
North America. Thoreau says the bulb is eaten by the Indians of Maine
in soups and is dug in the autumn for this purpose.
China and Japan. Royle says the bulbs are eaten in China. D. P.
Penhallow says that this species is cultivated in Yeso for the bulbs,
which are sold in the markets and are very good eating. Miss Birdl also
speaks of its cultivation as a vegetable in northern Japan.
Forests of Cochin China. The drupes are small, smooth, acid and
esculent.
Europe and northern Asia. This water plant, with its yellow flowers and
round leaves, was formerly eaten in China in spite of its bitterness.
North America. Barton says the berries partake of the same spicy flavor
as the bark and that, during the War of the Revolution, the people of the
United States used them dried and powdered as a substitute for
allspice. Porcher says the leaves were much used by the Confederate
soldiers for making a pleasant, aromatic tea. L. S. Mote says the young
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twigs and leaves were often used by the early pioneers of Ohio as a
substitute for tea and spice.
Europe and the Orient. Flax has been in cultivation since the earliest
times. It was known to the early Egyptians, as it is mentioned
frequently in the Bible as a material for weaving cloth. The cloth used in
wrapping mummies has been proved to be made of the fibers of this
plant. Flax was also cultivated by the early Romans. Among the Greeks,
Alcman, in the seventh century before Christ, the historian Thucydides,
and among the Romans, Pliny, mention the seed as employed for
human food, and the roasted seed is still eaten by the Abyssinians. In
the environs of Bombay, the unripe capsules are used as a food by the
natives. In Russia, Belgium, Holland, Prussia and the north of Ireland,
flax is extensively grown for its fiber which constitutes the linen of
commerce. The seeds, known as linseed, are largely used for expressing
an oil, and the press-residue is used for feeding cattle. This plant is
largely grown for seed in the United States. We find mention of the
culture of flax in Russia about 969 A. D. Flax is said to have been
introduced into Ireland by the Romans, or even more remotely, by the
Phoenicians, but the earliest definite mention of linen in Ireland seems
to be about 500 A. D. In England, the statement is made that it was
introduced in 1175 A. D., and Anderson, in his History of Commerce,
traces some fine linen made in England in 1253. In New England, the
growing of flax commenced with its first settlement, and as early as
1640 it received legislative attention.
Australia. The berries are red and acid and are made into tarts in New
South Wales. A. Smith says the flesh is thin and more like that of the
Siberian crab than of the cranberry.
L. strigosa R. Br.
Seemann says the leaves of this fern are used as a potherb by the
natives of Viti.
Australia. The young and tender leaves of this palm are eaten like
cabbages.
L. involucrata Banks.
Western North America. The fruit is eaten by the Indians of Oregon and
Alaska.
L. gebelia Vent.
L. caimito Roem.
Peru. The tree is cultivated in Peru. This fruit is about three inches long
with a soft and agreeable pulp.
West Indies and South America. In the West Indies, this tree is
cultivated for its fruit. The fruit is four or five inches in diameter and is
covered with a rough, russet-colored bark; the pulp is dark yellowish,
soft, sweet, tasting not unlike a very ripe pear. It makes an excellent
marmalade but, eaten raw, has an aperient quality.
L. serpentaria H. B. & K.
L. turbinata Molina.
Chile. This species is cultivated in Chile. The fruit has the form of a
whipping-top. By keeping in straw, it ripens into a much-esteemed
fruit.
Old World tropics. This plant is cultivated in India for food purposes
and is said by Drury to be one of the best of the native vegetables and to
be much used in curries. Roxburgh says that, when the fruit is boiled
and dressed with butter, pepper and salt, it is little inferior to green
peas. This club-shaped gourd, about 10 or 12 inches long, is eaten
boiled or pickled, but the taste is insipid, says Don. This is the
papengaye of the negroes of Africa, says Oliver, and presents bitter and
poisonous, as well as edible varieties.
Old World tropics. This species is cultivated for its fruit throughout
tropical Africa. It is the sooly-qua of the Chinese, a club-shaped,
wrinkled gourd, said to be eaten. It is cultivated for food purposes in
India, where it is called ghia. It is considered by the natives of Burma a
delicious vegetable. The interior, netted fibers, under the name loof, are
used in Turkish baths for fleshrubbers. The plant is grown as a
curiosity in American gardens.
Europe. "The seed of the bolbonac is a temperature hot and dry and
sharpe of taste and is like in taste and force to the seed of treacle
mustard, the roots likewise are somewhat of a biting quality but not
much: they are eaten with sallads as certain other roots are."
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Lupinus albus Linn. Leguminosae. FIELD LUPINE. WOLF-BEAN.
Mediterranean region. This plant has been cultivated since the days of
the ancient Egyptians. It was cultivated by the Romans as a legume but
does not seem to have entered the Rhine regions until the sixteenth
century. Theophrastus speaks of lupine in his History of Plants and it
is also mentioned by Cato, Columella and Pliny. It is now extensively
cultivated in Sicily, Italy and some other countries as a plant for green
manuring and for the seeds, which, when boiled to remove their
bitterness, are still an article of food in some regions. In 1854, seeds
were distributed from the United States Patent Office.
L. littoralis Dougl.
Eastern North America. linger says its bitter seeds are eaten from
Canada to Florida.
L. tennis Forsk.
Tropical America. Bancroft states the tomato was eaten by the wild
tribes of Mexico and by the Nahua nations who called it tomati.
Humboldt says it was called tomati and was sown among maize by the
ancient Mexicans. The tomato is mentioned by Acosta, 1590, as among
the products of Mexico. The names, mala Peruviana and pomi del Peru,
indicate its transference to Europe from Peru, but Phillips, we know not
from what authority, says the tomato appears to have been brought to
Europe from Mexico. In the Treasury of Botany, it is said to have been
introduced to Europe in the early part of the sixteenth century.
D. J. Brown says that, until about 1834, the tomato was almost wholly
unknown in this country as an esculent vegetable, and in the History of
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society it is said that in 1844 this
vegetable was then acquiring that popularity which makes it so
indispensable at present. Yet they are mentioned as grown in Virginia
by Jefferson in 1781. In 1798, according to a writer in the Prairie
Farmer, the tomato was brought to Philadelphia by a French refugee
from Santo Domingo but was not sold in the markets until 1829. In
1802, it was introduced at Salem, Massachusetts, by an Italian painter,
but he found it difficult to persuade people even to taste the fruit. In
1835, tomatoes were sold by the dozen at Quincy Market, Boston. In
1812, they were use in as a food at New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1806,
McMahon speaks of tomatoes as being in much estimation for culinary
purposes but mentions no varieties. In 1818, Gardiner and Hepburn
say that tomatoes make excellent pickles. In 1828, Fessenden quotes
the name from London only. In 1832, Bridgeman says tomatoes are
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much cultivated for soups and sauces.
The ribbed tomato, with flattened and more or less ribbed fruit, is the
kind first introduced into European culture and is described in the
Adversaries, of 1570, as well as by many succeeding authors, and the
earlier figures indicate that it has changed but little under culture and
was early known as now in red, golden, yellow, and white varieties. A
parti-colored fruit is mentioned by J. Bauhin, 1651, and the type of the
bronze-leaved is named by Blackwell, 1770. This ribbed type was
probably the kind mentioned by Jefferson as cultivated in Virginia in
1781, as it was the kind whose introduction into general culture is
noted from 1806 to about 1830, when their growing was becoming
general.
I.
SYNONYMY OF THE RIBBED TOMATO.
II.
THE ROUND TOMATO.
Of the round tomato, there are no indications of its being known to the
early botanists, the first apparent reference being by Tournefort in
1700, who places among his varieties the Lycopersicum rubro non
striato, the non striato, not fluted or ribbed, implying the round form;
and this same variety was catalogued by Tilly at Pisa in 1723. In 1842,
some seed of the Fiji Island variety was distributed in Philadelphia, and
Wilkes describes the fruit of one variety as round, smooth, yellow, the
size of a large peach, and the fruit of two other varieties as the size of a
small egg, but gives no other particulars. This is the first certain
reference to this group. The large, smooth or round, red and the small
yellow, oval tomato of Browne, 1854, may belong here. Here, also may
be classed such varieties as Hathaway's Excelsior, King Humbert and
the Plum, and some of the tomate pomme varieties of the French.
The round form occasionally appears in the plants from seed of hybrid
origin, for when the cross was made between the currant and the tree
tomato, some plants thus obtained yielded fruit of the plum type. This,
however, may have been atavism. The botanical relations seem nearer to
the cherry tomato than to the ordinary forms.
This type is probably the normal form of the tomato of the gardens to
which the other types given can be referred as varieties. It is quite
variable in some respects, bearing its fruit usually in clusters,
occasionally in racemes. It is now but little grown and only for use in
preserves and pickles.
IV.
THE PEAR TOMATO.
L. humboldtii Dun.
Brazil. This tomato is very like the preceding species, but the racemes of
the flowers are smaller, the calyx segments never being the length of the
corolla, and the berries are one-half smaller, red, and, when cultivated,
not less angular than those of L. esculentum. This tomato was noticed
by Humboldt as under cultivation at La Victoria, Neuva Valencia, and
everywhere in the valleys of Arayus, in South America. It is described
by Kunth, 1823, and by Willdenow, about 1806, from plants in the
Berlin garden from seeds received from Humboldt. The fruit, although
small, has a fine flavor. The Turban, Turk's Cap, or Turk's Turban, of
our seedsmen, a novelty of 1881, belongs here, although this cultivated
variety is probably a monstrous form.
South America. The currant tomato bears its red fruit, somewhat larger
than a common currant, or as large as a very large currant, in two-
ranked racemes, which are frequently quite large and abundantly filled.
It grows wild in Peru and Brazil and is figured by Feuillee, 1725, but
not as a cultivated plant. It is described by Linnaeus, 1763. The grape,
or cluster, tomato is recorded in American gardens by Burr, 1863, and
as the red currant tomato by Vilmorin, 1883 and 1885. It is an
exceedingly vigorous and hardy variety with delicate foliage and fruits
most abundantly. The berries make excellent pickles.
Asia and African tropics. The fruit is edible, the taste sweetish and not
unpalatable but it is scarcely worth the trouble of eating, the seed being
so large in proportion to the pulp.
West Indies. The fruit, at first yellow, then red, is edible, with an
ungrateful smell and an insipid taste. It is an inch in diameter.
East Indies and Malay. The very small, globose, white berry is eaten in
Nepal. At Bombay it is called atki.
China. The Chinese pickle the flower-buds, after having removed the
calyx, and use them for flavoring rice.
Guiana. The fruit is succulent, edible and of a beautiful red color. This
plant furnishes gooseberry-like fruits of little value.
M. heterophylla DC.
M. poeppigii Mart.
M. aquifolia Linn.
West Indies. The fruit is dark purple when ripe and is edible.
M. berteriana Spreng.
M. coccigera Linn.
West Indies. The fruit is small, purple in color when ripe and is edible.
M. fucata Ker.-Gawl.
M. grandiflora Jacq.
M. incana Mill.
M. macrophylla Willd.
M. nitida Crantz.
M. punicifolia Linn.
Tropical America. The fruit is one of the size and shape of a cherry, very
succulent, and of a pleasant, acid flavor, says Don. Lunan says it
makes very agreeable tarts and excellent jellies.
M. setosa Spreng.
West Indies. The fruit, says Don, is insipid and is eaten only by children
and negroes.
American tropics. This fine tree of the Antilles is cultivated for its fruit
there, as well as in some parts of tropical Africa and Asia. The fruit often
attains the size of a child's head and is of a yellow color. The outer rind
and the pulp which immediately surrounds the seeds are very bitter,
but the intermediate flesh is sweet and aromatic and is eaten, cut into
slices and steeped in wine or made into preserves of various kinds.
Mexico. This plant is sometimes called dry whiskey from the fact that
when chewed it produces more or less intoxication.
M. meiacantha Engelm.
M. simplex Haw.
Tropical America. linger says its berries are edible. This species yields a
milky juice that is sweet and wholesome.
M. vivipara Haw.
Upper Louisiana. The flowers are large and red; the fruit is the size of a
grape, green and edible.
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Mangifera foetida Lour. Anacardiaceae. HORSE MANGO.
M. sylvatica Roxb.
South America. This is the true arrowroot plant of the West Indies,
Florida, Mexico and Brazil. It furnishes Cape Colony and Natal
arrowroot and Queensland arrowroot in part. It is also cultivated in
India, where it was introduced about 1840. In 1849, arrowroot was
grown on an experimental scale in Mississippi, and in 1858 it was
grown as a staple crop at St. Marys, Georgia. The plant is stated to have
been carried from the island of Dominica to Barbados and thence to
Jamaica. The starch made from the root is mentioned by Hughes, 1751,
and the mode of preparing it is described by Browne, 1789. The
Bermuda arrowroot is now most esteemed but it is cultivated in the
East Indies, Sierra Leone and South Africa as well. Wilkes found the
natives of Fiji making use of arrowroot from the wild plant.
Mexico and New Granada. This plant resembles seaweed and grows in
the rivers of Veraguas. Its young leaf-stalks, when boiled, have a
delicate flavor not unlike that of French beans.
The fleshy caudex of this fern is used in the Sandwich Islands as food,
when better food is scarce.
M. attenuata Lab.
In the Fiji Islands, the fronds are used as a potherb; they are very
tender and taste not unlike spinach. In New Zealand, the soft part of the
stem is eaten.
Africa, Asia and Australia. The roots are boiled and eaten by the natives
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of India, who say they are as good as yams.
Australia and islands of the Pacific. This tree in New South Wales and
Queensland bears edible fruits.
Subtropical Brazil. The fruits attain the size of apricots and are much
used for food.
Brazil. The sweet berries of this tall shrub are of the size of cherries.
Europe, Asia and north Africa. This plant affords a popular domestic
remedy and seems in this country to be an inmate of the medicinal
herb-garden only. In Europe, the leaves are sometimes employed as a
condiment. Although a plant of the Old World, it is now naturalized in
the New World from Canada to Buenos Aires and Chile, excepting
within the tropics. It is figured by Clusius, 1601, and finds mention by
many of the botanists of that period. Pliny refers to Marrubium as
among medicinal plants in high esteem, and it finds mention by
Columella. Albertus Magnus, in the thirteenth century, also refers to its
valuable remedial properties in coughs. We may hence believe that, as
an herb of domestic medicine, horehound has accompanied emigrants
into all the cooler portions of the globe.
Australia. The spores and spore cases of this plant are used by the
aborigines for food, pounded up and baked into bread and also made
into a porridge. These preparations furnish a nutritious food, by no
means unwholesome, and one free from unpleasant taste but affording
sorry fare for civilized man.
M. lutea Lindl.
Brazil. This species, originally from Brazil, has yellow flowers.1 It does
not appear to be in American gardens nor is its seed advertised by our
seedsmen. It reached Europe in 1824.2 It is described by Vilmorin as
under kitchen-garden culture.
M. stellulata Blume
Sumatra and Java. Refreshing drinks are prepared from the berries.
A tree of New Granada. The oval fruit, about five inches long and three
inches broad, in taste has been compared to an apricot or to a mango.
It is sold in the markets of New Granada and Peru.
Brazil. This is the inaja palm of the Rio Negro and the cucurite palm of
Guiana. The terminal leaf-bud furnishes a most delicious cabbage, says
Seemann, and the fruit is eaten by the Indians. Brown says the nuts are
covered with a yellow, juicy pulp, which is sweet and pleasant to the
taste. The outer husk of the fruit, says A. Smith, yields a kind of saline
flour used by the natives for seasoning their food.
M. platycarpa Trautv.
Europe and the Orient. The leaves are eaten by the Chinese as a
vegetable.
Mediterranean region. This plant is not edible but, like the caterpillar-
plant, is grown on account of the singular shape of its seed-vessels. It
was in Belgian and German gardens preceding 1616 and in American
gardens in 1863 or before.
East Indies. A kind of toddy is obtained by tapping the tree, and from
the fruit a medicinal oil, known as bitter oil or taipoo oil, is made.
A tree of Syria, the north of India and subtropical Japan and China. It
is cultivated for ornament in different parts of the world. In southern
France and Spain, it is planted in avenues. In our southern states, it
adorns the streets of cities and has even become naturalized. The fruit
is a round drupe, about as large as a cherry and yellowish when ripe, is
sweetish, and, though said by some to be poisonous, is eaten by
children. In India, from incisions in the trunk near the base made in
spring, a sap issues which is used as a cooling drink. From the fruit, a
bitter oil is extracted, called kohombe oil, and is used medicinally. The
bitter leaves are used as a potherb in India, being made into soup, or
curry, with other vegetables.
Cape of Good Hope. The flowers are of a dark brown color, in long, erect
racemes a foot or more in length, containing a large quantity of honey,
which is collected by the natives. It is grown in French flower gardens.
Tropical America. The pulp of the fruit, says Mueller, tastes like grapes,
and the seeds can be used like sweet chestnuts. Lunan says the tree
was introduced into Jamaica from Surinam. The seed — rarely more
than one — is covered with a deliciously sweet-acid, gelatinous
substance like the yolk of an egg, mixed with very fine fibers adhering
tenaciously to the seed; the fleshy part is very agreeable to the taste.
Titford1 calls this pulp pleasant and cooling.
New Zealand. This is the mahoe of New Zealand, not the mahoe of the
West Indies, says A. Smith. The fruit of this tree is eaten by the natives.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The flowers and seeds are the chief
ingredient in flavoring the Gruyere cheese of Switzerland.
Mediterranean region and the Orient. This aromatic perennial has long
been an inmate of gardens for the sake of its herbage, which finds use
in seasonings and in the compounding of liquors and perfumes as well
as the domestic remedy known as balm tea. The plant in a green state
has an agreeable odor of lemons and an austere and slightly aromatic
taste, and hence is employed to flavor certain dishes in the absence of
lemon thyme. The culture was common with the ancients, as Pliny
directs it to be planted, and, as a bee-plant or otherwise, it finds
mention by Greek and Latin poets and prose writers. In the Ionian
Islands, it is cultivated for bees. In Britain, it is said to have been
introduced in 1573. It is mentioned in France by Ruellius, 1536; in
England, by Gerarde, 1597, who gives a most excellent figure; and also
by Lyte, 1586, and Ray, 1686. Mawe, 1758, says great quantities of
balm are cultivated about London for supplying the markets. In the
United States, it is included among garden vegetables by McMahon,
1806. As an escape, the plant is found in England and sparingly in the
eastern United States. Bertero found it wild on the island of Juan
Fernandez.
South America and the West Indies. According to Unger, this cactus
bears an edible fruit.
East Indies. The fruit is very large, fleshy like an apple and contains a
seed which is said to be very pleasant eating.
Himalayan region, Malay and China. This plant bears a fruit, says
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Firminger, as large as a moderate-sized apple, which is said to be
eatable and agreeable. Royle says it yields edible fruit. A. Smith says
the firm, sweet pulp is eaten by the natives. The berry is red, edible,
sweet and somewhat astringent.
North America and West Indies. The fruit, in Jamaica, is the size and
shape of a nutmeg, smooth, blackish when ripe, and full of small, white
seeds like other cucumbers, lodged within an insipid, cooling pulp. The
fruit is eaten pickled when green and is good when fully ripe, according
to Sloane.
M. scabra Naud.
Coromandel, tropical India and Burma. The juicy fruit is eaten by the
natives when ripe. They have much pulp of a bluish-black color and of
an astringent quality. The pulp of the fruit, though rather astringent, is
eaten by the natives.
Western North America. The oily seeds are pounded and used by the
Indians in California as an ingredient of their pinole mantica, a kind of
cake.
Northern Europe, Asia and America. The intense bitter of the leaves of
the buckbean has led to its use as a substitute for hops in brewing.
Large quantities are said to be collected for the adulteration of beer. It
has long been employed in Sweden for this purpose. In Lapland and
Finland, the rhizomes are sometimes powdered, washed to get rid of the
bitter principle and then made into a kind of bread. In the outer
Hebrides, when there is a deficiency of tobacco, the islanders console
themselves by chewing the root of the marsh trefoil which, has a bitter
and acrid taste.
South Africa. This is one of the Hottentot figs of South Africa. The inner
part of the fruit affords, says Mueller, a really palatable and copious
food.
South Africa. The Hottentots, says Thunberg, come far and near to
obtain this shrub with the root, leaves and all, which they beat together
and afterwards twist up like pig-tail tobacco; after which they let the
mass ferment and keep it by them for chewing, especially when they are
thirsty. If it be chewed immediately after the fermentation, it intoxicates.
Cape of Good Hope. The ice plant was introduced into Europe in 1727.
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It is advertised in American seed lists of 1881 as a desirable vegetable
for boiling like spinach, or for garnishing. Vilmorin says the thickness
and slightly acid flavor of the fleshy parts of the leaves have caused it to
be used as a fresh table vegetable for summer use in warm, dry
countries. It is, however, he adds, not without merit as an ornamental
plant. Parry found this species growing in large masses in southern
California.
M. forskahlei Hochst.
North Africa. The capsules are soaked and dried by the Bedouins, and
the seeds separated for making bread, which, however, is not eaten by
other Arabs.
M. pugioniforme Linn.
M. tortuosum Linn.
Java and East Indies. The fruit is reddish and wrinkled when ripe, with
a rind like that of the chestnut. It resembles a chestnut in size, shape,
substance and taste.8
East Indies. This species furnishes a large part of the sago which is
exported to Europe.
East Indies. This palm furnishes, says Seemann, the best sago of the
East Indies.
This is a true sago palm in Viti but its quality, Seemann says, was not
known to the natives until he pointed it out to them.
Malay. The fruit is said to be edible, and in India the tree is cultivated
for the exquisite perfume of the flowers.
M. obovata Benth.
West Indies and introduced in Britain in 1783. The species has two
varieties. It was recorded by Burr, 1863, as in American gardens but
as little used. It is said to be much used for seasoning in its native
country. It is now recorded as in cultivation in Europe.
M. sp.?
Peru. A drink called ullpu is obtained from the farina of the seeds.
A tree of Burma and Malay. The tender leaves are said to be eaten.
East Indies and south India. This plant is commonly cultivated near
villages. In Java, it is cultivated for its fruits which are eaten.
M. kauki Linn.
Burma, Malay and Australia. This tree is found in gardens in Java. The
fruit is edible. Dr. Hooker states that this tree is cultivated in China,
Manila and Malabar for its esculent, agreeably acid fruit. It is the
khirnee of India.
M. kummel Bruce.
M. manilkara G. Don.
Malabar and the Philippines. This species is cultivated for its fruit,
which is of the form and size of an olive and is succulent; the pulp is of
a sweetish-acid flavor and contains but one or two seeds.
North America and West Indies. The fruit is delicious and highly
flavored.
North America and Japan. The insipid, red fruits are eaten by children.
Borders of the tropics. The balsam apple has purgative qualities but is
eaten by the Chinese after careful washing in warm water and
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subsequent cooking.
M. charantia Linn.
M. dioica Roxb.
East Indies. This species is under cultivation in India for food purposes;
the root is edible. There are several varieties, says Drury. The young,
green fruits and tuberous roots of the female plant are eaten by the
natives, and, in Burma, according to Mason, the small, muricated fruit
is occasionally eaten. At Bombay, this plant is cultivated for the fruit,
which is the size of a pigeon's egg and knobbed, says Graham.
North and Arctic regions. The fruit is used as food by the Indians of
Alaska. The yield of berries is scant, however.
Nubia and Arabia. The seeds are exported to Syria and Palestine for
medicinal and alimentary use.
M. concanensis Nimmo.
Northwest India. The horseradish tree is cultivated for its fruit, which is
eaten as a vegetable and preserved as a pickle, and for its leaves and
flowers which are likewise eaten. Dutt says it is cultivated for its leaves,
flowers and seed-vessels, which are used by the natives in their curries.
The root, says Royle, is universally known to European residents in
India as a substitute for horseradish. Ainslie says the root is generally
used and the pods are an excellent vegetable. According to Firminger,
the root serves as a horseradish and the long, unripe seed-pods are
used boiled in curries. It is also cultivated by the Burmese for its pods,
but by Europeans it is chiefly valued for its roots. In the Philippines, the
leaves and fruit are cooked and eaten. In the West Indies, the oil
expressed from the seeds is used in salads.
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Moronobea grandiflora Choizy. Guttiferae.
A tall tree of Brazil. Arruda says the fruit is nearly of the size of an
orange but is oval and contains 23 stones covered with a white pulp of
a pleasant taste, being sweet and somewhat acid. It is called bacuri.
M. celtidifolia H. B. & K.
Tropical Asia. The aino mulberry is cultivated in Bengal for feeding silk
worms, and about Bombay its dark red fruit is sold in the bazaars for
making tarts.
East Indies. This species is found wild and cultivated in the Himalayas
and elsewhere in India. The fruit is long, cylindrical, yellowish-white,
sweet but insipid. The long, cylindrical, purple fruit is much eaten.
Temperate Asia. The black mulberry is a native of north Persia and the
Caucasus. It was brought at a very early period to Greece.
Theophrastus was acquainted with it and called it sukamnos. It is only
at a late period that this tree, brought by Lucius Vitellus from Syria to
Rome, was successfully reared in Italy, after all earlier experiments,
according to Pliny, had been conducted in vain. At the time of Palladius
and even in that of Athaneus, the mulberry tree had multiplied but little
in that country. The introduction of silk culture under Justinian gave a
new importance to this tree, and, from that time to the present, its
propagation in western and northern Europe, Denmark and Sweden
has taken place very rapidly. It was not till the sixteenth century that
this plant was superceded by M. alba for the feeding of silk worms. This
species, according to Mueller, was planted in France in 1500. In the
United States, it is scarcely hardy north of New York, but there and
southward it is occasionally cultivated for its fruit. In 1760, Jefferys
states it was not found in Louisiana.
M. serrata Roxb.
Brazil. Gardner says the fruit of this Brazilian tree is about the size of a
small plum, black in color and resembles much in taste the fruit of
Eugenia cauliflora. In the province of Ceara, this fruit is much
esteemed and is carried through the streets for sale by the Indians. It is
called pusa.
M. rhizophoraefolia Gardn.
Martinique. The fruit is regularly sold in the markets at St. Vincent, but
no high value is set upon it, owing to the very small quantity of sweet
pulp which tenaciously adheres to the seeds. The outer portion of the
fruit is not pleasant to the taste, but the seed has the flavor of filberts.
M. cochinchinensis Lour.
This species is cultivated in Cochin China for its legumes which are
served and eaten as we do string beans.
East Indies. The beans are eaten by the natives and are esteemed as
both palatable and wholesome.
M. nivea DC.
A tree of tropical Hindustan, cultivated for its leaves, which are used to
flavor curries. The leaves are aromatic and fragrant and, with the root
and bark, are used medicinally. From the seeds, a medicinal oil called
zimbolee oil is extracted.
M. longifolia Blume.
Tropical Africa. The fruit is dry and inedible, containing a few large,
stony seeds, but, says Masters, the base of the flower-stalk is cooked
and eaten by the natives. Unger says the fruit is not palatable and is
rarely eaten, but the white, marrowy portion of the young stems, freed
from the rind and cooked, has the taste of the best wheat bread and,
dressed with milk and butter, supplies a very excellent, wholesome diet.
The plant occurs even in the Egyptian antiques and seems to have been
more widely distributed at an earlier period than at the present. There
are large plantations of it at Maitsha and Goutto. The tree grows about
20 feet high and is a striking ornament in our best conservatories.
Mauritius Islands. The fruit is very spicy and of excellent flavor. This is
a tender banana not profitable for cultivation above south Florida.
Tropical Asia. This is the vai of Cook, the fahie of Wilkes, the fae of the
natives. It was seen by Wilkes in groves in Tahiti, the fruit borne on an
upright spike, of the shape of the banana but twice as large and of a
deep golden hue, with pulp of a dark orange color. It is destitute of
seeds, of high flavor and greatly esteemed by the natives. On the Fiji
Islands, it is found cultivated. The fruit is eaten either roasted or boiled.
Ellis says there are nearly 20 kinds of wild bananas, very large and
serviceable, in the mountains of Tahiti. In India, says Firminger, this
species is called ram kela and, when in good condition, is a remarkably
fine fruit. The fruit is about seven inches long and rather thin, at first of
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a very dark red, but ripening to a yellowish-red.
In the Malay Archipelago, says Wallace, many species occur wild in the
forests and some produce edible fruits. In 1591, at the Nicobar Islands,
near Sumatra, the plantain was seen by May. At Batavia, in 1770,
Captain Cook found innumerable sorts but only three were good
eating, although others were used for cooking. In New Guinea, in 1770,
he found plantains flourishing in a state of the highest perfection. Le
Maire, 1616, says this fruit is called tachouner. In New Holland Captain
Cook found the plantain tree bearing a very small fruit, the pulp well-
tasted, but full of seeds, and in another place said to be so full of stones
as scarcely to be edible. Both the banana and plantain are now
cultivated in Australia in many varieties.
M. simiamm Kurz.
A large shrub of tropical eastern Asia and the neighboring islands. This
shrub is common in the Ghauts of India, and its strange-looking, white,
calycine leaves are eaten.
South Africa. The farmers use the wax from the berries for candles, but
the Hottentots eat this wax either with or without meat.
Of northern climates. The French in Canada call it laurier and put the
leaves into broth to give it a pleasant taste. In England, the leaves are
sometimes used to flavor beer as an agreeable substitute for hops. The
berries are employed in France as a spice.
M. nagi Thunb.
South Europe and Asia Minor. This plant was formerly much cultivated
in England as a potherb but is now fallen into disuse. The leaves were
eaten either boiled in soups or stews, or used as a salad in a fresh state.
The leaves and roots are still eaten in Germany and the seed is used
occasionally for flavoring. In Silesia, according to Bryant, the roots are
eaten boiled and the green seeds are chopped up and mixed with
salads to give them an aromatic flavor. This aromatic herb can scarcely
be considered as an inmate of American gardens, although so recorded
by Burr, 1863. In 1597, Gerarde, says the leaves are "exceeding good,
holsom, and pleasant among other sallade herbes, giving the taste of
Ainse unto the rest." In 1778, Mawe records that it is used rarely in
England. Pliny seems to refer to its use in ancient Rome under the
name anthriscus. It finds notice in most of the early botanies.
M. semiserrata Wall.
Peru. This species is cultivated for ornament and fruit. The fruit is of a
rich, spicy, subacid flavor.
Southern Europe and the Orient. In Greece, myrtle was sacred to Venus
and was a coronary plant. Its fruit is eaten by the modern, as it was by
the ancient, Athenians. The dried fruit and flower-buds, says Lindley,
were formerly used as a spice and are said still to be so used in
Tuscany.
M. molinae Barn.
Chile, where it is called temo. Its seeds, Molina says, may be used for
coffee.
Chile to Fuego and the Falkland Islands. Hooker describes the berries
as fleshy, sweet and of agreeable flavor.
Chile. Don says the fruit is red and musky. The natives express the
juice and mix it with water to form a refreshing drink. Mufeller says it
bears small but pleasantly aromatic berries. The fruit is said to be
agreeably flavored and aromatic It fruits abundantly in the
greenhouses of England, but its flavor does not recommend it as a table
fruit.
Western tropical Africa. Henfrey says this plant bears, a large fruit with
an edible pulp and a rind containing much tannin.
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Narcissus sp.? Amaryllideae. NARCISSUS.
On the upper Nile, Grant n found a narcissus about eight inches high,
with white flowers having a waxy, yellow corona and with leaves tasting
of onions. The leaves, cooked with mashed ground-nuts, he says, make
a delicious spinach.
North temperate regions. Merat says the "young leaves are eatable in
the spring."
East Indies, China and Malay. This cress found its way into the gardens
of France.
North temperate regions. The young shoots and leaves of water cress
have been used as a salad from time immemorial. Xenophon strongly
recommended its use to the Persians, and the Romans recommended it
to be eaten with vinegar as a remedy for those whose minds were
deranged; hence the Greek proverb, "Eat cress and learn more wit." The
first attempt to cultivate water cress by artificial means in Europe is
said by Booth to have been at Erfurt, about the middle of the sixteenth
century. Gerarde and Lord Bacon wrote strongly in its favor, but,
according to Don, it has been cultivated as a salad near London only
since 1808. At the present time, it is cultivated in plantations many
acres in extent and the demand for this popular salad herb during the
season can scarcely be supplied. In America, it is mentioned among
garden esculents by McMahon, 1806, and by succeeding writers on
gardening. In India, this herb is much prized and is sought after by the
Mohammedans.
A tree of Guiana. The timber is much valued in ship building. The fruit,
of the size of a small apple, has a single seed about as large as a walnut.
Though the fruit is very bitter, its seeds yield a starch which the Indians
mix with rotten wood and make into a bitter, disagreeable kind of
bread.
A tree of northern North America. This tree, says Hough, is tapped for
sugar in Canada and is now being planted in Illinois for sugar-making.
Vasey says experiments in Illinois show the box elder to give more sap
and a more saccharine sap than the sugar maple and that this sap
makes a whiter sugar. Douglas says the Crow Indians make sugar from
its sap, and Richardson says this is the tree which yields most of the
sugar in Rupert's Land.
North America and West Indies. The seeds are very agreeable to eat and
are eagerly sought for by children and Indians. The long and thick,
creeping roots, says Rafinesque, are acrimonious when fresh but are
easily deprived of their dangerous juice by washings and are then an
agreeable food to the Indians.
Northern Africa and tropical Asia. The lotus is an eastern flower which
seems from time immemorial to have been, in native estimation, the type
of the beautiful. It is held sacred throughout the East, and the deities of
the various sects in that quarter of the world are almost invariably
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represented as either decorated with its flowers, seated or standing on a
lotus throne or pedestal, or holding a sceptre framed from its flowers. It
is fabled that the flowers obtained their red color by being dyed with the
blood of Siva when Kamadeva wounded him with the love-shaft arrow.
Lakeshmi is called the lotus-born, from having ascended from the ocean
on its flowers. The lotus is often referred to by the Hindu poets. The
lotus floating in the water is the emblem of the world. It is also symbolic
of the mountain Meru, the residence of the gods and the emblem of
female beauty. Both the roots and seeds are esculent, sapid and
wholesome and are used as food by the Egyptians. In China, some
parts of India and in Ceylon, the black seeds of this plant, not unlike
little acorns in shape, are served at table. Temient found them of
delicate flavor and not unlike the pine cones of the Apennines. In the
southern provinces of China, large quantities are grown. The seeds and
slices of its hairy root are served at banquets and the roots are pickled
for winter use. In Japan, the stems are eaten. These stalks are not
dissimilar in taste to our broad beet with a somewhat sharp after-taste.
The seeds are also eaten like filberts. The roots furnish a starch, or
arrowroot, in China, called gaou fun.
Ceylon. This plant has been introduced into India and is now common
in some of the mission gardens and is grown in conservatories in
Europe and America. The leaves are broad, oblong, smooth, with a very
strong nerve running through the middle, ending in a long tendril,
generally twisted, to which hangs a long receptacle or bag, which, on
being pressed, yields a sweet, limpid, pleasant, refreshing liquor in such
quantity that the contents of six or eight of them are sufficient to
quench the thirst of a man.
China, Cambodia and the Philippines. This tree furnishes one of the
most common fruits of China. The Chinese recognize some 15 or 20
varieties, but Williams says there are only two or three which are
distinctly marked. It has been cultivated for ages in that country and
furnishes a large amount of food to the people, a single tree often
producing four bushels of fruit. It is now cultivated in Bengal and the
West Indies. In Trinidad, says Pnstoe, the fruit is of the consistence and
flavor of a high class Muscat grape and is invariably relished as
delicious by all. The most common variety, says A. Smith, is nearly
round, about an inch and a half in diameter, with a thin, brittle shell of
red color covered all over with rough, wartlike protuberances; others
are larger and heart-shaped. When fresh, they are filled with a white,
almost transparent, sweet, jelly-like pulp, surrounding a rather large,
shining, brown seed; after they have been gathered some time, the pulp
shrivels and turns black, and the fruit then bears some resemblance to
a prune.
N. rimosum G. Don.
In Nepal, says Unger, the rootstocks of this fern are eaten by the
natives.
Mexico, Japan and New Zealand. This fern, says J. Smith, produces
underground tubers like small potatoes, which are used for food by the
natives of Nepal.
New Zealand. The plant bears an ovoid and deep purple fruit used by
the aborigines, but, as the seeds contain a poisonous principle, they
require to be well boiled in order to make them harmless.
New Zealand. The fruit is edible but the seeds are poisonous unless well
boiled before eaten.
Peru. This plant grows on the back of the Andes and is similar to
cultivated tobacco.
South America. This species yields the tobacco of Russia. The young
leaves are removed, dried in the shade and buried beneath hay ricks,
when they become of a brownish-yellow color.
Mexico. This species is found in old fields from New York westward and
southward, a relic of cultivation by the Indians. It is cultivated in all
parts of the globe and have even become wild in Africa. It is supposed to
be the kind originally introduced into Europe. It furnishes the East
Indian tobacco, also that of the Philippines, and the kinds called
Latakia and Turkish, according to Masters. It is the yetl cultivated by
the ancient Mexicans.
Among the Nahua natives, says Bancroft, three kinds of tobacco were
used, the yetl, signifying tobacco in general, the picycti and the
quauyetl. Columbus found it in use in Yucatan. Humboldt says
tobacco has been cultivated from time immemorial by all the native
people of the Orinoco, and, at the period of the conquest, the habit of
smoking was found to be spread alike over both North and South
America. The Indians of Peru, according to De la Vega, did not smoke it
but used it in the form of snuff for medicinal purposes.
Cortez seems to be the first European who saw the plant, in 1519, at
Tobaco, a province of Yucatan, and it is asserted by some that he sent
several plants to Spain this year and from this circumstance the plant
derived its name. It seems certain that if the plant was then introduced,
it did not became an object of commerce and seems not to have been
communicated to any other nation, for it was certainly from Portugal,
where it was brought from America, about 1559, that its general
diffusion over Europe and the East commenced. In 1560, it was
introduced into France by John Nicot, ambassador of France at the
Court of Portugal, who, at Lisbon, was presented with a specimen of
this plant recently brought from Florida — Humboldt says from
Yucatan. So late as the reign of Henry IV, tobacco was raised only in
gardens and was used only for medicinal purposes. In the reign of
Louis XIII, it began to come into request as a luxury and to be taken in
the form of snuff. About this date, it was introduced by St. Croix into
Italy and, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, Pope Urban
VIII issued a bill prohibiting the using of snuff in churches during
divine service. It was about the beginning of the seventeenth century -
that the tobacco plant was introduced into Russia, either from Portugal
or from Italy by the way of Astrakhan, but the notices of it at this date
are obscure. About the middle of the sixteenth century, it spread from
Italy over Germany and Holland. Tobacco reached India in 1605 and
about 1625 or 1626 Amurath IV, Sultan of Turkey, passed a law
prohibiting its use on pain of death, and a similar law about this time
was passed in Persia. According to some, it reached Hindustan and
China between 1560 and 1565. Lobel asserts that tobacco was
cultivated in England as early as the year 1570. Phillips says it was
brought to England by Drake in 1570, who that year made his first
expedition against the Spainards, but Drake did not return until 1573.
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Its introduction is, however, usually ascribed to Raleigh in 1586, at
which time, says Humboldt, whole fields of it were already being
cultivated in Portugal.
Gesner, who died in 1564, is said to have been the first botanist who
mentions tobacco, and he used it for chewing and smoking.
Europe, Mediterranean region and the Orient. The seeds are used as
those of N. sativa as are also the leaves.
Russia, north Asia and Australia. The plant produces a fruit of the size
of an olive, of a red color and agreeable flavor, much relished by the
natives. The berries, though saltish and insipid, are eaten in the
Caspian district.
Syria, north Africa and the tropics. This has been supposed, says
Masters, to be the true lotus tree of the ancients.
Africa, Mauritius, North America and Mexico. The Jews of Jamaica use
this plant as a garlic to season smoked sausage.
North America. In New England, Josselyn found the roots of the water
lily with yellow flowers, after long boiling, eaten by the natives and
tasting like sheep-liver. R. Brown says the seeds are a staple article of
diet among the Klamaths of southern Oregon. Newberry saw many
hundred bushels collected for winter use among the Indians of the
western coast and says the seeds taste like those of broom corn and are
apparently very nutritious.
N. polysepalum Engelm.
N. ampla DC.
North America and West Indies. The farinaceous rootstocks are eaten.
Tropical Africa and eastern Asia. The rootstocks contain a sort of starch
and are eaten by the poorer classes in India. The small seeds, called
bheta, are fried in heated sand and make a light, easily digestible food.
The roots are also eaten in Ceylon and the seeds are chewed by
children. The tubers are much sought after by the natives as an article
of food or as a medicine. The capsules and seeds are either pickled or
put into curries or ground and mixed with flour to make cakes.
N. stellata Willd.
Asia and tropical Africa. This water lily is distinctly figured, says
Pickering, in the cave temples at Adjunta and in Brahmanical cave
temples. In the upper Nile region it is called macongee-congee, and the
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flowers and roots are eaten by the Wahiyon.
Tropical Africa. The fruit is twice the size of a man's fist; the rind is
brown and thick, and the pulp is yellow and excellent.
O. gratissimum Linn.
Abyssinia. This plant is the m'oooomboo of the upper Nile. The fruit is
scarcely edible, according to Grant.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The roots have occasionally been eaten.
O. sarmentosa Presl.
Western North America. The tubers form one of the dainty dishes of the
Oregon Indians. They are black, but, when boiled like potatoes, they
burst open lengthwise, showing a snowy-white, farinaceous substance,
which has a sweet, cream-like taste with a slight parsley flavor.
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O. stolonifera Wall.
East Indies, Java and China. The plant is served as a green in Japan.
Guiana and the Amazon. The fruit yields a colorless, sweet oil, used at
Para for adulterating olive oil and excellent for cooking and for lamps. It
is called bacaba.
Brazil. This is the patawa of the Amazon and yields a colorless, sweet
oil, used for adulterating olive oil at Para and for cooking.
Brazil. Bates says this is one of the palms called bacaba. The fruit is
much esteemed by the natives who manufacture a pleasant drink from
it.
In 1560, three plants were carried to Lima, Peru, one of these was
stolen and carried to Chile and from this origin nourishing plantations
became established.
In 1755, the olive was introduced into South Carolina and, in 1785, it
is reported as successfully grown. In this year, also, the South Carolina
Society imported cuttings of olives. In 1833, two varieties were
introduced at Beaufort, South Carolina, and are said to have succeeded
fairly well. In 1869 and 1871, mention is made of the fruiting of olives
at this place. In 1760, the olive was introduced into Florida by a colony
of Greeks and Minorcans who founded New Smyrna, and about 1760
Anastasia Island, opposite St. Augustine, was remarkable for its fine
olive trees. In 1867, fine crops were gathered in gardens in St.
Augustine. On Cumberland Island, Georgia, a number of trees bore
abundantly for many years prior to 1835 and, in 1825 at Darien, some
200 trees were planted. In 1854, olive trees were under cultivation in
Louisiana, and Jefferys, 1760, speaks of olive trees there yielding
palatable fruit and excellent oil but he may have referred to the wild
olive, O. americana. In 1817, an attempt by a colony to cultivate the
olive in Alabama was made, a grant of land being given conditionally on
success, but the enterprise was not prosecuted and fell through. In
California, the olive is said to have been planted in 1700.
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The use of the fruit for the expression of an oil and for pickling is very
extensive, and these products are largely an object of export from
southern Europe. In Cephalonia, according to Mrs. Brassey, the press
cake is used by the peasants as a staple diet.
Mexico. This tree grows in the most desolate and rocky parts of Arizona
and Sonora. The seeds are eaten raw or roasted by the Indians. When
care is taken to parch them they equal peanuts with no perceptible
difference in taste. The Mohave Indians of Arizona store them for winter
use.
Peru. These plants, according to Poppig, are boiled and eaten like fungi.
They spring up suddenly in Peru after rain and are called mountain
maize.
Tropical America. The seeds are edible after the deleterious embryo is
extracted. The tree is called cobnut in Jamaica. The kernels of the nuts
in the raw state are delicately sweet and wholesome. When roasted they
are equal, if not superior, to any chestnut. By compression, they yield a
sweet and fine-flavored oil.
Tropical Africa and Arabia. This is a large tree called in Yemen onkob.
The fruit is eaten by boys.
India. Royle says this plant has large, farinaceous and edible tubers.
American Southwest. The fruit is much eaten by the Indians, and the
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leases are roasted. It has very sweet, juicy pulp.
American Southwest. The fruit is palatable and the leaves are roasted
by the Indians. The large, yellowish or purple fruit is of a pleasant taste
and is much relished by the inhabitants of California.
Europe and adjoining Asia. In the Levant, its dried root is cooked and
eaten and is also used to furnish salep.
O. longicruris Link.
Europe and Asia Minor. The spotted orchis yields part of the inferior
English salep. In the Peloponnesus, its dried root is cooked and eaten.
O. militaris Linn.
Europe and adjoining Asia. In the Levant, the dried root is cooked and
eaten. This is one of the species which furnishes salep to commerce.
O. pyramidalis Linn.
Europe and north Africa. This is one of the species used to furnish
salep to commerce.
O. ustulata Linn.
West Indies. This is the cabbage palm of tropical America. The terminal
bud, of a white color internally and of delicate flavor, serves as a
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vegetable. Seemann says the heart is made into pickles or, when boiled,
is served at table. The pith makes a sort of sago.
Mediterranean region. This species has been identified with the Cunila
gallinacea of Pliny. It is mentioned in the early botanies, is said to have
reached England in 1640 and is recorded in American gardens in
1806. It finds mention by Burr in 1863 but seems now to have
disappeared from our seed-lists. It is frequently mentioned by early
garden writers under the name winter sweet marjoram and has a
variegated variety. It is an aromatic of sweet flavor and is much used for
soups, broths and stuffings.
North Africa, Europe and adjoining Asia. This species has become
sparingly naturalized in eastern America. Don says it is used in cookery
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only in default of one of the other majorams. McIntosh says that the
leaves and tender tops are in constant demand and that the leaves are
used in many places as a substitute for tea. Lightfoot says in some
parts of Sweden the peasantry put the leaves into their ale to give it an
intoxicating quality and to prevent its turning sour. It is included
among garden herbs by Burr.
South Africa. The roots, according to Pallas, are eaten by the Greeks of
the Crimea.
Europe and adjoining Asia. In England, the young shoots of this plant
are used as asparagus.
Northern Africa, Asia Minor and Europe. The bulbs, says Johnson, are
very nutritious and form a palatable and wholesome food when boiled.
In the East they are often eaten and were probably the dove's dung
mentioned in the Bible.
North America. The seeds of this species were gathered and dried by
the Indians. Repeated boilings were necessary to fit them for use, the
product resembling peas. The root is acrid but is rendered edible by
roasting.
East Indies and Burma. The tubers are said to be eaten in Madagascar.
Tropical Asia. This important grain, which supplies food for a greater
number of human beings than are fed on the produce of any other
known plant, is supposed to be of Asiatic origin. Unger says it is
indigenous to further India and the Isle of Sunda. Barth says it grows
wild in central Africa, and recent travelers mention the plant as growing
wild in South America. Rice had been introduced into China 3000
years before Christ. Even in the time of Strabo, rice was cultivated in
Babylon, Khuzistan and Syria. The Arabians brought it to Sicily. It was
found by Alexander's expedition under cultivation in Hindustan but
the account of Theophrastus seems to imply that the living plant
continued unknown in the Mediterranean countries. Rice was known,
however, to Celsus, Pliny, Dioscorides and Galen. According to some,
rice was known in Lombardy in the tenth century but Targioni-Tozzetti
says that in the year 1400 it was still known in Italy only as an article of
import from the East. Its cultivation was introduced into Piedmont and
Lombardy in the end of the fifteenth, or commencement of the sixteenth,
century, either directly from India by the Portuguese or through Spain
and Naples by the Spaniards. It was not cultivated in fields in
Lombardy until 1522.
Rice was introduced into Virginia by Sir William Berkeley in 1647, who
caused half a bushel of seed to be sown, and the yield was fifteen
bushels of excellent rice. This grain is stated to have been first brought
into Charleston, South Carolina, by a Dutch brig from Madagascar in
1694, the captain of which left about a peck of paddy with Governor
Smith, who distributed it among his friends for cultivation. Another
account is that Ashby sent a bag of seed rice, 100 pounds, from which
in 1698 sixty tons were shipped to England. The culture of rice was
introduced into Louisiana by the Company of the West in 1718.
Upland, or mountain rice, was introduced into Charleston, South
Carolina, from Canton, in 1772. Father Baegert, 1751-68, speaks of
rice as nourishing in California.
North America. The grain is large and affords a fine and abundant
farina, deserving the attention of agriculturists.
O. cuspidata Benth.
Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. This grass produces a small, black,
nutritious seed, which is ground into flour and made into bread by the
Zuni Indians, who, when their crops fail, become wandering hunters
after these seeds.
Himalayan region, China and Japan. The scented flowers are used for
flavoring teas in China and Japan.
Islands of the Pacific and China. The fruit is said to be white and sweet.
East Indies. In Kumaun, the leaves are used as a substitute for tea.
Australia. This plant bears a dark red or crimson fruit the edible part
of which is red. It is eaten raw and is very acid.
North temperate regions. This plant has for a long period been one of
the minor vegetables in gardens although it seems to have been but
rarely cultivated even in localities where the pleasant acidity of the
leaves is esteemed in salads. Quintyne, 1690, grew it in the Royal
Gardens in France, and it is described among garden esculents by Vil-
morin but as one not often grown. The leaves have been used in Iceland
from time immemorial as a spring salad and are likewise thus used by
the French peasantry, as well as elsewhere throughout Europe, but the
references imply generally the use of the wild plant.
O. barrelieri Linn.
O. cernua Thunb.
O. compressa Linn. f.
South Africa. The acid leaves are eaten at the Cape of Good Hope.
O. corniculata Linn.
Borders of temperate and tropical regions. In India, the leaves are used
as a potherb.
O. crassicaulis Zucc.
Peru. This species is cultivated in South America for its tuberous roots,
which are about the size of hen's eggs, the skin being full of eyes like a
potato. Herndon calls these tubers, when boiled or roasted, very
agreeable to the taste. Carruthers says the plant is cultivated about
Lima for its very acid leaf-stalks. It was introduced into England in
1829 but was found to be watery and insipid. There is a red and a
yellow variety.
O. deppei Lodd.
South America and Mexico. The plant produces fleshy, edible roots of
moderate size. The roots are served boiled. The young leaves are
dressed like sorrel, put in soups or used as greens, and the flowers are
excellent in salad, alone or mixed with corn salad.
O. plumieri Jacq.
O. tetraphylla Cav.
Chile. Oca is cultivated in the Andes from Chile to Mexico for its tubers,
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which vary from the size of peas to that of nuts and, says Unger, are of
no very pleasant taste.
O. violacea Linn.
Tropical America. The mealy seeds of this tree, when roasted, taste like
chestnuts. The young leaves and flowers are used as a vegetable. There
is nothing better than this chestnut cooked with a little salt.
P. grandiflora Tussac.
P. insignis Savign.
Mexico and Guiana. The seeds, young leaves and flowers serve as food.
Tropical Asia, Central America, the East and West Indies, Mauritius
and Fiji Islands. The root, a single turnip-formed tuber, when young, is
eaten, both raw and boiled, by the inhabitants of India and the
Mauritius. Its coarse roots furnish food to the poor in China, when
boiled, or when dried, and pounded into a flour. In the Malay
Archipelago, the plant produces a large, edible, tuberous root. The Fiji
Islanders, who call the plant yaka or wayaka, obtain a tough fiber from
the stems, with which they make fishing nets. In China and Cochin
China, where it is cultivated, the tubers, which are cylindrical and
about two feet long, are eaten boiled as yams are, Smith says the tubers
are eaten but are deleterious if not thoroughly cooked. A kind of
arrowroot is made from the root in some places. The roots are eaten in
Viti. Seemann says they are of a dirty white color when cooked and
have a slightly starchy, insipid flavor.
West Indies. The plant has large, tuberous roots, which, as well as the
seeds, serve as food. It is called yalai by the people of New Caledonia,
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and the roots are roasted and eaten.
Nicobar Islands. In the Nicobar Islands, the immense fruit cones consist
of several single, wedge-shaped fruits, which, when raw, are uneatable,
but, boiled in water and subjected to pressure, they give out a sort of
mealy mass. This is the melori of the Portuguese and the larohm of the
natives. It is also occasionally used with the fleshy interior of the ripe
fruit and forms the daily bread of the islanders. The flavor of the mass
thus prepared strongly resembles that of apple marmalade and is by no
means unpalatable to Europeans.
The terminal bud is eaten under the name of cabbage; the tender white
base of the leaves is also eaten raw or boiled, during famines. Kotzebur
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says it constitutes the chief food of the people of Radack. It is chewed
raw for the aromatic juice and is also baked in pits.
Australia and New Holland. Fraser says this plant is called breadfruit
and is eagerly eaten by the natives.
Java. The bark is used for poisoning fish, and the nuts, when
macerated in water, are rendered partially wholesome but are used only
as a condiment.
East Indies and Australia. The aborigines convert the small, millet-like
grains into cakes.
P. pilosum Sw.
This poppy was found by Kane at all the stations on his two voyages to
the Arctic seas and it extends probably, he says, to the furthest limit of
vegetation. The leaves, and especially the seeds, which are very
oleaginous, are a great resort in scorbutic affections and very agreeable
to the taste. Pursh gives its habitat as Labrador.
Europe, the Orient and north Africa. On the continent of Europe, this
poppy is cultivated as an oil plant, the oil being esteemed next to that of
the olive. The plant is in French flower gardens.
Greece and the Orient. There are several varieties of the opium poppy, of
which the two most prominent are called white and black from the color
of their seeds. The opium poppy is a native of the Mediterranean region
but is at present cultivated in India, Persia, Asiatic Turkey and
occasionally, by way of experiment, in the United States, for the
purpose of procuring opium. It is grown in northern France and the
south of Germany for its seeds. This poppy is supposed to have been
cultivated by the ancient Greeks and is mentioned by Homer as a
garden plant. Galen speaks of the seeds as good to season bread and
says the white are better than the black. The Persians sprinkle the
seeds of poppies over their rice, and the seeds are used in India as a
food and a sweetmeat. The seeds are also eaten, says Masters, in
Greece, Poland and elsewhere. In France, the seeds are made to yield by
expression a bland oil, which is used as a substitute for olive oil. In
Sikkim, Edgeworth remarks, the seeds afford oil as well as an agreeable
food, remarkably refreshing during fatigue and abstinence. Carpenter
says the peasants of Languedoc employ young poppies as food. The
Chinese drink, smoke or chew opium to produce intoxication, and this
depraved use has extended more or less to other countries.
South Africa. The fruit is edible. A vinous beverage and a vinegar are
prepared from it, and an edible, though slightly purgative, oil is
expressed from its seeds. Mueller says the fruit is the size of a cherry,
savory and edible.
French Guiana. The drupe is small, oval, yellow. The single seed is
edible.
Tropical Africa. The fruit is oblong in form, twice the size of that of P.
excelsum but otherwise resembling it in flavor and appearance.
P. montanum Aubl.
French Guiana. The drupe is large, ovate, smootn and fibrous, has a
thick, acrid rind, and the nut, or kernel, is sweet and edible.
Himalayan region and China. The seeds are eaten by the Lepchas of the
Himalayas. They are sweet but mawkish.
Tropical western Africa. The natives of Sudan, who call the tree dours,
roast the seeds and then bruise and allow them to ferment in water
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until they become putrid, when they are carefully washed, pounded
into powder and made into cakes, which are excellent sauce for all
kinds of food but have an unpleasant smell. An agreeable beverage is
prepared from the sweet, farinaceous pulp surrounding the seeds.
Sweetmeats are also made of it. The pods contain a yellow, farinaceous
substance enveloping the seeds, of which the negroes of Sierra Leone
are fond, its flavor being similar to that of the monkey-bread. This is the
fruit mentioned by Park as a mimosa called by the negroes nitta, which
furnishes a nutritive and agreeable food from its seed-pods.
Malay. The seeds are eaten by the Malays, who relish them as well as
the mealy matter which surrounds them. The former tasce like garlic.
P. exile Kippist
Old World tropics. This grain is grown to some extent in most parts of
India. The seed is an article of diet with the Hindus, particularly with
those who inhabit the hill regions and the most barren parts of the
country, for it is in such districts it is chiefly cultivated, being an
unprofitable crop and not sown where others more beneficial will thrive.
It is used only by the poorest classes, says Elliott and is not reckoned
very wholesome. Graham says this millet is very common and cheap
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about Bombay but unwholesome. It is the agrion krithon, furnishing
good bread and gruel but which, at first, killed the horses of the Greeks
until by degrees they became accustomed to it, as related by
Theophrastus.
P. boumapartea Baxt.
Brazil. The fruit is egg-shaped, the size of a Mogul plum and yellow
when ripe. It is cultivated in the gardens of Egypt.
P. coccinea Aubl.
P. edulis Sims.
Brazil and the West Indies. The pulp of the fruit is orange-colored, the
taste acid and the flavor somewhat like that of an orange. The fruit in
India is the size of an egg, green at first but, when ripe, is of a beautiful
plum color and of an agreeable and and cooling taste.
P. filamentosa Cav.
Brazil and Jamaica. The fruit is yellow, enclosed in a netted calyx and
has a pleasant smell; though all the other parts of the plant have a
disagreeable odor when touched.
The fruit is about the size of a Golden Pippin apple, white within,
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membranous and contains numerous seeds involved in an agreeable,
sweet-acid pulp.
P. ligularis A. Juss.
P. lutea Linn.
Rio Negro region of South America and cultivated in greenhouses for its
large flowers. The fruits are very large, sometimes weighing as much as
eight pounds. The fleshy aril attached to the seeds or the juicy pulp is
the part eaten.
West Indies. The fruit is round, smooth, about two inches in diameter,
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of a dingy color when ripe. It has a pale yellow, agreeable, gelatinous
pulp, which is eaten with wine and sugar.
Tropical America. The fruit is of an oval shape and of various sizes from
that of a goose egg to a middling-sized muskmelon; it is of a greenish-
yellow color, having a spongy rind about a finger in thickness, which
becomes soft as the fruit ripens, contains a succulent pulp of a water
color and sweet smell, is of a very agreeable, pleasant, sweet-acid taste
and contains a multitude of black seeds, which are eaten with the pulp.
Titford says it is delicious. The granadilla is cultivated in tropical
America and in India and is grown in conservatories for its flowers. If
fruit be wanted, the flowers must be artifically fertilized.
P. serrata Linn.
Brazil. The seeds are mingled with cassava and water and allowed to
ferment, forming the favorite drink of the Orinoco Indians. The pounded
seeds form guarana bread. This bread is made by the Indians and is
highly esteemed in Brazil. About 16000 pounds are exported from
Santarem. The bread is grated into sugar and water and forms a diet
drink. Its active principle is a substance called guaranine, which is
identical in composition with the thein of tea.
P. subrotunda Pers.
Royle says this plant has an edible aril. Henfrey says the seeds are
eaten.
Asia and tropical Australia. The fruit, which is of a green color, is eaten
by the natives but is oftener made into a pickle.
South Africa. Thunberg n says this thick plant without leaves, is eaten,
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after being pickled, by the Hottentots, and also by the colonists.
Tropical eastern Asia. The leafy stems, says Drury, are used in
thickening buttermilk, to which they give a rich appearance. Roxburgh
says venders of buttermilk are in the habit of diluting their merchandise
with water and then thickening the mixture with this plant, which
makes the adulterated article seem rich and of the best sort. A. Smith
says that water becomes mucilaginous by being simply stirred with the
fresh branches of this plant.
Arctic regions. Ainslie says the leaves are employed as a substitute for
tea by the inhabitants of the Kurile Islands.
Cape of Good Hope. The buds and acid leaves are eaten.
P. peltatum Ait.
South Africa. At the Cape of Good Hope, the buds and acid leaves are
eaten.
P. triste Ait.
South Africa. Syme says the tubers are eaten at the Cape of Good Hope.
P. zonale L'Herit.
Eastern North America. Bartram told Kalm that the Indians ate the
boiled spadix and berries as a luxury. When the berries are raw they
have a harsh, pungent taste, which they lose in great measure upon
boiling. The Indians also eat the roots cooked but never raw, as they are
then reckoned poisonous.
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Peltaria alliacea Jacq. Cruciferae. GARLIC CRESS.
Tropical Asia and islands of the Pacific. The leaves are used as a
potherb along the shores.
Tropical Africa. The fruit is eaten. The yellow, greasy juice, which flows
from the fruit when it is cut, is mixed by the inhabitants of Sierra Leone
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with their food but is not used by Europeans on account of the strong,
turpentine flavor.
West Indies. The fruit is yellow, edible, pleasant to the taste and is
used in the West Indies for preserving.
P. bleo DC.
Mexico and New Granada. The leaves are eaten as a salad in Panama
and are called bleo by the natives.
Sakhalin Islands. The young, tender petioles of the leaves are said by
Penhallow to be largely used by the Japanese of Yeso as a food. The
native name is fuki. It is held in high esteem among the Ainos, although
devoid of flavor. The plants are cultivated for their succulent petioles.
Europe and Asia. This hardy, biennial plant was introduced to Britain
in 1570. Masters says this is supposed to be the plant which is called
arrise in the New Testament narrative. Dill is commonly regarded as the
anethon of Dioscorides and the anethum of Pliny, Palladius and others.
The name dill is found in writings of the Middle Ages, and dill is spoken
of as a garden plant in the early botanies. In England, it was called dyll
by Turner, 1538, which proves its presence at that date. It also occurs
in the vocabulary of Alfric, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the tenth
century. Dill was in American gardens before 1806. It seems to be
spontaneous in the far West as its roots are used as food by the Snake
and Shoshoni Indians, by whom it is called yampeh3 It is cultivated for
its leaves and seeds. The former are used as flavors in soups and
sauces, and the seeds are added to piclded cucumbers to heighten the
flavor. In India, the seeds are much used for culinary and medicinal
purposes. The seeds are to be found in every Indian bazaar and form
3
Yampeh is actually several species of Perideridia, Umbelliferae
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one of the chief ingredients in curry powder.
Western North America. The Indians boil the tops in soups the same as
we use celery. Beckwith says the roots are used as food by the Indians
of the West.
Europe and North America. The parsnip is a biennial, the root of which
has been in use as an esculent from an early period. The Emperor
Tiberius, according to Pliny, was so fond of parsnips that he had them
brought annually from Germany, from the neighborhood of Gelduba on
the Rhine, where they were said to be grown in great perfection. The
wild plant, according to Don, is a native of Europe even to the
Caucasus; in North America, on the banks of the Saskatchewan and
Red River; in South America about Buenos Aires; and is naturalized in
northeastern America. The root of the wild plant is spindle-shaped,
white, aromatic, mucilaginous and sweet, with a degree of acrimony.
From the seeds of the wild variety in the garden of the Royal
Agricultural Society at Cirencester, originated the highly-appreciated
garden variety known as Student. It has been supposed that the
pastinaca of the Romans included the carrot and the parsnip, and that
the elaphoboscon of Pliny was the parsnip. Pliny describes the
medicinal virtues of the elaphoboscon and says it is much esteemed as
a food. The references, however, do not prove this plant to be cultivated,
nor do the references to the pastinaca satisfactorily indicate the
parsnip. One is willing to accept such evidence as we find that the
cultivated parsnip was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Among the early botanists, there is much confusion in names between
the carrot and the parsnip. The root must, however, have come into
general use long before these records and perhaps its culture started in
Germany, as it seems to have been unknown to Ruellius, 1536, but is
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recorded by Fuchsius in Germany, 1542, who gives a figure but calls it
gross zam mosen. The parsnip is figured by Roeszlin, 1550, under the
name pestnachen and in 1552 is recorded by Tragus as having a sweet
root, used especially by the poor and better known in the kitchens than
fat.
In 1683, the long parsnips are figured in England as in great use for a
delicate, sweet food; are spoken of by Ray, 1686; Townsend, 1726;
Mawe, 1778; and Miller, 1807.
The round parsnip is called siam by Don, 1834. Its roots are funnel-
shaped, tapering very abruptly, often curving inwards. There is little
known of its early history. It was noted in the Bon Jardinier for 1824;
as also by Pirolle in Le Hort. Francois; by Mclntosh, Burr and other
more recent writers.
Chile. The white, buttery pulp of the fruit is of an agreeable taste. The
aromatic fruits, about the size of haws, are eaten.
P. adenanthus G. P. W. Mey.
East Indies. This bean is cultivated for its seeds. A variety with edible
roots occurs, and its use in India by the natives is mentioned by
Graham.
P. asellus Molina.
Chile. This species was in cultivation by the natives of Chile before the
conquest. The bean is spherical and pulpy.
East Indies and Malay. This bean is generally cultivated in India for its
pulse. The plant is a twining one.
Tropics. Under the name of caracol, this species is often grown in the
gardens of South America, North America, southern Europe and
sometimes in India for its large, showy and sweet-scented flowers. It
seems doubtful if the pod or pulse is eaten.
The lima bean is now widely distributed. It has not been found wild in
Asia nor has it any modern Indian or Sanscrit name. Ainslie says it was
brought to India from the Mauritius and that it is the Vellore, or Duffin,
bean of the southern provinces. Wight says it is much cultivated and is
seldom if ever found in a wild state, and the large-podded sort is said to
have been brought by Dr. Duffin from the Mauritius. This bean is not
mentioned by the early Chinese writers, but Luoreiro mentions it in
Cochin China in 1790. A dark red form came to Martens from Batavia
and an orange-red from farther India. Martens received it also from
Sierra Leone; the form bipunctatus came from the Cape of Good Hope to
Vienna; and Martens received it from Reunion under the name pois du
cap. Jaquin, 1770, fixed its appearance in Austria, but it first reached
England in 1779. The form inamoenus was considered by Linnaeus to
belong to Africa, but he advances, as De Candolle remarks, no evidence
of this habitat, and we may remark that the slave trade may well be
responsible for the transmission very quickly of South American species
of food plants of convenient characters for ship use to the African coast.
P. derasus Schrank, considered by Sprengel a variety of P. inamoenus,
was found at Rio Janeiro.
The lima bean is the scimitar-podded kidney bean and sugar bean of
Barbados; it was mentioned in Jamaica by Lunan; it may have been the
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"bushel bean," "very flat, white and mottled with a purple figure," of the
Carolinas in 1700-08, as this description applies very closely to the
lima beans now spontaneous in Florida. Two types, the Carolina, or
sieva, and the lima, were grown in American gardens in 1806. Eight
varieties, some scarcely differing, are now offered for sale by our
seedsmen; Vilmorin enumerates four for France; the speckled form
occurs in Brazil and in Florida; a black form (P. derasus) in Brazil; the
blood-red in Texas; the dark red with light or orange-ruddy spots in the
Bourbon Island; the black, white-streaked in Cochin China; and the
large white, the small white or sieva, the red, the white sort striped and
speckled with dark red and the green are found in our gardens. In
central Africa, but two seeds are ever found in a pod; in our most
improved varieties there are five or even six. The synonymy is as follows:
This bean requires a warm season and hence is not grown so much in
northern and central Europe as in this country. Vilmorin describes
three varieties and names two others. Martens, however, describes six
well-marked types.
These six beans, with their synonyms, include all the lima beans now
known, but there are a number of other types described which sooner
or later will appear and will be claimed as originations. A careful
reflection will convince that our varieties are all of ancient occurrence
and that there have been no originations under culture within modern
times. A black, white-streaked form is recorded in Cochin China by
Loureiro; a white, black-streaked form is figured by Clusius in 1601; a
black, as Phaseolus derasus Schrank, is reported in Brazil. The P.
bipunctatus Jacq. has not as yet reached our seedsmen, although
grown at Reunion under the name of pois du cap. Martens describes
several others with a yellow band about the eye and variously colored;
and one with an orange ground and black markings occurs among the
beans from the Peruvian graves at Ancon at the National Museum.
Tropical Asia. Elliott says this is one of the most useful and largely
cultivated of the Indian pulses, the green variety being more esteemed
than the black. It is cultivated, according to Delile, by the modern
Egyptians, and Schweinfurth says it is eaten by the Bongo tribe of
central Africa.
P. pallar Molina.
Chile. This species was cultivated by the natives before the Conquest.
The beans are half an inch long.
Western North America and common on the prairies west of the Pecos.
The seeds are about the size of peas; when still green, they make an
acceptable dish after thorough cooking.
P. triolobus Ait.
Asia and tropical Africa. This bean is cultivated in several varieties for
its seeds, which are eaten by the poorer classes.
P. tuberosus Lour.
In 1609, Hudson, exploring the river which now bears his name, found,
within the limits of what is now Rensselaer County, New York, "beans of
the last year's growth." In 1653, Von der Donck, in his Description of
the Netherlands, says: "Before the arrival of the Netherlanders (1614)
the Indians raised beans of various kinds and colors but generally too
coarse to be eaten green, or to be pickled, except the blue sort, which
are abundant." In 1633, DeVries "proceeded in the yacht up the
(Delaware) river, to procure beans from the Indians."
"Beans" were seen by Newport, 1607, in ascending the James River, but
Heriot, 1586, describes the okindgier of Virginia, "called by us beans,
because in greatness and partly in shape they are like to the beans in
England, saving that they are flatter, of more divers colours, and some
pied. The leaf also of the stem is much different." In 1700-08, Lawson
says: "The kidney-beans were here before the English came, being very
plentiful in Indian corn-fields. The bushel-bean, a spontaneous growth,
very flat, white and mottled with a purple figure, was trained on poles.
(This is undoubtedly the lima, as it answers to the description given by
a very creditible person who secured for me samples from a
spontaneous plant in Florida: the trunk as large as a man's thigh, and
the plant known for the past twenty-five years, some years yielding as
much as fifty bushels of pods,' and the seeds smaller than the
cultivated lima, very flat, white and mottled with purple.) Indian
rounceval or miraculous pulse, so called from their large pods and
great increase; they are very good, and so are the bonavis, calavances,
nanticokes and abundance of other pulse, too tedious to mention,
which we find the Indians possessed of when first we settled in
America." Bonavis is perhaps Bona vista, a variety of bean sold by
Thorburn, a New York seedsman, in 1828. The bonavista bean (Long) of
Jamaica, is said to be Lablab vulgaris; calavances is the Barbados
name for Dolichos sinensis Linn., as used by Long, a red bean; and
galavangher pea is the Barbados name for D. barbadensis Mayc. In A
True Declaration of Virginia, London, 1610, p. 12, "the two beans
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(planted with the corn) runne upon the stalks of the wheat, as our
garden pease upon stickes."
In Chile, Molina says that before the country was conquered by the
Spaniards, 13 or 14 kinds of the bean, varying but little from the
common European bean, were cultivated by the natives. One of these
has a straight stalk, the other 13 are climbers.
Among the Greek writers, Aetius, in the fourth century, says the
Dolichos and the Phaseolus of the ancients were now called by all lobos,
and by some melax kepea. This word lobos of Aetius is recognizable in
the Arabic loubia, applied to Dolichos lubia Forsk., a bean with low
stalks, the seed ovoid, white, with a black point at the eye.
From these and other clues to be gleaned here and there from the Greek
authors, one is disposed to think that the low bean of the ancients was
a Dolichos, and that the word phaselus referred to this bean whenever
used throughout the Middle Ages in speaking of a field crop.
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The Roman references to Phaseolus all refer to a low-growing bean
fitted for field culture and so used. There is no clear indication to be
found of garden culture. Aetius seems the first among the Greeks to
refer to a garden sort, for he says the lobos are the only kind in which
the pod is eaten with the bean; and, he says, this lobos is called by
some melax kepea (Smilax hortensis), the Dolichos and Phaseolus of
his predecessors. Galen's use of the word lobos, or the pod plant, would
hence imply garden culture in Greece in the second century.
The English name, kidney beans, is derived, evidently, from the shape
of the seed. Turner, 1551, uses the name first, but these beans were not
generally grown in England until quite recent times. Parkinson, 1629,
speaks of them as oftener on rich men's tables; and Worlidge, 1683,
says that within the memory of man they were a great rarity, although
now a common, delicate food. The French word haricot, applied to this
plant, occurs in Quintyne, 1693, who calls them aricos in one place,
and haricauts in another. The word does not occur in Le Jardinier
Solitaire, 1612, and Champlain, 1605, uses the term febues du Bresil,
indicating he knew no vernacular name of closer application. De Can-
dolle says the word araco is Italian and was originally used for
Lathyrus ochrus; it is apparently thus used by Oribasius and Galen.
BUSH BEAN.
The first figure of the bush bean is by Fuchsius, 1542, and his drawing
resembles very closely varieties that may be found today — not the true
bush, but slightly twining. In 1550, Roeszlin figures a bush bean, as
does Matthiolus, 1558, Pinaeus, 1561, and Dalechamp, 1587.
Matthiolus says the species is common in Italy in gardens and
oftentimes in fields, the seed of various colors, as white, red, citron and
spotted. Dalechamp figures the white bean. The dwarf bean is not
mentioned by Dodonaeus, 1566 nor in 1616. A list of varieties
cultivated in Jamaica is given by Macfadyen, 1837, which includes the
one-colored black, yellow and red; the streaked, in which the seeds are
marked with broad, linear, curved spots; the variegated, the seeds
marked with rubiginose, leaden, more or less rounded spots; and the
saponaceous, with the back of the seeds white, the sides and concavity
marked with spots so as to resemble a common soap-ball.
Pole beans are figured by Tragus, 1552, who speaks of them as having
lately come into Germany from Italy and calls them welsch, or foreign
and enumerates the various colors as red, purplish-white, variegated,
white, black and yellowish. Dodonaeus, 1566 and 1616, figures the
pole bean; as does Lobel, 1576 and 1591; Clusius, 1601; and Castor
Durante, 1617. In 1597, Gerarde figures four varieties in England: the
white, black, red and yellow. Barnaby Googe speaks of French beans,
1572, indicating by the name the source from which they came. In
1683, Worlidge names two sorts as grown in English gardens, and the
same varieties are given by Mortimer, 1708. In France, 1829, 19 sorts
are enumerated by Noisette; and in 1883, Vilmorin describes 38
varieties and names others.
Southern Europe, east and north Asia. Its roots are eaten cooked by the
Kalmucks, who call the plant bodmon sok.
East Indies and Burma. The astringent fruits are eaten by the Lepchas,
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who call the tree schap.
Northern Africa and Arabia. In the East, the date tree has ever been the
benefactor of mankind. The life of the wandering tribes in the desert
circles around the date tree, and the Arabian poets ascribed such high
importance to it that they maintain that the noble tree was not formed
with other plants but from the clods which remained after the creation
of Adam. The native land of the date palm seems to have been originally
the region along the east side of the Persian Gulf, whence it has been
distributed in the earliest periods of commerce to Arabia, Persia,
Hindustan and westward over the whole of north Africa. Hartt mentions
a few date palms which bore fruit at Macei, Brazil, and the tree is in
gardens in Florida, whence they were probably received from the United
States Patent Office about 1860. In 1867, Atwood says numerous,
large and beautiful specimens may be seen in the gardens of St.
Augustine. Redmond, 1875, says the date is cultivated to a limited
extent in south Florida. In the oasis of Siwah, St. John found four kinds
cultivated: the Sultani with long, blue fruit; the Farayah, white ones of
a kind said not to be grown in Egypt; the Saidi, or common date; and
the Weddee, good only for camels and donkeys. Some yellow dates, he
says, were much less elongated than others he had seen, with more
flesh in comparison to the size of the stone and very luscious. The
female flowers of the date are fertilized artificially. In Sind, in Arabia and
elsewhere, this is done before the flower-sheaths open; a hole is made in
the sheath of the female flower and a few bits of the male panicle are
inserted. At Multan, India, Mr. Edgeworth states that there is a date tree
which bears a stoneless fruit and that in former times it was considered
a royal tree, and the fruits were reserved for royal use. The fruit
furnishes, fresh or dried, the staple food of large regions. The large,
succulent head cut from among the mass of leaves is also eaten. The
sap is sweetish and may be used as a drink or distilled into a kind of
spirit.
P. farinifera Roxb.
A dwarf palm common in the country between the Ganges and Cape
Comorin. Its exterior, or woody part, consists of white fibers matted
together; these envelope a large quantity of farinaceous substance,
which the natives use for food in times of scarcity.
P. pusilla Gaertn.
East Indies and south China. The shining, black berry has a sweet,
mealy pulp.
P. reclinata Jacq.
Tropical and south Africa. The seeds are frequently drawn into use as a
substitute for coffee. This species is said by Williams to yield in western
Africa a wine; the fruits are said to be much relished by the negro
tribes.
East Indies. In India, the juice is fermented or boiled down into sugar
and molasses. A large portion of the sugar made in Bengal, on the
Coromandel coast and in Guzerat comes from this source. The fruit is of
a very inferior character. The sap is drunk in India, either fresh or
fermented, and is called tari.
East Indies, tropical Asia and Madagascar. The fruits, in size like those
of a gooseberry, are green, three or four-furrowed and somewhat acid
and cooling. Firminger says it is of a sour, sorrel-like flavor, unfit to be
eaten raw but making a delicious stew. It is commonly used by the
natives for pickling and is sold in the bazaars.
Tropical Asia. This tree is found wild and cultivated in various parts of
India and the Indian Archipelago. The fruits are eaten by the natives in
the Konkan and Deccan. In India, a preserve of the ripe fruit made with
sugar is considered a wholesome article of diet; the fruit is also pickled
and eaten. The fruits are exceedingly acid in a raw state. Dried, this
fruit forms the emblic myrobalan, used as a medicine and for dyeing
and tanning.
P. comorense DC.
Europe and Japan. This species has long been grown for its red,
smooth, round, berry-like fruits enclosed in bladder-like leaves. It was
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described by Dioscorides. In Arabia and even in Germany and Spain,
the fruits, which have a slightly acid taste, are eaten for dessert. It was
called strucknon halikakabon or phusalis by Dioscorides and is named
by the modern Boeotians keravoulia.
Tropics. The fruit is sweetish and subacid and is commonly eaten with
safety if perfectly ripe. The leaves are used as a vegetable in central
Africa. This species is found widely dispersed over tropical regions,
extending to the southern portion of the United States and to Japan. It
is first described by Camararius, 1588, as a plant hitherto unknown
and an excellent figure is given. It was seen in a garden by C. Bauhin
before 1596 and is figured in the Hortus Eystettensis, 1613. J. Bauhin
speaks of its presence in certain gardens in Europe. Linnaeus describes
a variety with entire leaves, and both his species and variety are figured
by Dillenius, who obtained the variety from Holland in 1732. When, it
first appeared in our vegetable gardens is not recorded. Its synonymy
seems to be as below:
Halicacabum sive Solanum Indicum. Cam. Hort. 70. 1588. cum. ic.
Solanum vesicarium Indicum. Bauh. Phytopin. 297. 1596; Pin. 166.
1623; Ray Hist. 681. 1686.
Halicacabum sen Solanum Indicum. Camer. Hortus. Eystet. 1613.
cum. ic.
Solanum sive Halicabum Indicum. Bauh. J. 3:609. 1651. cum. ic.
Alkekengi Indicum majus. Toum. Inst. 151. 1719.
Pops. Hughes Barb. 161. 1750.
Physalis angulata Linn. Gray Syn. Fl. 2: pt. I, 234.
North America. The fruit is edible. Although the habitat of this species is
given by Gray as in fertile soil, Pennsylvania to Illinois and Texas, yet it
seems to be the miltomatl figured by Hemandez in his Mexican history,
published in 1651. It is described by Burr under the names given
above. The petite tomato du Mexique, as received from Vilmorin, in
1883, can be assigned to this species, as can also a strawberry tomato
grown in 1885 at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station.
North America. This is the camaru. It is also found wild in the United
States. The fruit is edible. This species has a wide range, extending from
New York to Iowa, Florida and westward from Texas to the borders of
California and southward to tropical America. It is described by
Marcgrav and Piso in Brazil about the middle of the seventeenth
century, and Feuille, 1725, mentions it as cultivated and wild in Peru.
It has been introduced into many regions. Loureiro records it in Cochin
China; Bojer, as cultivated in the Mauritius and in all the tropical
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countries; and it also occurs in the descriptions of garden vegetables in
France and America. It was cultivated by Miller in England in 1739 and
was described by Parkinson in 1640. It had not reached the kitchen
garden in 1807 but had before 1863. Its synonymy seems as given
below:
North America. This species has also been grown from seedsmen's
strawberry tomato. It is a low, spreading plant.
P. viscosa Linn.
Tropical America. The seed at first contains a clear, insipid fluid, with
which travelers allay their thirst, afterwards this liquor becomes milky
and sweet; at last the fruit is almost as hard as ivory. This hard
albumen furnishes a vegetable ivory of commerce.
Europe. The roots, which are thick and fleshy, were formerly eaten,
either boiled or in salad, but the plant is no longer used in England,
though still in favor in some parts of continental Europe.
Burma. A watery and drinkable sap flows from sections of the porous
stem.
Malays. A watery and drinkable sap flows from sections of the porous
stem.
North America. Great quantities of spruce beer are made from the new
shoots.
West Indies. This tree yields the bitter wood known as Jamaica quassia.
Brewers are said to use the chips as a substitute for hops.
Europe and north Africa. Johnson says this plant has been used as a
potherb when in the young state.
P. hieracioides Linn.
Temperate Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. The plant is used
as a potherb.
West Indies. The allspice tree is cultivated in the West Indies, where it is
common. The allspice, or pimento, berries of commerce are of the size of
a small pea and in order are supposed to resemble a combination of
cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. This tree. is also cultivated now in the
East Indies. The seeds are used as a condiment.
East Indies. This is a wild species, the nuts of which are utilized by the
poorer classes as a substitute for the betel-nut.
P. cembroides Zucc.
Western United States. The seeds are as large as large peas, says
Newberry, the flavor agreeable, and the Indians eat them whenever they
can be obtained. The edible nuts are collected, says Parry, by the
Indians along the Mexican boundary, and Torrey says, when fresh or
slightly roasted, they are very palatable.
P. coulteri D. Don.
California. The seeds, says Nuttall, are of the size of an almond and are
edible.
Southwestern United States. The nut is sweet and edible, about the size
of a hazelnut. It is used as an article of trade by the New Mexicans of
the upper Rio Grande, with those below and about El Paso. The fruit
has a slightly terebinthine taste but the New Mexicans are very fond of
it.
P. flexilis James.
Western United States. The large seeds are used as food by the Indians.
Himalayas. The cones are plucked before they open and are heated to
make the scales expand and to get the seeds out. Large quantities of the
seeds are stored for winter use, and they form a staple food of the
inhabitants of Kunawar. They are eaten ground and mixed with flour. It
is a common saying in Kunawar, says Brandis, "one tree a man's life in
winter." They are oily, with a slight but not unpleasant turpentiny flavor
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and are called neozar.
Korea, Kamchatka, China and Japan. The tree produces edible nuts.
Himalaya Mountains. The seeds, says Brandis, are eaten in India and
are of some importance as food in times of scarcity.
Western North America. The seeds are of an almond-like flavor and are
consumed in quantity by the natives.
P. parryana Engelm.
Northern Europe and Asia. In Norway, the inner bark furnishes a bark-
bread. In Sweden, in times of scarcity, much bark is collected from the
forests for food, being kiln-dried, ground into flour, mixed with a small
portion of oatmeal and made into thin cakes. The inner part of the bark,
says Morlot, properly prepared, furnishes when boiled a very edible
broth; the Laplanders are quite fond of it. When they prepare a meal of
it, they bark the tree all around up to a certain height. The tree then
dies and thus the routes of migration in Lapland are marked by a track
of dead pines which is continually widening.
P. torreyana Parry.
West Indies. Brownel says the seeds may replace pepper for seasoning.
East Indies and Malay. The leaves are chewed with betel-nut by the
Malays and other Indian races.
P. chaba Hunter.
P. clusii C. DC.
Malay, Java and Penang. Pereira states that as early as 1305 the
product of this tree was used as a condiment in London, although now
it is considered a medicine.
P. methysticum Forst. f.
Sandwich Islands and the Fiji Islands. The root of this plant is used to
form an intoxicating drink under the name of ava, kava or kawa. The
root is chewed, thrown into a bowl and water is poured on. It is then
strained through cocoa-nut husks, when it is ready for use.
East Indies and Burma. The spikes, both green and ripe, are used in
Bengal as long pepper.
P. umbellatum Linn.
Brazil and British Guiana. The native tribes intoxicate themselves with
the fumes of the burning seeds.
East Indies, Malay and common in the gardens about Madras. In taste,
the leaves somewhat resemble lettuce, but Wight says, to his taste, it is
but an indifferent substitute.
Mediterranean region. The Moors eat the fruits and bruise them to mix
with their dates.
P. mexicana H. B. & K.
Mexico. This is a small tree with edible nuts found by Bigelow near the
mouth of the Pecos.
Europe and northern Asia. The pea in India goes back to a remote
period as is shown by its Sanscrit name. The discovery of its seed in a
tomb at Thebes proves it to have been an ancient Egyptian plant. It was
seen in Japan by Thunberg, 1776. Its culture among the Romans is
evident from its mention by Columella, Pliny and Palladius. There is
every reason to believe, from the paucity of description, that peas were
not then in their present esteem as a vegetable and were considered
inferior to other plants of the leguminous order. The first distinct
mention of the garden peas is by Ruellius in 1536, who says there are
two kinds of peas, one the field pea and trailing, the other a climbing
pea, whose fresh pods with their peas were eaten. Green peas, however,
were not a common vegetable at the close of the seventeenth century.
The author of a life of Colbert, 1695, says: "It is frightful to see persons
sensual enough to purchase green peas at the price of 50 crowns per
litron." This kind of pompous expenditure prevailed much at the
French Court, as will be seen by a letter of Madame de Maintenon,
dated May 10, 1696. "This subject of peas continues to absorb all
others," says she, "the anxiety to eat them, the pleasure of having eaten
them and the desire to eat them again, are the three great matters which
have been discussed by our princes for four days past. Some ladies,
even after having supped at the Royal table and well supped too,
returning to their own homes, at the risk of suffering from indigestion,
will again eat peas before going to bed. It is both a fashion and a
madness."
Tall Peas.— These are the forms described by the early botanies as
requiring sticking, as the Pisum majus of Camerarius, 1596, the Pisum
of Fuchsius, 1542, and Phasioli or faselen of Tragus, 1552.
East Indies and Malay. The tree has long, twisted fruit, sweet to the
taste but inducing dysentery and it, therefore, was prohibited by
Alexander. It is called ta nyen in Burma, where the natives are
extravagantly fond of the seeds as a condiment to preserve fish,
notwithstanding sometimes disastrous consequences.
P. dulce Benth.
American tropics. The sweet pulp of the pod is wholesome. The plant is
extensively cultivated in India as a hedge plant. In Mexico, it is called
guamuckil, and the fruit is boiled and eaten. In Manila, the species is
grown for its fruit, which is eaten. The sweet, firm pulp in the curiously
twisted pods is eaten.
P. lobatum Benth.
Mexico and the West Indies. The pulp about the seed is eaten by the
natives. In the West Indies it is eaten by the negroes.
Europe, Asia and North America. In China, this plant was formerly
eaten as a potherb.
Shores of Europe and of the United States from New Jersey northward.
Kalm says the French boil its leaves in a broth on their sea voyages, or
eat them as a salad. It may likewise be pickled like samphire.
Burma and Malay. The leaves of this thorny shrub are largely
consumed by the natives in their curries. The pulp enclosing the seeds
is eaten by the natives but, to the European taste, is not very palatable.
In India, says Ainslie, the fruit is eaten by the natives, and the leaves are
also used as food, being put in curries as seasoners.
.Brazil. This plant produces an oval or oblong drupe, very little smaller
than an egg, yellow at ripening, the kernel of which is covered with a
sweet, aromatic and nutritious pulp.
P. rufa Arruda.
P. umbrosissima Arruda.
East Indies and Malay. The leaves are said to be eaten as a vegetable.
Fuego and the Falkland Islands. Ross says the lower part of the culm in
the tussock is so fleshy and juicy that when a tuft of leaves is drawn out
from a tussock-bog, an inch of the base, about the thickness of a finger,
affords a very sweet morsel, with flavor like nuts. Two men subsisted
almost entirely upon this substance for 14 months.
New Zealand. The white, sweet fruit is eaten by the natives. The drupe is
also eaten.
New Zealand. Its young shoots are made into a beverage like spruce
beer. It has sweet, edible drupes.
India. The berry is edible but the roots and leaves are poisonous.
East Indies. The fruits, cherry-shaped and dark red, are eaten by the
natives but are astringent. The plant has black berries, fleshy, smooth
and of an acid-sweet taste.
Temperate and tropical Asia. The roots and tender leaves were eaten in
China in the fourteenth century.
P. theezans Linn.
Java and Japan. The Japanese and Javanese use the leaves as tea.
Northern regions. The root, says Johnson, macerated for some time in
water, yields a substance capable of being used as food and consisting
principally of starch. The young shoots form an excellent vegetable
when boiled and eaten like asparagus and are largely consumed in
Turkey. The European form of the species, mentioned by Titford, is
well known to the negroes in Jamaica, who eat it boiled, and the
Indians in North America also feed upon the root. Parkman states that
the roots of Solomon's Seal were used as food by starving Frenchmen.
Europe and Siberia. The roots have been used, says Withering, made
into bread in times of scarcity but they require boiling or baking before
use.
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Polygonum alpinum All. Polygonaceae. ALPINE KNOTWEED.
Northern regions. The leaves "are by some boiled in the spring and
eaten as greens." Though very astringent and bitter to the taste in a raw
state, says Johnson, the root contains an abundance of starch and,
after being steeped in water and roasted, becomes edible. A
considerable quantity of the root thus prepared is consumed in Russia
and Siberia in times of scarcity, as a substitute for bread. In the
southern counties of England, the young shoots were formerly in
request as an ingredient in herb puddings and as a green vegetable but
they are now little used. The root, called ma-shu by the western
Eskimos, says Seemann, is an article of food with them and, after being
roasted in the ashes, is not unlike a potato, though not so soft and
nutritious.
P. multiflorum Thunb.
P. odoratum Lour.
Arctic regions and mountains south to the shore of Lake Superior. Its
roots, according to Gmelin, are collected by the Samoyedes and eaten.
Lightfoot says the people of Kamchatka and sometimes the Norwegians,
when pressed with hunger, feed upon the roots. In Sweden it is called
mortog or swinegrass.
The roots of this fern, says Hooker, are roasted on the embers and
constitute an article of food for the Indians of the northwest.
Islands of the Pacific. This species is planted around dwellings for its
sweet and edible fruit.
Northern regions. The inner bark of this species, of P. nigra Linn. and P.
tremula Linn. is occasionally used in northern Europe and Asia as a
substitute for flour in making bread. The soft, new wool of the poplar,
says Dall, is cut fine and mixed with his tobacco by the economical
Indian of Alaska.
Peru. The berries as well as the flowers are eaten by the inhabitants of
Peru.
A native of tropical and subtropical regions but now spread over nearly
the whole world. The fact that this plant is recorded as having reached
England only in 1582 would seem to indicate its origin as recent in
Europe. Unger says it is the andracken of Theophrastus and
Dioscorides and is a widely-distributed plant of the Mediterranean
region, occurring everywhere and readily entering the loose soil of the
gardens. In the thirteenth century, Albertus Magnus does not mention
its culture in gardens and apparently refers to the wild form, "the stems
extending over the soil." In 1536, Ruellius describes the erect, green-
leaved, cultivated form, as well as the wild, procumbent form, and in
this he is followed by many of the succeeding botanists. Three varieties
are described; the green, the golden and the large-leaved golden. The
golden varieties are not mentioned by Bauhin in his Phytopinax, 1596,
nor in his Pinax, 1623, but are mentioned as if well known in Le
Jardinier Solitaire, 1612. The green variety is figured by nearly all the
earlier botanists. The golden has the following synonymy:
Pourpier dore. Le Jard. Solit. 378. 1612; Toum. 236. 1719; Vilm. 518.
1883.
Red or Golden. Quintyne 199. 1693.
Portulaca sativa lutea sive aurea. Ray 1039. 1688.
Golden purslane. Ray 1039. 1688; Townsend 19. 1726; Mawe. 1778;
Burr 392. 1863.
In England, Mclntosh says the young shoots and leaves are used in
summer salads and are sometimes used in French and Italian soups
and in pickles. This purslane is cultivated in Yemen, sold in bundles
at Mocha and, in Burma, is used by the natives for a potherb. In 1605,
Champlain says the Indians on the Maine coast brought him "purslane,
which grows in large quantities among the Indian corn, and of which
they made no more account than of weeds." Cutler, 1785, says it occurs
in cornfields and is eaten as a potherb and is esteemed by some as little
inferior to asparagus. It was previously mentioned by Josselyn prior to
1670. Purslane has never been much valued in America. In 1819,
Cobbett mentions it in his American Gardener, as "a mischievous weed
that Frenchmen and pigs eat when they can get nothing else. Both use
it in salad, that is to say, raw." Sir Richard Hawkins, at the Island of
Saint Anna, off Cape Saint Thomas, found great store "of the hearbe
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purslane " which was very useful to his scurvy-suffering crew. Purslane
is also mentioned by Nieuhoff as cultivated in Brazil in 1647.
P. quadrifida Linn.
P. retusa Engelm.
Northern Asia and Europe. Johnson says by long boiling the tannin of
the root is converted into gum and the roots so treated have
occasionally been eaten in times of scarcity.
North temperate regions. The young and tender leaves of burnet taste
somewhat like a green cucumber and are employed in salads. It is
rarely cultivated in the gardens but occurs in all our books on
gardening. Three varieties are described by Burr: the Smooth-leaved,
the Hairy-leaved and the Large-seeded. This latter he deems but a
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seminal variation and a subvariety only. The following synonymy seems
clear:
I.
Pimpinella sanguisorba minor laevis. Bauh. Phytopin. 282. 1596.
Poterium sanguisorba, var. B. Linn. Sp. 1411. Smooth-leaved. Burr
319. 1863.
II.
Sanguisorba minor. Fuch. 790. 1542.
Pimpinella and Bipinelia. Ang. Burnet Advers. 320. 1570; Lob; Obs.
412. 1576; ic. 1:718. 1591.
Small or Garden Pimpernell. Lyte's Dod. 152. 1586.
Pimpinella minor. Lugd. 1087. 1587.
Pimpinella sanguisorba minor hirsuta. Bauh. Phytopin. 282. 1596.
Pimpinella vulgaris sive minor. Ray 401. 1686.
Poterium sanguisorba. Linn. Sp. 1411.
Hairy-leaved Burnet. Burr 319. 1863.
East Indies. A small shrub the leaves of which are eaten in Sikkim.
East Indies and Malay. Ainslie says the leaves are eaten by the
inhabitants of the Coromandel coast.
P. latifolia Roxb.
East Indies. The leaves have a strong but not disagreeable odor and are
eaten by the natives in their curries.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The flowers are picked when first open and
fermented with water and sugar. The liquor, when, well prepared, is
pleasant in flavor and very intoxicating, resembling in taste some of the
sweet wines of the south of France. In many parts of England, primrose
flowers are collected in large quantities for this purpose. The leaves also
are wholesome and may be eaten as a salad or boiled as a green
potherb.
Antarctics. This plant was first discovered by Captain Cook and was
subsequently observed by Hooker on Kerguelen's Land, a cold, humid,
barren, volcanic rock of the southern ocean. Its rootstocks are from
three to four feet long and lie close to the ground, bearing at their
extremities large heads of leaves closely resembling cabbages. Ross says
the root tastes like horseradish, and the young leaves or hearts
resemble in flavor coarse mustard and cress. For 130 days his crews
required no fresh vegetables but this.
South Africa. Henfrey says the leaves are used as a tea at the Cape of
Good Hope.
South Africa. The plant grows in the beds of rivers and the heart is
edible.
Jamaica and Panama. The enormous seeds have edible embryos. They
are sold in Panama under the name cativa.
Chile and the Argentine Republic. The small tubers can be used for
food.
Tropical America. The legumes of this tree, gathered a little before they
are ripe, are used in South America to fatten cattle. Later, its seeds,
ground to powder, constitute the principal food of many of the
inhabitants of Brazil, who call it algaroba. To this species is referred the
fruit mentioned by de la Vega as called paccay by the Indians of Peru
and guava by the Spaniards, of which he says: "It consists of a pod
about a quarta long, more or less, and two fingers in width. On opening
it one finds some white stuff exactly like cotton. It is so like, that
Spaniards, who did not know the fruit, have been known to scold the
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Indians who gave it to them to eat, thinking they were offering cotton by
way of joke. They are very sweet and after being exposed to the sun, will
keep very long. Within the white pulp there is a black pip, like a bean,
which is not good to eat." Don says the pulp contained in the pods is
very sweet and is eaten in Brazil. Pickering says it is called pacai in
Peru, and that its pods are sold in the markets of Lima.
Tropical America. Cieza de Leon says the pods of this algaroba are
"somewhat long and narrow and not so thick as the pods of beans. In
some parts they make bread of these algarobas." Markham says the
tree is called guaranga. Don says the natives of the coast of Peru and
Chile eat the pulp contained in the pods. The abundant fruit is eaten by
the Indians and often by the whites. E. L. Greene says the mesquite-
meal, which the Indians and Mexicans manufacture by drying and
grinding these pods and their contents, is perhaps the most nutritious
breadstuff in use among any people. The pods, from seven to nine
inches long, of a buff color, are chewed by both Indians and whites as
they journey, as a preventive of thirst. The pods in their fresh state are
prepared and eaten by the Indians and are among the luxuries of the
Apaches, Pimas, Maricopas, Tumas and other tribes of New Mexico,
Utah, Nevada and southern California. A gum exudes from the tree
which closely resembles gum arabic.
Texas, Mexico and California. The pods are pounded into meal and are
used as food by the Indians. Whipple says it forms a favorite article of
food with the Indians of the Gila and Colorado rivers. Greene says it
has the same nutritious properties as P. juliflora.
P. spicigera Linn.
Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This plum is cultivated for its fruit and
has a number of varieties. It was, says Pickering, from early times
planted by the New England Indians. During the ripening of the fruit,
the western Indians live sumptuously and collect quantities for drying.
North Africa and the Orient. The chief distinction between the almond
and the peach lies in the fruit, which, in the almond, consists of little
more than a stone covered with a thick, dry, wooly skin, while the peach
has in addition a rich and luscious flesh. The almond has long been
known to cultivation. Those with sweet and bitter kernels were known
to the Hebrews and were carried by the Phoenicians to the Hesperian
peninsula. The almond was sacred to Cybele, in Greece, where even at
that time there were ten kinds, with sweet and with bitter nuts, Phyllis
hung herself on an almond tree and was transfigured into it. Cato called
it nux Graica and Pliny mentions it. Charlemagne caused
amandalarios to be planted on his estate.
Unger deems the tree indigenous to western Asia and north Africa.
Pickering ascribes its origin to the Tauro-Caspian countries and others
to Barbary, Morocco, Persia and China. Brandis says it is indigenous
about Lebanon, Kurdistan and in Turkestan. At the present time, it is
distributed over the whole of southern Europe, the Levant, Persia,
Arabia, China, Java, Madeira, the Azores and the Canary Islands. As a
garden plant, it has existed in England since 1548 certainly. In the
United States, certain varieties are deemed hardy in the latitude of New
York.
The kernels of the sweet variety are eaten as dessert and are largely
used in confectionery and in cooking; those of the bitter almond are
used in the preparation of noyau and for flavoring confectionery. Both
varieties yield by pressure an odorless, fixed oil which is of an innocent
nature. The bitter almond contains a crystalizable substance called
amygdalin, which, by the action of the nitrogenous emulsion present,
when in contact with water, is converted into a fragrant volatile oil, the
essential oil of bitter almonds and prussic acid. The sweet almond
contains the emulsion but no amygdalin, hence is not harmful as food.
When a tree is raised frcm either variety both bitter and sweet almonds
are frequently found borne by the same tree.
In the United States, there is no mention of this fruit earlier than 1720,
when they were said to be growing abundantly in Virginia. In 1835,
there were 17 varieties in Britain. Downing names 26 in his edition of
American Fruits of 1866 and the American Pomological Society in
1879. In Ladakh, according to Moorcroft, 10 varieties are cultivated, all
raised from seed but one, which is propagated by budding. In Kabul,
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sorts are grown, according to Harlan. The apricot is cultivated
throughout the entire East even to Cashmere and northern India, in
China and Japan, northern Africa and southern Europe. About
Damascus, it is cultivated extensively and a marmalade is made from
the fruit for sale. In the oases of Upper Egypt, the fruit of a variety called
musch-musch is dried in large quantities for the purpose of commerce.
The fruit in general is roundish, orange or brownish-orange, with a
more or less deep orange-colored flesh; the kernel in some sorts is
bitter, in others as sweet as a nut. Erdman describes the "wild peach"
of Nerchinsk, Siberia, as a true apricot, containing a very agreeable
kernel in a fleshless envelope. Harlan describes a variety of Kabul as so
especially lucious as to require careful manipulation in gathering, so
delicate that if one should fall to the ground, the shape would be
destroyed.
P. aspera Thunb.
Europe and the Caucasus. This is the species from which sweet cherries
have sprung, The wild species is small and of little value for eating. The
fruits are employed in Switzerland and Germany in the distillation of a
spirit known as kirschwasser. Of the cultivated fruits of this species,
more than 75 varieties are described. The fruit is well esteemed, but
Hasselquist says the gum may also be eaten and that a hundred men
during a siege were kept alive for two months on the gum of the cherry
alone. Cherry stones were among the seeds mentioned in 1629 to be
sent the Massachusetts Company; they were also planted at Yonkers, N.
Y., about 1650, as well as in Rhode Island, and, in 1669. Shrigley says
they were cultivated in Virginia and Maryland.
Gallia. The fruit is borne in clusters, is round, yellow and plum-like but
is scarcely eatable. In France and Piedmont, the kernels are used to
procure the huille des mar-mottes, an oil considered superior to olive
oil.
A large tree of Japan. The fruit is small and inferior but is sometimes
gathered and pickled in salt, when it is eaten as a condiment or
appetizer.
P. capollin Zucc.
Europe and Orient. More than 50 varieties of this cherry are under
cultivation. About Lake Como, Italy, a variety grows abundantly which
is a sort of Morello. In Asia Minor, Walsh describes two delicious
varieties as growing wild and cultivated in gardens. This cherry is
mentioned by Theophrastus, about 300 B. C., and Pliny states that it
was brought to Italy by Lucullus after his victory over Mithridates, and
he also states that, in less than 120 years after, other lands had cherries
even as far as Britain beyond the ocean. Disraeli remarks that "to our
shame it must be told that these cherries from the King of Pontus' city
of Cerasuntis are not the cherries we are now eating; for the whole race
of cherry-trees was lost in the Saxon period and was only restored by
the gardener of Henry VIII who brought them from Flanders." Loudon
says the Romans had kinds and, in England in 1640, there were 24
sorts. The Red Kentish, referred to this class, was the cherry grown by
the Massachusetts colonists.
P. chamaecerasus Jacq.
P. divaricata Ledeb.
Turkestan. The fruits are red, yellow and black and of the size, form
and taste of the Mirabelle plum. According to Capus, the natives collect
and dry the fruit but do not cultivate the tree.
Europe and the Caucasus. The common plum came originally, says
Unger, from the Caucasus and is cultivated extensively in Syria, where
it has passed into numerous varieties. It is now naturalized in Greece
and in other regions of temperate Europe. Cultivated varieties,
according to Pliny, were brought from Syria into Greece and thence into
Italy. Faulken says the plum was introduced from Asia into Europe
during the crusades. Gough says the Perdrigon plum was brought into
England in the time of Henry VII. Plum stones were among the seeds
mentioned in the Memorandum of Mar. 16, 1629, to be sent to the
Massachusetts Company. The fruit of the plum ranges through many
colors, from black to white, and is covered with a rich, glaucous bloom
About 150 varieties appear in the catalogs of American nurserymen.
The plum is not only delicious eating, in its best varieties, but the fruit
of some is largely used for prunes, and, in Hungary, an excellent
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brandy is distilled from the fermented juice of the fruit.
P. incisa Thunb.
Europe, Asia Minor and Himalayas. This plum is found wild in the
Caucasus and throughout Europe. The fruit is globular, black or white,
of an acid taste but not unpleasant, especially when mellowed by frost;
it makes a good conserve. A variety with yellow fruit is sold in the
London markets under the name of the White Damson, according to
Thompson. From this species has come the cultivated damson plums.
The damson plum, says Targioni-Tozzetti, was introduced from the
East since the day of Cato, who was born 232 B, C. The damson plum
was brought into Europe, according to Michaud, by the Duke of Anjou,
in the fifth crusade, 1198-1204, from a visit to Jerusalem.
Japan and China. This plum is much grown in Japan for ornament and
for fruit. The plum has a sweet and agreeable flavor.
P. jenkinsii Hook. f.
Assam. This Prunus thrives and bears fruit at Gowhatty, India. The
fruit is only eatable in tarts or preserved in brandy.
Eastern North America. The beach plum forms a low bush or small tree
on the sea-coast extending from Maine to the Gulf; it seldom ripens its
fruit in the interior. This is probably one of the plums mentioned by
Edward Winslow, 1621, and by Rev. Francis Higginson, 1629. The fruit
is from a half-inch to an inch in diameter, varies from crimson to purple
and is agreeable to eat. It is preserved in considerable quantities in
Massachusetts. Downing says the plum is red or purple, covered with
a bloom, pleasant but somewhat astringent.
Japan. The fruit is hard and sour and as a rule is eaten salted or dried.
It is also made into vinegar. This species is cultivated chiefly on account
of its blossoms. In China, the blossoms are used for scenting tea.
Europe and northern Asia. The fruit is sour, with a slight mawkish,
astringent flavor but is much eaten by the Hill People of India. In
Sweden and Lapland and some parts of Russia, the bruised fruit is
fermented and a spirit is distilled from it. Lightfoot says the black fruit,
of the size of grapes, of a nauseous taste, is eaten in Sweden and
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Kamchatka and is used in brandy in Scotland. The hagberry of
Scotland is said by Macgillivray to be small, round, black, harsh and
nauseous. De Candolle says a variety occurs with yellow fruit.
P. paniculata Thunb.
Japan. This is the Yung-fo of China but cultivated there only for
ornament at Canton, where it rarely fruits. This species was introduced
into England in 1819. The cherries are said by Knight to be middle-
sized, reddish-amber in color, very sweet, juicy and excellent. Smith
says, in China, its fruit is preserved as a sweetmeat with honey.
Eastern North America. Vasey n says the fruit is sour and unpleasant;
Pursh, that it is agreeable to eat; Wood, that it is red and acid.
Orient. The peach was known to Theophrastus, 322 B. C., who speaks
of it as a fruit of Persia, but Xenophon, 401 B. C., makes no mention of
the peach. The Hebrew books are also without mention and there
seems to be no Sanscrit name. The peach seems to have reached
Europe at about the commencement of the Christian era. Dioscorides,
who flourished about 60 A. D., speaks of the peach, and Pliny, A. D. 79,
expressly states that it was imported by the Romans from Persia not
long before. He also adds that this tree was brought from Egypt to the
Isle of Rhodes, where it could never be made to produce fruit, and
thence to Italy. He says it was not then a common fruit in Greece. At
this time, from two to five varieties alone were known and the nectarine
was unknown. No mention is made of the peach by Cato, 201 B. C., and
Columella, 42 A. D., speaks of it as being cultivated in France. In China,
De Candolle says its culture dates to a remote antiquity and the
Chinese have a multitude of superstitious ideas and legends about the
properties of the different varieties, whose number is very large. He also
says the peach is mentioned in the books of Confucius, fifth century
before Christ, and it is represented in sculpture and on porcelain.
Brandis says the cultivation of the peach in China has been traced back
to the tenth century, B. C.
The peach is raised with such facility from the stone that its diffusion
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along routes of communication must necessarily have been very rapid.
If its origin is to be ascribed to China, the stones may have been carried
with the caravans into Kashmir or Bokhara and Persia between the time
of the Sanscrit emigration and the intercourse of the Persians with the
Greeks. It is quite possible that the long delay in its diffusion was
caused by the inferior quality of the peach in its first deviation over that
which it possesses at present. The peach was introduced from China
into Cochin China and Japan. Mclntosh says it reached England about
the middle of the sixteenth century, probably from France. Peach stones
were among the seeds ordered by the Governor and Company for the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in 1629. About 1683,
Stacy, writing from New Jersey, said "we have peaches by cart loads." A
Description of New Albion, 1648, records, "Peaches better than
apricocks by some doe feed Hogs, one man hath ten thousand trees."
Hilton says of Florida, 1664, "The country abounds with Grapes, large
Figs, and Peaches." William Penn, in a letter dated Aug. 16, 1683, says
of Philadelphia, "There are also very good peaches, and in great
quantities; not an Indian plantation without them . . . not inferior to any
peach you have in England, except the Newington." Beverly mentions
the peach as growing abundantly in Virginia in 1720. Colden mentions
the peach trees killed by frost in New York in 1737. At Easton,
Maryland, Peach Blossom Plantation was established about 1735.
P. prostrata Labill.
P. puddum Roxb.
Himalayan region. The fruit is acid and astringent, not much eaten or
valued. Royle says it is not edible but is employed for making a well-
flavored cherry brandy.
Northern United States. The fruit is small, dark red and eatable. In the
Indian Territory, every Indian goes to the plum ground in the season to
collect the fruit, which is dried and preserved. From Lake Superior to
Elk River on the 57th parallel, Richardson found what he took to be
this species with very sweet fruit.
Texas. This is a small shrub, not uncommon on the Colorado and its
tributaries, bearing excellent, red plums in August and September.
Siberia. The fruit is small, sour or acid, and contains a bitter kernel.
China. This plum was introduced into America from France. The fruit,
though large, handsome and of firm flesh, has little merit.
P. sphaerocarpa Sw.
Tropical America. From the seeds, cherry, plum and damson wine is
flavored.
Europe, north Africa, the Orient and now naturalized in the United
States. The fruit is like a small plum, nearly glabrous, black, covered
with a bluish bloom and has a very austere taste. The fruit is eaten in
some districts of northern Europe and with sugar makes a very good
conserve. The leaves are used to adulterate tea. The juice of the ripe
fruit is said to enter largely into the manufacture of the cheaper kinds of
port wine. In France, the unripe fruit is pickled, as a substitute for
olives, and, in Germany and Russia, the fruit is crushed, fermented with
water and a spirit is distilled from it.
P. tomentosa Thunb.
East Asia. This species is a bush or very small tree. The fruit ripens
early in the summer, is of cherry size and of good quality. The unripe
fruit is also pickled or boiled in honey and is served as a delicacy.
Burma, China and Japan. This plant is now common in the gardens of
India. It is cultivated in China, Japan and now in Europe and America.
A small tree from Georgia to Florida. The fruit is pleasantly acid and is
employed in preserves.
Syria. This plum bears sweet, pleasant fruit, the size of a damson and
serves as food.
A tall shrub of North America, seldom a tree, the fruit of which is very
austere and astringent until perfectly ripe. The fruit differs much on
different plants, being sometimes very austere, sometimes very juicy
and pleasant with little astringency. Wood, in his New England's
Prospects, mentions choke cherries and says they are very austere and
as yet "as wilde as the Indians." Tytler says the fruit is not very edible
but forms a desirable addition to pemmican when dried and bruised.
The fruit is now much used by the Indians of the West, and the bark is
made into a tea and drunk by some of them. The purplish-black or red
fruit is sweet and edible but is somewhat astringent.
Of the cold zone of the Peruvian Andes. A high, evergreen bush with red
berries of the size of a hazelnut.
A tree of the higher regions on the Amazon River. Its fruit is pale yellow
and of apple size.
West Indies and Guiana to Peru and southern Brazil. The greenish-
yellow fruit is of excellent taste. The berry is the size of a nutmeg.
P. chrysophyllum F. Muell.
P. cinereum Mart.
P. cuneatum Cambess.
P. grandifolium Mart.
Tropical America. There are two varieties which are by some classed as
species: P. pomiferum Linn., the apple-shaped, and P. pyriforme Griseb.
or pyriferum Linn., the pear-shaped. This species is very largely
cultivated in the vicinity of Campos, Brazil. The fruit is made into a
sweetmeat and is exported in great quantities. In the Quito region, says
Henera, there are guayabos that produce fruit like apples, with many
kernels, some white and some red, well tasted and wholesome. The fruit
is globular, varying from the size of a plum to that of an apple and
resembles an orange. The taste is rather bitter but the fruit makes an
excellent preserve. The cultivation of the guava has been carried on
from time immemorial, as is shown by the fruit frequently being
seedless. The guava reached the East Indies through the agency of the
Portuguese and Spaniards. It has but recently reached China and the
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Philippines, the west coast of Africa and the Island of Mauritius. Voight
says, in India, its fruit is of a delicious flavor. Firminger states that
those he has gathered have been nothing better than a hard, uneatable
berry. The guava is cultivated in the West Indies, in Florida and
elsewhere, and the fruits are occasionally seedless. The fruit is smooth,
crowned with the calyx, not unlike in shape and size to a pomegranate,
having an agreeable smell and turning yellow when ripe. The rind is
about an eighth of an inch in thickness, brittle and fleshy and contains
a firm pulp of white, red or yellow color in the different varieties and is
of an agreeable taste. It is full of bony seeds. The fruit is esteemed raw
and also in preserves.
P. incanescens Mart.
P. indicum Raddi.
A large tree of West Indies. The fruit is eatable, green in color and soft
when ripe. It has a very pleasing smell, like that of strawberries, which
the pulp also resembles in taste, leaving its rich flavor on the palate for
some time after eating. This fruit makes excellent marmalade. The fruit
is edible.
P. pigmeum Arruda.
P. polycarpon Lamb.
Tropical America. The berries are yellow, the size of a cherry and of
exquisite taste. The fruit is yellow inside, the size of a plum and of a
delicate taste.
P. rufum Mart.
This plant is grown in India for the sake of its edible seeds and also for
use as a string bean. The pod is six to eight inches long, half an inch
wide, with a leafy kind of fringe running along the length of its four
corners. The pod is cooked whole and, says Firminger, is a vegetable of
little value. Wight calls it a passable vegetable. In the Mauritius, the
plant is called po'is carres and is cultivated for the seeds. In Burma and
the Philippines, the pods are eaten. Pickering says it is a native of
equatorial Africa and says "the kidney beans of the finest quality,"
observed by Cada Mosto in Senegal in 1455, belong here.
P. canescens Michx.
P. castorea S. Wats.
Chile. The roots are dried and smoked. The plant has been introduced
into the Mauritius where the leaves are used as a tea substitute. In
Chile, it is called culen.
Eastern United States. The fruit, a winged seed, is bitter and has been
used as a substitute for hops.
China and Japan. The roots are fleshy and yield a starch of excellent
quality. The wild plants are dug for their roots. The roots contain
starch, while the leaves and shoots are used as food.
P. tuberosa DC.
Tropical India and Burma. Brandis1 says the large, tuberous roots are
eaten.
South Europe. In Yemen, this species is cultivated for its pleasant odor
and edible leaves.
There are many varieties, some with sour, others with subacid, others
with sweet fruit. These are generally described as about the size of the
fist, with a tough, leathery rind of a beautiful, deep golden color tinged
with red and are crowned with the remains of the calyx lobes. The wild
fruit is brought down to India from the Hill Regions for sale, but the
best fruit, that having sweet juice and very small seeds, comes from
Kabul. Burton describes in Arabia three kinds: Shami, red outside, and
very sweet—than which he never saw a finer fruit in the East, except at
Mecca — it was almost stoneless, deliciously perfumed and as large as
an infant's head; Turki, large, and of a white color; Misri, with a greenish
rind and a somewhat subacid and harsh flavor.
North America. This species differs little from the P. coronaria of which
it may be a variety. Its range is not well known but it occurs in Virginia,
Kansas and the western states. It is good for preserves and sauces.
Europe and northern Asia. The berries of this species occur in the
debris of the lake settlements of Switzerland. Johnson says the fruit is
edible when mellowed by frost and that, fermented and distilled, it
yields a good spirit. Dried and formed into a bread, it has been eaten in
France and Sweden in time of scarcity. In India, the fruit is eaten when
half rotten.
China. The flowers, leaves and fruit are edible. It was noted in China in
the fourteenth century.
Europe, northern Asia and the Himalayan region. The pear is a native of
Europe and the Caucasian countries. It has been in cultivation from
time immemorial. The fruit tree figured in one of the tombs at Gurna
seems to belong here, and Heer states that a small-fruited kind appears
in the debris of the earliest lake villages of Switzerland. Unger states
that pears were raised in the gardens of the Phoenicians, and Thasos
was celebrated in ancient times on account of the excellence of its pears.
The primitive festival of the Ballachrades of the Argives with the wild
pear (achras) had reference to this first article of food of their
forefathers. The Jews were acquainted with greatly improved varieties,
but the Romans first occupied themselves more closely with its
cultivation and produced numerous sorts. Theophrastus knew 3 kinds
of pears; Cato, 6; Pliny, 41; and Palladius, 56. Targioni-Tozzetti says
that in Tuscany, under the Medici, in a manuscript list of the fruits
served at the table of the Grand Duke Cosmo III, is an enumeration of
209 different varieties, and another manuscript of that time raises the
number to 232. In Britain, in 1640, 64 kinds were cultivated, and in
1842 more than 700 sorts had been proved in the Horticultural
Society's gardens to be distinct. In 1866, Field gives a catalog of 850
varieties, of which 683 are of European origin. The American
Pomological Society's Catalog of 1879, names 115 distinct kinds which
are considered desirable for culture. The pear is now found in Europe,
Circassia, central Asia, the north of China and Japan, as well as in
America but is not grown in southern India, nor in Norway. Pear seeds
were mentioned in the Memorandum of March 16, 1629, to be sent to
the Massachusetts Company; in or about 1640, a tree was imported by
Governor Prince and planted at Eastman, Massachusetts, and one
about the same time was planted at Yarmouth, Massachusetts. The
Stuyvesant pear tree was planted in New Amsterdam in 1647 and is
said to have been imported from Holland. In 1648, it is said in A
Perfect Description of Virginia that "Mr. Richard Kinsman hath had for
this three or four years forty or fifty Butts of Perry made out of his
orchard, pure and good." On the banks of the Detroit River pears were
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planted as early as 1705 by the French settlers.
Eastern North America. This is, perhaps, the apple seen by Verazzano
in 1524 on the New England coast. The fruit is about an inch in
diameter, very acid and uneatable; it is, however, used for preserves
and for making cider.
P. intermedia Ehrh.
The Japanese quince is said to have been first introduced into Europe
in 1815. The fruit of the variety, says Downing, is dark green, very
hard and has a peculiar and not unpleasant smell. In the Michigan
Pomological Society's Report, the fruit is said to be sometimes used in
jellies. E. Y. Teas, a correspondent of Case's Botanical Index, says he
has seen specimens two by three inches in diameter, with a fine fleshy
texture, abounding in a rich, aromatic juice, as tart as and very much
like a lemon, readily producing a jelly of the finest quality and most
delightful flavor. When baked or stewed, the fruit becomes very fine.
P. lanata D. Don.
Forests of temperate Europe and Asia. The apple has been cultivated
from remote time. Carbonized apples have been found in the ancient
lake habitations of Switzerland, at Wangen, at Robenhausen and at
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Concise, but these are small and resemble those which still grow wild in
the Swiss forests. Apples were raised in the gardens of the Phoenicians.
They are noticed by Sappho, Theocritus and Tibullus. Theophrastus
knew 2 kinds of apples; Cato, 7; Pliny, 36; Palladius, 37. Varro, in the
first century B. C., reports that, when he led his army through
Transalpine Gaul as far as the Rhine, he passed through a country that
had not the apple. According to Targioni-Tozzetti, in a manuscript list
of the fruits served up in the course of the year 1670 at the table of the
Grand Duke Cosmo III, of Tuscany, 56 sorts are described, 52 of which
are figured by Costello. In England, 1640, Parkinson enumerates 59
sorts. In 1669, Worlidge gives a list of 92, chiefly cider apples. In 1697,
Meager gives a list of 83 as cultivated in the London nurseries of his
day. Yet Hartlibb, 1651, mentions 200 and was of opinion that 500
varieties existed.
The apple grows in Scandinavia as far as 62° north, in the Orkneys 60°
north and, according to Rhind, bears very fair fruit. Apples are grown
in. northern Russia but the most esteemed come to St. Petersburg from
the Crimea. They are plentiful in Britain, France, Switzerland and
Germany. The fruit is said to be poor in Italy, as in Greece. In America,
the apple bears fair fruit as far north as Quebec and is found in
varieties in all the states even to Mexico. In Venezuela, the fruit is noted
by Humboldt to be of good quality. In Peru, the apple is said to be
uneatable. In La Plata, the tree grows well, but the fruit is of poor
quality. A dwarf form is called the Paradise apple and another, in
France, the Doucin, or St. Johns apple. On account of rapid and low
growth, these dwarfs are principally used as stocks for dwarf apples.
The hills of India. The fruit is edible when it has become somewhat
decayed. It is even then harsh and not sweet.
Southern Siberia, northern China and Tartary. This is one of the forms
of the tree cultivated as the Siberian Crab.
This species is wild and cultivated about Aurelia in France. The fruit is
thick, long and fit for perry.
P. sinensis Poir.
North Africa and Europe. The fruit is about the size of a gooseberry and
is acerb. It is used in Brittany for making a cider, which, however, has
an unpleasant smell. There is a pear-shaped, an apple-shaped and a
berry-shaped variety. In the Crimea, there is a variety with a large, red
fruit the shape of a pear.
China. The fruit is small, round, angular and about the size of a cherry,
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yellow when ripe but flavorless and fit to eat only when in a state of
incipient decay at which period it takes the color and taste of the
medlar. There are several varieties in cultivation.
P. syriaca Boiss.
Europe. The small fruits, which are greenish, with dark spots, have an
extremely acid flavor but, when affected by frost, become mealy and
rather agreeable to the taste. They are sometimes collected and sold in
the shops in England. The fruit is sold in the London markets.
Syria. This species has fruits of a pleasant flavor, tasting like pears,
according to Kotschy; they are frequently collected and brought to
market in Damascus.
South Europe and Syria. The cups, known as valonia, are used for
tanning and dyeing as are the unripe acorns called camata or
camatina. The ripe acorns are eaten raw or boiled.
Northeast America. The dried acorns are macerated in water for food by
the natives on the Roanoke. Acorns were dried and boiled for food by
the Narragansetts. Oak acorns were mixed with their pottage by the
Indians of Massachusetts. Baskets full of parched acorns, hid in the
ground, were discovered by the Pilgrims December 7, 1620. White oak
acorns were boiled for "oyl" by the natives of New England. The fruit of
some trees is quite pleasant to the taste, especially when roasted.
Europe and the Orient. The trees are visited in August by immense
numbers of a small, white coccus insect, from the puncture of which a
saccharine fluid exudes and solidifies in little grains. The wandering
tribes of Kurdistan collect this saccharine secretion by dipping the
branches on which it forms into hot water and evaporating to a syrupy
consistence. In this state, the syrup is used for sweetening food or is
mixed with flour to form a sort of cake.
Q. cornea Lour.
China. The acorns are used for food. Loudon says the acorns are
ground into a paste in China, which, mixed with the flour of corn, is
made into cakes.
Q. cuspidata Thunb.
Q. emoryi Torr.
Western North America. This tree furnishes acorns, which are used by
the Indians of the West as a food.
Western North America. The acorns furnish the Indians with food and
are stored by them for future use.
Mediterranean region and the Orient. From varieties of this tree, says
Mueller, are obtained the sweet and nourishing ballota and chestnut
acorns. Figuier says this species is common in the south of France, and
that the acorns are sweet and eatable. Brandis says the acorns form an
important article of food in Spain and Algeria. The acorns are eaten in
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Barbary, Spain and Portugal under the name of belote. In Arabia, also,
they are eaten cooked, and an oil is extracted from them. In Palestine,
they are sold in all the bazaars.
California. The acorns form a large proportion of the winter food of the
Indians of North California The acorns, from their abundance and
edible nature, form a very important part of the subsistence of the
Digger Indians and are collected and stored for winter use.
North America. The large, sweet, edible acorns are eagerly devoured by
cattle and other animals.
California and New Mexico. This species furnishes the Indians of the
West with acorns for food use.
South Europe and northern Africa. Bosc alleges that its acorns may be
eaten in cases of necessity, especially when roasted. This species was
distributed from the Patent Office in 1855.
Old World tropics and India. The unripe fruit is bruised, pounded and
used to poison fish; when ripe it is roasted and eaten.
R. ruiziana DC.
R. uliginosa Poir.
Europe and naturalized in the United States. Lightfoot says the roots
when boiled become so mild as to be eatable.
Asia Minor and north Persia. The small tubers, together with the young
stems and leaves of the blossoms, serve as food. It is called
morchserdag or egg-yolk, on account of the yellow color of the flowers.
North temperate regions. This species has less of the acrid quality which
is found in most species of the genus and is said to be eaten in Europe
as a potherb.
R. sceleratus Linn.
Italy. The radical leaves are prepared with oil and eaten as a salad by
the poor inhabitants of Insubri.
China may be considered the native land of the radish where, as in the
neighboring country of Japan, it runs into many varieties, among them
an oil plant. The radish, however, is found wild in the Mediterranean
region, as in Spain, in Sardinia, more frequently in Greece and is
mentioned so frequently by ancient writers that some authors think it
may be a cultivated form of R. raphanistrum. Radishes were extensively
cultivated in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. So highly did the
ancient Greeks esteem the radish, says Mclntosh, that, in offering their
oblations to Apollo, they presented turnips in lead and beets in silver,
whereas radishes were presented in beaten gold. The Greeks appear to
have been acquainted with three varieties, and Moschian, one of their
physicians, wrote a book on the radish. Tragus, 1552, mentions
radishes that weighed 40 pounds, and Matthiolus, 1544, declares
having seen them weighing 100 pounds each.
This root does not appear, says Booth, to have reached England until
1548. Gerarde mentions four varieties as being grown in 1597, "eaten
raw with bread" but for the most part "used as a sauce with meates to
procure appetite." Radishes are mentioned in Mexico by P. Martyr; as
abounding in Hayti by Benzoni, 1565; and as cultivated in
Massachusetts by Wm. Wood, 1629-33. In 1806, McMahon mentions
10 sorts in his list of American garden esculents. Thorburn offers 9
varieties in his catalog of 1828 and 25 in 1881. At present, radishes are
usually eaten raw with salt as a salad but are said also to be used
occasionally otherwise; the leaves may be boiled as greens or eaten as a
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cress; the old roots may be boiled and served as asparagus; or the seed-
pods may be used for pickles. In China, a variety whose root is not
fleshy is cultivated for the oil which' is procured from the seeds. In
Japan, the roots are in general and universal use, being served as a
vegetable and in almost every dish. Miss Bird says the daikon is the
abomination of Europeans. The Lew-Chew radishes often grow, says
Morrow, between two and three feet long, more than a foot in
circumference and are boiled for food. In Sikh, India, the radish is
cultivated principally for the vegetable formed of the young pods and
for its oil. In upper Egypt, a peculiar kind is cultivated, of which, says
Klunzinger, the leaves only are eaten, and Pickering says also that the
leaves are eaten in Egypt. Bayard Taylor says the Arabs are very fond of
radish-tops and eat them with as much relish as donkeys.
I.
The round, or turnip, radish has the root swollen into a spherical form,
or an oval tube rounding at the extremity to a filiform radicle. The root
has several shades of color, from white to red or purple. Its savor is
usually milder than that of the other sorts. This seems to be the
hoeotion of Theophrastus, who described this form as the least acid, of
a rotund figure and with small leaves; it is the syriacan of Columella
and of Pliny. This sort does not appear to have received extensive
distribution northward during the Middle Ages, as it is seldom
mentioned in the earlier botanies. In 1586, Lyte says they are not very
common in Brabant; but they are figured in two varieties by Gerarde.
Here might be put the Raphanus vulgaris of Tragus, 1552, which he
describes as round, small and common in Germany. Bontius, 1658,
mentions the round radish in Java, and, in 1837, Bojer describes it as
grown at the Mauritius. In 1842, Speede gives an Indian name, gol
moolee, for the red and white kinds.
LONG RADISH.
III.
The long, white, late, large radishes cannot be recognized in the ancient
writings, unless it be the reference by Pliny to the size; some radishes,
he says, are the size of a boy infant, and Dalechamp says that such
could be seen in his day in Thuringia and Erfordia. In Japan, so says
Kizo Tamari, a Japanese commissioner to the New Orleans Exposition
of 1886, the radishes are mostly cylindrical, fusiform or club-shaped,
from one-fourth of an inch to over a foot in diameter, from six inches to
over a yard in length. J. Morrow says that Lew Chew Radishes often
grow between two and three feet long and more than twelve inches in
circumference. In 1604, Acosta writes that he had seen in the Indies
"redish rootes as bigge as a man's arme, very tender and of good taste."
These radishes are probably mentioned by Albertus Magnus in the
thirteenth century, who says that the radix are very large roots of a
pyramidal figure, with a somewhat sharp savor, but not that of
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raphanus; they are planted in gardens. This type seems to have been
the principal kind in northern Europe a few centuries later and is said
by Lyte," 1586, to be the common radish of England. In 1790, Loureiro
describes this type as cultivated in China and Cochin China, and this
seems to be the form described by Kaempfer in Japan, in 1712. The
radishes figured by the early botanists enable us to connect very closely
with modern varieties.
IV.
This radish does not seem to have been mentioned by the ancients. In
1586, Lyte says: "The radish with a black root has of late years been
brought into England and now beginnith to be common."
V.
VI.
EDIBLE-PODDED RADISH.
This radish has pods a foot or more in length and these find use as a
vegetable. The species became known to Linnaeus in 1784; it reached
England from Java about 1816 and was described by Burr as an
American kitchen-garden plant in 1863. According to Firminger, the
plant has but lately come into cultivation in India and there bears pods
often three feet in length. These pods make excellent pickles. It was at
first called in England tree radish from Java; in India, rat-tailed radish,
the name it now holds in the United States; by Burr,71863, Madras
radish; by some, aerial radish.
R. pedunculata Beauv.
Madagascar. Ellis says when a spear is struck into the thick, firm end of
the leafstalk, a stream of pure, clear water gushes out. There is a kind
of natural cavity, or cistern, at the base of the stalk of each of the leaves,
and the water collected on the broad and ribbed surface of the leaf,
flows down a groove and is stored. The seeds are edible.
A tree of Madagascar. The fruit, leaves and young bark, having the taste
of cloves, afford one of the best spices of the island. The kernel of the
fruit affords the Madagascar clove nutmegs.
A large shrub or small tree of India. The drupe is sessile, globose, one-
third of an inch in diameter or more, glabrous, greenish, with a fleshy,
sweet pericarp in a coriaceous rind. This fruit is much esteemed and
during the season is sold in most bazaars. The pulp is sweet but there
is not much of it. The Afghans sell the fruits in their bazaars under the
name of goorgoora.
Mediterranean shores and Asia Minor. Sibthorp found the leaves of this
plant cooked and eaten in Greece.
Cuba and semitropical Florida. The edible fruit ripens in April and May
and is of an agreeable flavor.
Long Island, west along the Ohio to southern Illinois. The edible fruit is
sweet and agreeable.
R. crocea Nutt.
Western North America. The berries are collected by the Apache Indians
and used as food, mixed with whatever animal substances may be at
hand. The berries impart a red color to the mixture, which is absorbed
into the circulation and tinges the skin.
R. persica Boiss.
Persia and the Himalayan region. In Persia, the fruit is sweet and edible
but emetic.
North America. The purple berries are much esteemed among the
Indians.
R. staddo A. Rich.
Abyssinia. This species forms part of a kind of beer in which its bitter
bark supplies the place of hops.
Georgia and Florida. The plant bears a brown, edible berry of a sweet
flavor.
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Rhazya stricta Decne. Apocynaceae.
A shrubby plant of western Asia. Its leaves, which are very bitter, are
collected and sold in the bazaars in Scinde, the natives using them in
the preparation of cool drinks in hot weather.
Tropical America. The fruit, from one to four inches long, yellow when
ripe, has a pleasant, acid taste.
Tartary and China; first known in Europe in, 1758. In the Bon
Jardinier, 1882, this is said to be the species principally grown in
France as a vegetable, but Vilmorin refers his varieties to Rheum
hybridum.
Mongolia. This is the species to which our largest and finest varieties
are usually referred. Rhubarb was first noticed in England in 1773 or
1774 but it did not come into use as a culinary plant until about 1827.
In 1829, a footstalk was noted as sixteen inches long. The Victoria
rhubarb of our gardens is referred to this species.
Southern Siberia and the region of the Volga. This species, the
commonest of the rhubarbs, was introduced into Europe about 1608.
It was cultivated at Padua by Prosper Alpinus, and seeds from this
source were planted by Parkinson in England about 1640 or before.
There is no reference, however, to its use as a vegetable by Alpinus,
1627, nor by Ray,8 1686, although the latter refers to the acid stalks
being more grateful than that of garden sorrel. In 1778, however, Mawe,
says its young stalks in spring, being cut and peeled, are used for tarts.
In 1806, McMahon, mentions rhubarb in American gardens and says
the footstalks are very frequently used and are much esteemed for tarts
and pies. In 1733, Bryant, describes the footstalks as two feet long and
thicker than a man's finger at the base.
Asia. This species is said to have been introduced into Europe in 1734
from China. It yields some of the forms of garden rhubarb, especially
those with red leaf-stalks. In 1810, a Mr. Myatts, Deptford, England,
sent five bunches of garden rhubarb to the borough market and could
sell but three. In the United States in 1828, the seed of this variety was
sold by Thorburn. Decaisne and Naudin say this rhubarb is grown in
gardens but is not as esteemed as is the Victoria rhubarb.
Old World tropics. The fruit is said to be edible. Masters says the
fermented juice is made into a kind of light wine
East Indies, Himalayan region and Ceylon. In India, the flowers are
made into a pleasant, subacid jelly. They are at times intoxicating.
Royle says the flowers are eaten by the Hill People and are used for jelly
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by European visitors.
This seaweed is the dulse of the Scotch and the dillisk of the Irish. It is
much eaten in both countries, as well as in most of the northern states
of Europe, by the poor along the shores and is transmitted as an article
of humble luxury over most parts of the country. It is generally eaten
raw, either fresh from the sea or after having been dried, but is
sometimes cooked. It is exposed for sale in the markets of Irish towns
and also in the Irish quarters of New York. In the Mediterranean, it
forms a common ingredient in soups.
Arabia, Syria and northern Africa. The fruit is edible and is eaten as a
condiment.
Northern United States. According to Nuttall, the drupes are acid and
edible.
California. The fresh, red berries are described by Palmer as coated with
an icy-looking, white substance, which is pleasantly acid and is used
by the Indians to make a cooling drink.
R. parviflora Roxb.
India. Mixed with salt, the fruit is used like tamarind in the Benar
Valley and Bhawar.
R. punjabensis J. L. Stew.
Eastern Asia. The pulp of the fruit is acid and is eaten in Sikkim and
Nepal and used medicinally.
China and Japan. The seeds of the wild plant are used for food in
Japan.
Europe and northern Asia. The fruit is sweet and not very acid but is
much less palatable than that of the red currant.
R. ambiguum Maxim.
Missouri and Columbia Rivers. This currant was brought by Lewis and
Clark from the Rocky Mountains to our gardens, where it is now very
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common and admired for its fragrant, yellow blossoms. In Utah, this
currant is extensively cultivated for its fruit, which is much like the
black currant. Its oval, blue berries are relished, says Downing, by
some persons. Pursh says the berries, red or brown, are of an
exquisitely fine taste and larger than a garden currant. Both black and
yellow varieties of this wild currant occur and are much used by the
Indians of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Texas, Oregon, California and
Alaska
Siberia. The berries are about the size of currants, red and of a
sweetish-acid taste.
R. divaricatum Dougl.
Siberia and Tartary. This gooseberry bears red berries that are sweet
and pleasant to the taste.
North America. Pursh says the purple or blue berries of this species are
of excellent taste. The berries are glabrous, purple or blue and of
excellent flavor. The fruit has a.rich, subacid, vinous, rather perfumed
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flavor, which is extremely agreeable. It is rather too acid to be eaten raw
but when ripe makes delicious tarts.
R. magellanicum Poir.
Fuego. This is a tall shrub with black fruit, which is said by Hooker to
have a very agreeable flavor.
R. menziesii Pursh.
R. procumbens Pall.
Siberia. The berries are very grateful to the taste and are rufescent when
ripe.
Northern America. The fruit is black, watery and insipid. It is, however,
eaten in Alaska.
North America. Wood says the purple fruit is delicious. Fuller says it is
smooth and pleasant flavored. In the Flora of North America,s the fruit
is said to be about the size of the black currant, purple in color and
delicious. In Illinois, it is a good deal cultivated for its fruit.
In 1601, Clusius speaks of a sweet variety found growing wild upon the
Alps and differing not at all, as his figure also shows, from the Common
Red; and of a larger-fruited sort with a red flower, which may not be our
species, yet he believes the variety was grown in the gardens of
Brussels. He also refers to a white-fruited sort, but what this may be is
quite doubtful from the context. In 1613, we have some fine drawings of
the currant in the Hortus Eystettensis representing unmistakably
highly improved forms, and these varieties may well be called the
Common Red, the Red Dutch and the White Dutch. The Large Red is
said to be the same as the large-fruited sort described by Clusius.
Dodonaeus, 1616, figures what may be called the Common Red, as
common in gardens and useful for topiary work. In 1623, Bauhin
names the Common Red, the Sweet-fruited Red, the Red Dutch and the
White Dutch (for so we interpret the types) under Latin names and
synonyms and says, at Florence, he had seen fruit larger than a
hazelnut. J. Bauhin, in his history of plants, published in 1651 but
written long before, for he died in 1613, figures what may be the
Common Red and describes what may be the Red Dutch and the White
Dutch. In 1654, Swertius figures the Common Red and two very fine,
large sorts, which we may call the Red and White Dutch type, yet
somewhat larger. Jonstonus, 1662, figures the Common Red and, as a
compiler, makes mention of the Large Red and White. In 1665, Lovell
speaks of the Red and White in gardens in England. In 1677,
Chabraeus figures the Common Red, ard Pancovius, 1673, what may
be the Red Dutch. Tnrre, 1685, refers to two sorts, the Red and White,
as growing among the hills of Italy, but the latter the more infrequent.
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In 1686, Ray describes the three forms, the Common, the Large Red
and the White, while in 1690, Quintyne mentions the Red and White
Dutch by name, and Meager gives directions for growing the White.
The currant fruit has not changed at all in type under culture, but has
furnished variety characteristics in increased size, diminished seed and
improved quality. The wild plant bears currants like those of the
cultivated, but more seedy and fewer on the bunch. Removed to the
garden and placed under protective influences, the plant becomes more
upright and more prolific and the bunches better filled, but the berries
are no larger than those that may be found in the woods. Seedlings in
general present the characters of but a slightly improved wild plant.
Some individuals bear bunches but little, if at all, better than those
borne by selected wild plants, and it is doubtful whether, from the
examination of plants, botanists could determine whether a given plant
was truly wild or but an escape from cultivation. If the testimony of the
herbalists be credited, red, white and sweet currants are found in
nature. Hence we may believe that these natural varieties are the
prototypes of those that occur in gardens, and that horticultural gain
has been only in that expansion which comes from high culture,
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protective influence and selection propagated by cutting or division.
I.
COMMON RED.
This type differs but slightly from the wild form, the bunches being
slightly larger and usually better filled, or in some cases not differing. It
may be considered as the wild form improved by slight selection and
high culture.
II.
COMMON WHITE.
This type also occurs in our references as a wild form which has been
brought under culture. Ray in his synonyms refers to the Ribes
vulgaris fructu albo, as does Gerarde, 2nd ed., 1630, which is probably
this form.
Ribes vulgaris acidur, albas baccas ferens. Bauh, J. n, 98. 1651; Ray
Hist. 11, 1486. 1688.
Ribes alba. Turre, 588. 1685.
III.
LARGE-FRUITED RED.
IV.
LARGE-FRUITED WHITE.
V.
SWEET.
The figure of Clusius shows this fruit to be the Common Red in form of
plant and berry. Sweet-fruited currants, or currants not as acid as
other sorts, are known among our modern varieties, and Ray in his
Synopsis, 1724, mentions sweet currants of the common species as in
Lord Ferrer's garden at Stanton, Leicestershire, England, brought from
the neighboring woods.
This review of the history of the currant shows that the types of our
cultivated varieties have existed in nature and have been removed to
gardens. We have no evidence that these cultivated varieties have
originated by gradual improvement under cultivation. When we come to
subvarieties, we conclude that these have undoubtedly originated in
gardens, or at least have been disseminated from gardens. The
influence of fertile soil and sunlight upon growth would be to effect a
greater prolificacy and increased size of bunches; through seedlings,
and the process of selection, perhaps continued through successive
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generations, these plants which originate larger fruit might have been
preserved and propagated. In the first woodcut, that by Fuchsius in
1542, we have apparently the normal wild currant grown under
protected conditions; in Castor Durante, 1585, a figure which suggests
an improvement over Fuchsius; in 1588, the appearance of the
prototype or the original of the Red Dutch. We may hence say that the
currant received its modern improved form between 1542 and 1588, or
within 46 years. This amelioration of a wild fruit within such a limited
period should serve for encouragement and should emphasize the
belief, warranted also by the study of other fruits and vegetables, that
the seeking of wild prototypes of varieties, and intelligent growing and
selecting seedlings, might give great improvement, even within the
lifetime of the experimenter, in the case of other wild fruits.
To this conclusion our argument leads, yet the fact attained may be
stated more concisely, that, in the currant as in the American grape, the
improved variety came directly through selecting the wild variation and
transferring it to the garden, or from a direct seminal variation from the
seed of the common kind.
Siberia. The berries are smooth, globose, dark purple when ripe and
full of edible pulp. The acid fruit, mixed with water, forms a refreshing
drink.
North America. The berries are black, spherical and hispid, with a
subacid, pleasant flavor, a little musky.
North China. The taste of the root is sweetish and mucilaginous and
would seem to justify, says Smith, its consumption as a food in times of
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scarcity, as mentioned for China in the Pen Ts'au.
Mexico. This is one of the fruit trees cultivated in the Public Gardens of
Jamaica. It is also cultivated in the Moluccas. The flesh of the fruit is
very soft and of an unpleasant taste.
R. sylvatica Warm.
Brazil. The plant is called araticu do mato and its fruit is good to eat.
Northern Asia and North America. In the Amur country, a much larger
and better fruit than that of R. canina is afforded by this species.
Europe and temperate Asia. The fruits of this wild rose have a scanty,
orange, acid, edible pulp and were collected in ancient times in Europe
when garden fruits were few and scarce. Galen mentions them as
gathered by country people in his day, as they still are in Europe.
Gerarde remarks that "the fruit when it is ripe makes most pleasant
meats and banqueting dishes, as tarts and such like." Lightfoot says the
pulp of the fruit separated from the seeds and mixed with wine and
sugar, makes a jelly much esteemed in some countries. Johnson says
the leaves have been used as a tea substitute.
North temperate zone. The berries, or seed capsules, are eaten, says
Dall, by the Alaska Indians. They are sweet and juicy. The fruit is eaten
by the Kamchatkians.
Western Oregon. The haws are eaten by the Indians of the Cascade
Mountains and by the Nez Perces. R. Brown says the tender shoots in
the spring are eaten by the Indians.
R. macrophylla Lindl.
Himalayan region and China. In, India, Brandis says the fruit is eaten.
R. nutkana Presl.
Europe and Caucasus. Berries of this species are collected and sold in
Norway.
China. The Chinese serve the flowers of this rose dressed whole, as a
ragout.
Europe and Asia Minor. The deep purple fruit of this rose, so abundant
on sandy shores in Britain, is very sweet and pleasant to the taste.
Europe and Asia. The fruit has a pleasant, acid pulp, which is
sometimes served at dessert in the form of conserves or sweetmeats.
Northern and arctic regions. This species, says Loudon, has a highly
flavored fruit. In Lapland, its fruit is valued and is extolled by Linnaeus.
In northern Scandinavia, the fruit is delicious, having the aroma of the
pineapple. It affords in Labrador, says Pursh, amber-colored, very
delicious fruit. In Alaska, the berries are eaten. The western Eskimo,
according to Seemann, use the berries of this species as a winter food.
They are collected in autumn and frozen.
R. biflorus Buch.-Ham.
India and Himalayas up to 10,000 feet. The fruit is either red or orange.
R. borbonicus Pers.
R. buergeri Miq.
Europe, Orient and northern Asia. The fruit is small, says Loudon, with
few grains but these are large, juicy, black, with a fine, glaucous bloom
and are very agreeably acid. By some it is preferred for cultivation on
account of its fruit. Johnson says the berries are far superior in flavor
to the ordinary bramble.
Eastern North America. This trailing plant often furnishes a fine fruit,
which is generally preferred to that of other blackberries. The fruit
varies from half an inch to an inch in diameter and is very sweet and
juicy, high-flavored and excellent.
R. corchorifolius Linn. f.
R. crataegifolius Bunge.
Long Island to Florida. Pursh says the berries are hard and dry; Elliott,
that they are juicy and eatable; Wood, that they are black, juicy and
well-flavored; Gray calls them well-flavored; Fuller says the fruit is of
medium size, good flavor, black and ripens late.
Europe, north and south Africa, middle and northern Asia. The fruits in
some parts of England are called bumblekites and in others
scaldberries and have been eaten by children, says Loudon, in every
country where they grow wild since the time of Pliny. The fruit, says
Johnson, is wholesome and pleasant. The berries are sometimes
fermented into a wine of very indifferent quality and, abroad, are
sometimes used for coloring more generous liquor. The Red Muscat
wine of Toulon owes its tint to the juice of blackberries. In China, the
berries are gathered and eaten.
R. geoides Sm.
R. gunnianus Hook.
Tasmania. The fruit is red and juicy but not always well-developed.
R. hawaiensis A. Gray.
Northern America. The fruit consists of a few large grains, red or purple,
and sour. The fruit is quite good tasting but is not worth picking in the
presence of better varieties.
Europe, Orient and northern Asia and thrives as far north as 70° in
Scandinavia. This species furnishes the European varieties of the
cultivated raspberry and those cultivated in American gardens prior to
about 1866. This species is now occasionally found wild, as an escape,
in Vermont and Connecticut. The fruit of the wild plant is crimson or
amber-colored; this is the raspberry of European gardens. According to
Unger, this species is mentioned by Palladius as a cultivated plant.
Unger says further that "there are now varieties grown with red fruit,
yellow fruit and white fruit and those which bear twice in the year." The
fruit of this berry has been found in the debris of the lake villages of
Switzerland. In 1867, Fuller describes 41 varieties known to American
gardens and 23 which are from native American species. As types of
this class of cultivated fruit, we may mention the Antwerp, brought to
this country about 1820; the Franconia, introduced from France about
1850; Brinckle's Orange, originated in Pennsylvania in 1845, and
Clarke, raised from seed at New Haven, Connecticut, in 1856.
R. incisus Thunb.
China and Japan. The fruit is small, bluish-black and of no great merit.
Country people hold the berries in great esteem.
R. jamaicensis Linn.
Tropical America. The berries are black and very agreeable. If pickled
when red and unripe, they make an excellent tart.
This species has been sparingly cultivated in Europe for many years
and in this country since 1845. It is scarcely worth growing, says
Fuller, except as a curiosity, but others say the fruit is large and juicy
and that this plant is worthy a place in the garden.
India. This species is cultivated in India for its fruits, which are of
excellent flavor and are used in tarts, according to Pirminger. Brandis
says the fruit is very good to eat, and Royle says that it is called kul-
anchoo and affords a grateful fruit.
R. leucodermis Dougl.
R. microphyllus Linn. f.
R. morifolius Siebold.
R. nessensis W. Hall.
Alaska and Oregon. The fruit is red, large, hemispherical, sweet and
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pleasantly flavored. The fruit is dried and eaten by the Indians. The
tender shoots are also eaten. In the season, canoe loads may be seen on
their way to Indian villages. In Oregon, the berry is considered of
excellent quality but is too small to pay for the trouble of gathering.
R. paniculatus Sm.
Himalayan region. The fruit is eaten by the natives of Viti and is made
into puddings and pies by the whites.
Western North America. The small, red berry has an excellent flavor and
is eaten by the natives of Alaska.
Japan. The fruit is concealed by the sepals until ripe. At first white, the
berry turns bright red and is of a sweet and delicious flavor, between
that of the common red and the blackcap.
Tropical Asia. In India, this shrub bears a fruit similar to the common
raspberry but the berry is filled with hard seeds and is of rather a poor
taste. The fruit is red when ripe.
North temperate and arctic regions. The fruits, says Lightfoot, are very
acid alone but eaten with sugar they make an agreeable dessert. The
Russians ferment the fruit with sugar and extract a potent spirit.
Johnson says the berries are more acid and agreeable to the taste than
those of the European blackberry.
Northwest America. The yellow fruits, says Loudon, are of an acid and
somewhat astringent taste and make excellent tarts. The young shoots,
as well as the berries, are eaten by the Indians, the former being tied in
bundles and steamed over the fire. There are said to be two forms in
Oregon: one rather soft, yellow, somewhat insipid, subacid, about one
inch in diameter when expanded; the other with red berries of a firmer
texture and more acid, a shy bearer.
R. tokkura Siebold.
Japan. The fruit is small, red and consists of but few drupes. It is not of
much value but is utilized as an article of food in Japan.
R. trifidus Thunb.
Maryland to Florida. Elliott says the berries are large, black and well-
flavored.
Eastern North America. This species varies much in its fruit and several
of the cultivated varieties are chance seedlings taken from the field:
such as the Kittatinny, found growing wild in New Jersey about 1845;
New Rochelle, found in New York; Newman's Thornless, also in New
York; and Wilson's Early, discovered in New Jersey about 1854. In
1867, Fuller describes 18 sorts in cultivation. There is a variety
cultivated abroad, says Downing, with white fruits. The commencement
of the cultivation of improved varieties seems to date from the
appearance of the Dorchester, first exhibited at the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society in 1841. The fruit is highly esteemed by the
Indians of Missouri, Texas, California and Minnesota. Cabeza de Vaca,
1528-35, says the Indians of the Southwest eat blackberries during
four months of the year. Eight varieties, in 1879, were cataloged by the
American Pomological Society as worthy of cultivation.
Jamaica. Browne says the plant has oblong, fleshy roots, which are
frequently used among the negroes. These, when fresh, have a little
pungency, which soon wears upon the palate but when dry they are
quite insipid.
Eastern equatorial Africa. Grant says the people of Fipa are said to eat
its leaves.
R. longifolius H. B. & K.
South America. The acid leaves, immediately they appear above the
ground and, indeed, throughout the summer, are eaten by the Eskimos
of the West, by handfuls as an antiscorbutic.
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R. luxurians Linn.
Europe and the Orient and said to have been introduced into England
in 1596. This species is mentioned in England by Gerarde 9 in 1597,
but he does not indicate its general cultivation; he calls it oxalis franca
seu romana. It is more acid than the preceding species and has
displaced it largely from English culture. This species is mentioned by
many of the early botanists and is under extensive culture in
continental Europe. It was formerly cultivated in English gardens as a
spinach and is still grown extensively on the continent of Europe for
this purpose. The leaves are also used as a salad. Garden sorrel was
mentioned among American garden products by McMahon, 1806, and
by Bridgeman, 1832. The seed is still offered by some of our seedsmen
who recommend it under the name garden sorrel.
South Europe, middle Asia and north Africa. This species is used as a
sorrel.
Europe and the Orient. The tender shoots are eaten in the spring by the
poor in Europe as an asparagus.
The Venetians imported sugar cane from India by the Red Sea, prior to
1148, and it is supposed to have been introduced into the islands of
Sicily, Crete, Rhodes and Cypress by the Saracens, as an abundance of
sugar was made in those islands previous to the discovery of the West
Indies. Cane was cultivated afterwards in Spain, in Valentia, Granada
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and Murcia by the Moors, and sugar is still made in these provinces.
Other authorities believe that, in the ninth century, the Arabians
obtained sugar from the sugar cane which at that time was cultivated in
Susiana. Sugar was brought from Alexandria to Venice in the year 996.
In 1087, 10,000 pounds of sugar are said to have been used at the
wedding of the Caliph Mostadi Bemvillah. In 1420, Don Henri
transported sugar cane from Sicily to Madeira, whence it was carried to
the Canary Isles in 1503. Thence it was introduced into Brazil in the
beginning of the sixteenth century. Columbus carried sugar canes from
Spain to the West Indies before 1494, for at this time he says "the small
quantity that we have planted has succeeded very well. Sugar cane was
carried to Santo Domingo about 1520. In 1610, the Dutch began to
make sugar in the Island of St. Thomas, and, from the cane introduced
in 1660, sugar was made in Jamaica in 1664. Sugar cane reached
Guadeloupe about 1644 and Martinique about 1650. It was carried to
Bourbon at the formation of the colony. In 1646, the Barbados began to
export sugar. Plants appear to have been carried to Cuba by Velasquez
about 1518 and to Mexico by Cortez about 1524, and, before 1530, we
find mention of sugar mills on the estates of Cortez. The plant seems to
have been cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi for the first time
about 1751, and the first sugar mill was erected in 1758. In 1770,
sugar had become one of the staple products of the colony about New
Orleans. The first variety cultivated was the Creole. The Ribbon cane,
originally from Java, was introduced about 1820 to 1825. The Otaheite
cane, brought to the West Indies by Bougainville and Bligh, was
introduced far later.
According to Hallam, Gesner, who died in 1564, was the first botanist
who mentions sugar cane. Sugar cane, according to various observers,
never bears seed in the West Indies, Malaga, India, Cochin China, or the
Malay Archipelago, but Lunan speaks of the seed in Jamaica as being
oblong, pointed and ripening in the valve of the flower.
East Indies, Afghanistan and India. In the southern part of the Punjab,
the delicate part of the pith in the upper part of the stem is eaten by the
poor.
Orient and northwestern India. The fruit is sweet and is a great favorite
with the Afghans.
S. oppositifolia Brongn.
S. theezans Brongn.
Northwestern India, Burma and China. The poor in China use the
leaves as a tea. The fruit is also eaten in China and the Himalayas. It is
globular, the size of a small pea, dark brown when ripe, and is called tia
by the Chinese.
Europe, Asia and North America. The bulbs, which dig themselves into
the solid earth below the mud, constitute an article of food with the
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Chinese, and, on that account, the plant is extensively cultivated. This
species is enumerated by Thunberg as among the edible plants of
Japan. In eastern America, the Indians boil or roast this root which they
called katniss. It is called by the Oregon Indians wapstoo and
constitutes an important article of diet.
A shrub of Brazil. The fruit is the size of a crab apple, yellow, sweet, and
juicy and is much eaten by the Indians on the Rio Negro, who call it
waiatuma.
S. pyriformis Steud.
S. roxburghii Wall.
East Indies. The plant bears a dull red fruit the size of a crab apple, of
which the white pulp is eaten.
S. scabra DC.
S. fruticosa Linn
Europe, Asia and north Africa. The inner bark, though extremely bitter
in the fresh state, when dried and powdered, Johnson says, is used in
northern countries in times of scarcity for making bread. Dall says the
half-digested willow-tips in the stomach of the adult deer are regarded
as a delicacy by the Eskimos of the Yukon River, and the mess is eaten
as a salad. The bark of a species of willow is mixed with tobacco and
smoked by the Indians of Maine. In China, the leaves of this and other
willows are often eaten by poor people in times of want. Willow leaves
have long been used to make "sweet-tea," and about Shanghai the
leaves of S. alba are used to adulterate tea.
Orient, East Indies and north Africa. The fruit is sweet and is eaten
largely in the Punjab; when dried it forms an article of trade and tastes
somewhat like currants. The fruit is globose, two and one-half lines in
diameter, yellow when ripe, dark brown or red when dry. The shoot and
leaves are pungent, says Brandis, and are eaten as salad and are
celebrated as antidotes against poison. This shrub or small tree has
been identified as the mustard tree of Scripture. The small, red, edible
berries, says Ainslie, have an aromatic smell and taste not unlike the
garden cress. According to Stewart, these berries are much eaten, and
Royle says the seeds, having an aromatic pungency, are substituted for
mustard.
South Europe; introduced into Britain in 1596. The leaves are used as
a sage. Gerarde says of it, that the leaves are good to be put into pottage
or broths among other potherbs. It is included in Thorbum's seed
catalog of 1881.
S. indica Linn.
S. lanata Roxb.
The French make an excellent pickle of the young leaves. The Chinese
value the leaves for making a tea, and at one time the Dutch carried on
a profitable trade in exchanging sage for tea, pound for pound. In
Zante, the apples or tumors on the sage, the effect of a puncture of a
species of Cynips, are made into a conserve with honey, according to
Sibthorp.
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S. plebeia R. Br.
Eastern Asia and Australia. The seeds are used as a mustard by the
Hindus.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The plant has a nauseous smell and
drastic properties. Buckman says the berries are used as are those of S.
nigra.
S. mexicana Presl.
Europe and northern Asia. The elderberry is cultivated for its fruits,
which are generally purplish-black, but a variety occurs of a greenish-
white hue. In Europe, a wine is made from the berries and they are even
marketed in London for this purpose. The berries are largely consumed
in Portugal for coloring port wine. The flowers are fried in a batter and
eaten. There are many superstitions which cluster about the elderberry.
Tropical Asia. In the Moluccas, Lindley says the fruit is globular, the
size of a small orange and somewhat three-sided. Its color is dull
yellow, and it is filled with a firm, fleshy, agreeable, acid pulp, which
forms a thick covering around the gelatinous substance, in which the
seeds are lodged. Rumphius says the fruit is chiefly used for culinary
purposes. Mason says the fleshy, acid pulp of the mangosteen-like fruit
is highly relished by the natives.
S. fruticosus Roxb.
Northern North America. The Alaska Indians pound the berries and
press the pulpy mass into round cakes to be used for food. It is an
exceedingly repulsive food to Whites.
Tropical Africa. The pulp of its fruit is edible but the seeds are
poisonous.
East Indies. The young fruit is acid and is eaten as a condiment while at
the same time the fruit is one of the ingredients used for poisoning
alligators.
Tropical Africa. Sabine says the plant bears a large, fleshy fruit of the
size of a peach, with a brown and granulated surface. The core is solid
and rather hard but edible, much resembling the center of a pineapple
in substance. The surrounding flesh is sottish, full of small seeds and,
in consistence and flavor, much resembles a strawberry.
East Indies and Burma. Royle says this plant yields a milky juice of an
acid nature, which is taken by the natives of India to quench thirst.
S. forskalianum Schult.
S. intermedium Decne.
S. stipitaceum Schult.
Eastern United States. The dried leaves are much used as an ingredient
in soups, for which they are well adapted by the abundance of mucilage
they contain. For this purpose, the mature, green leaves are dried and
powdered, the stringy portions being separated, and are sifted and
preserved for use. This preparation, mixed with soups, gives them a
ropy consistence and a peculiar flavor much relished by those
accustomed to it. To such soups are given the names of gombo file or
gombo zab. Rafinesque says it is called gombo sassafras. In
Pennsylvania, says Kalm, the flowers of sassafras are gathered and
used as a tea. Sassafras tea, mixed with milk and sugar, says Masters,
forms the drink, known as saloop, which is still sold to the working
classes in the early morning at the corners of the London streets. In
Virginia, the young shoots are made into a kind of beer.
Caucasus and south Europe. This species was known to the earlier
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botanists and was probably known in ancient culture, although it is
not identified with any certainty. It is mentioned in Turner's Herbal,
1562, and this is as far back as we have printed registers; but there can
be little doubt that this, with summer savory, was much cultivated in
far earlier times in England. It was in American gardens in 1806. The
uses are the same as for the preceding species.
Himalayan region. A fine tree of Nepal, called gokul. The natives eat the
berries. This is the gogina or goganda of northwest India. The
palatable, viscid fruit is eaten.
Tropical America. The negroes and Creoles of Guiana use the leaves as
a spinach. It is called in Guiana adima or yaoba; in Peru Yerba de St.
Martin.
Siberia. This plant is called badan, and its leaves are used by the
Mongols and Bouriates as a substitute for tea. It is an inmate of French
flower gardens.
Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. This is an annual herb much liked as
a salad for its pleasant, aromatic taste.
Brazil and Chile. The inhabitants prepare from the berries a kind of red
wine of an agreeable flavor but very heating. The fruits have a less
disagreeable flavor than S. molle.
S. latifolius Engl.
Chile. Dr. Gillies states that the Pehuenco Indians of Chile prepare by
fermentation an intoxicating liquor from the fruit of this or a nearly
allied species.
Tropical America. Acosta says that the molle tree possesses rare virtues,
and that the Indians make a wine from the small twigs. Garcilasso de la
Vega says, in Peru, they make a beverage of the berries. Molina says the
people of Chile prepare a red wine, very heating, from the berries. The
tree was introduced into Mexico after the time of Montezuma and is
now found in southwestern United States.
Himalayan region. The fruits are pleasantly acid and are much eaten in
Sikkim. The seeds are very aromatic. Royle n says the fruit is eaten by
the Hill People in the Himalayas.
Java. The young shoots of this bamboo, when bursting out of the
ground, are cooked as a vegetable in Java.
S. serpentinum Kurz.
Brazil. The fruits are of a sweet and agreeable taste and are sought for
by the inhabitants of the places where they grow.
Tropical and south Africa. The beans of this poisonous shrub are said
by Thunberg to be boiled and eaten by the Hottentots. According to
Atherstone, the beans are roasted and eaten in the Albany districts,
where they are called boer boom.
S. grossus Linn. f.
East Indies and Malay. In portions of India in time of famine, the root is
eagerly dug for human food. The fibers and dark cuticle being removed,
the solid part of the root is dried, ground and made into bread, a little
flour being sometimes mixed with it.
Northern climates. In California, the plant is called tule and the roots
are eaten by the Sierra Indians; they are also eaten by the Indians of
Arizona and the upper Missouri.
In India, the roots, which are large, have been ground and used as a
flour in times of scarcity.
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Sclerocarya birroea Hochst. Anacardiaceae.
S. caffra Sond.
Egypt. The Arabs eat the stalks, both raw and boiled.
Mediterranean region. The root of the wild plant is collected and is used
as a salsify. According to Pickering, this plant is mentioned by
Theophrastus, who says, "its edible root, becoming milky;" by
Dioscorides, who says "the young plant, eaten as greens;" by Sibthorp,
as eaten in Greece; and by Clusius who says "the root and young plant,
eaten in Spain." This plant is supposed to be the skolumus and
leimonia of Theophrastus, 322 B. C.; it is the scolymus of Pliny, A. D.
79, recorded as a food plant. The wild plant was seen in Portugal and
Spain by Clusius in 1576. The plant was described by Gerarde in
England, 1597, but he does not appear to have grown it. It was in the
botanic gardens at Oxford in 1658 but receives only a quoted mention
from Clusius by Ray in 1686. The vegetable appears not to have been
in English culture in 1778, nor in 1807, and, in 1869, it is recorded as
a new vegetable. In 1597, Gerarde mentions its culture in Holland, and,
in 1616, Dodonaeus says it was planted in Belgian gardens. In France,
in 1882, it is said not to be under culture, but that its long, fleshy root
is used as a kitchen vegetable in Provence and Languedoc. In 1883, it is
included among kitchen esculents by Vilmorin. It is recorded by Burr
for American gardens in 1863, and its seed was offered in American
seed catalogs of 1882, perhaps a few years earlier.
Greece. The leaves, according to Heldreich, are used for a favorite salad
and spinach.
S. deliciosa Guss.
Central and southern Europe. The slimy, sweetish roots have gained
considerably by cultivation. The roots are long, black and tapering and
are eaten, boiled or stewed, after soaking in water to extract the bitter
taste. This plant was not mentioned by Matthiolus, 1554, but, in 1570,
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was described as a new plant, called by the Spaniards scurzonera or
scorzonera. In 1576, Lobel says the plant was in French, Belgian and
English gardens from Spanish seed. Neither Camerarius, 1586, nor
Dalechamp, 1587, nor Bauhin, 1596, nor Clusius, 1601, indicates it as
a cultivated plant, and Gerarde, 1597, calls it a stranger in England but
growing in his garden. In 1612, Le Jardinier Solitaire calls this salsify
the best root which can be grown in gardens. The use of the root as a
garden vegetable is recorded in England by Meager, 1683, Worlidge,
1683, and by Ray, 1686. Quintyne, in France, 1690, calls it "one of our
chiefest roots." Its cultivation does not, therefore, extend back to the
sixteenth century. No varieties are recorded under culture. Black salsify
was in American gardens in 1806. It was first known in Spain about
the middle of the sixteenth century for its medicinal qualities as a
supposed remedy for snake-bite. Black salsify was introduced into
France from Spain about the beginning of the seventeenth century.
S. parviflora Jacq.
Europe, northern and western Asia. This plant is called by the Kirghis
idschelik and is eaten as greens.
S. tuberosa Pall.
S. frigida Boiss.
Europe and. adjoining Asia. The Dutch cultivated this species to mix
with their salads. Gerarde mentions its use as a salad under the name
of small summer sengreene and says it has a fine relish.
Asia and Australian tropics. The ripe fruit is collected. Fresh, it is acrid
and astringent; roasted, it is said to taste somewhat like roasted apples;
and when dry somewhat like dates.
S. cassuvium Roxb.
S. forstenii Blume.
S. nilotica DC.
Sesame was cultivated for its oil in Babylonia in the days of Herodotus
and Strabo, also in Egypt in the time of Theophrastus, Dioscorides and
Pliny. Its culture in Italy is mentioned by Columella, Pliny and
Palladius. The seeds are used as a food by the Hindus, after being
parched and ground into a meal which is called, in Arabic, rehshee,
The expressed oil has a pleasant taste and is also used in cookery. In
Japan, sesame is highly esteemed, but Miss Bird says the use of this oil
in frying is answerable for one of the most horrific smells in Japan. In
China also, the oil is used. In Greece, the seeds are made into cakes.
East Indies, Malay and Australia. Its flower, says La Billardiere, is the
largest of that of any of the leguminous plants, of a beautiful white, or
sometimes red color, and the natives of Amboina often eat it dressed,
and occasionally even raw, as a salad. About Bombay, the plant is
cultivated for its large flowers and pods, both of which are eaten by the
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natives. The pods are upwards of a foot long, compressed, four sided,
and the tender leaves, pods and flowers are eaten as a vegetable in
India. In Burma, this is a favorite vegetable with the natives, and, in the
Philippines, its flowers are cooked and eaten1 In the West Indies the
flower is not used as a food but is called, at Martinique, vegetable
humming-bird.
Common on the sandy shores of the tropical and warm regions of the
Western Hemisphere. Sloane says this plant is pickled in Jamaica and
eaten as English samphire. Royle says the succulent leaves are used as
a potherb.
This plant seems to have been known to the ancient Greeks as elumos
and to the Romans as panicum. It is now grown in Italy as a fodder
plant and for the grain to form polenta. This millet forms a valued crop
in southern Europe as also in some parts of central Europe. It is not
mentioned among American grasses by Flint, 1857, and is barely
mentioned by Gould, 1870, except by description. It is mentioned as
introduced from Europe and now spontaneous, by Gray, 1868, but
millet, probably this species, is mentioned prior to 1844. In India, this
millet is considered by the natives as one of the most delicious of
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cultivated grains and is held in high estimation by the Brahmans. At
Mysore, three varieties are cultivated: bili, on watered land; kempa, in
palm gardens, and mobu, in dry fields. In more western tracts, other
varieties are grown.
S. canadensis Nutt.
Vermont and Wisconsin northward to beyond the Arctic circle and very
common on the Mackenzie. Its small, red, juicy, very bitter and slightly
acid berry is useful; says Richardson, for making an extempore beer,
which ferments in twenty-four hours and is an agreeable beverage in
hot weather. Gray calls the fruit insipid.
Brazil. The odor of the fruit is agreeable. The taste is sweet and at first
not unpleasant but it soon nauseates. Notwithstanding this, there are
some persons, says Correa de Mello, but not many, who eat it.
A genus of plants from Peru. The fruit is said to be edible and is similar
in form to a cucumber.
Eastern United States. In New Zealand, this plant is boiled for greens. In
France, it is an inmate of the flower garden.
S. tomentosum Roxb.
East Indies. The fruit is about the size of a crab and not unlike one,
agreeing moreover with the sour, austere taste of that fruit. It is made
into pickles, and the natives cook and eat it in their curries.
Orient, middle and south Europe. The stems are edible and the fruit
serves as a condiment. This plant is called on the lower Volga gladich.
This is the baltracan described by Barbaro as having the smell of rather
musty oranges, its stem single, hollow, thicker than one's finger and
more than a "braccio" high; leaf like rape; seed like fennel but larger,
pungent, but pleasant to taste and when in season, if broken as far as
the soft part, can be eaten without salt. The water in which the leaves
are boiled is drunk as wine and is very refreshing.
Southern California. The ripe fruit is the size of a hazelnut and has a
thin, smooth, three-valved husk, which, separating spontaneously,
discloses a brown, triangular kernel. This fruit, though edible, can
hardly be termed palatable. Its taste is somewhat intermediate between
that of the filbert and acorn. It is employed by the Indians as an article
of diet and is called by them jojoba.
Europe and Asia Minor. Lindley says the seeds are pungent and
aromatic but have a nauseous smell when fresh. Mueller says they can
be used for a condiment.
North and South America. The seeds are collected by the Indians of
California.
Europe and north Africa. This European, herb, now naturalized in the
United States, is used as greens or spinach in many parts of Britain.
Don says the plant smells strongly of garlic and was formerly used in
Europe by country people in sauces and salads. Bridgeman, 1832, in
his work on American gardening says it is used as an early potherb and
has a warm and acrid flavor. Johnson says it is occasionally cultivated
as a potherb but is not very palatable.
St. Helena Islands. This species is called jellico at St. Helena, where the
green stems are sold in the markets for eating raw.
North America and Europe. The leaves are cooked and eaten in Italy.
Siberia and northeast North America. The berries are pale red, speckled
with purple and are aromatic. Wood mentions this among edible wild
fruits. Josselyn says it is called "treacle-berries, having the perfect taste
of treacle when they are ripe — and will keep good for a long while.
Certainly a very wholesome berry and medicinal."
China, Cochin China and Japan. The rootstocks are eaten by the
Chinese on account of the abundance of the starch.
S. laurifolia Linn.
S. pseudo-china Linn.
S. tamnoides Linn.
New Jersey, Virginia and southward. The fecula of the root is used as a
meal by the Indians.
Asia and tropical Africa; cultivated there and elsewhere for its edible
berries, which are large, red, globular and uneven. The fruits are eaten
in China, Japan and in Egypt.
Chile. This is a distinct species of potato which has been long cultivated
in Chile but is still unknown not only in Europe but also in Quito and
Mexico
S. commersonii Dun.
S. elaeagnifolium Cav.
Tropical America. The Mexicans use the fruit for curdling milk and,
according to Dr. Gregg, call it trompillo.
S. fendleri A. Gray.
S. gilo Raddi.
Brazil. The plant is much cultivated for its large, spherical, orange-
colored berries, which are eatable.
S. maccai Dun.
S. maglia Schlecht.
Chile. This is a wild potato of Chile called maglia by the natives. The
tubers are very small and of a slightly bitter taste.
At present, the purple eggplant is almost the only color grown in our
kitchen gardens but there are many sorts grown in other regions. The
purple and the white ornamental are mentioned for American gardens
in 1806; as also in England, 1807; in France, 1824. In the Mauritius,
Bojer names three varieties of purple and white colors. In India, Carey
says, there are several varieties in constant cultivation by the natives,
such as green, white, purple, yellow. Pirminger describes purple-,
black- and white-fruited forms; and Speede names the purple and
white in six varieties. In Cochin China, Loureiro describes five sorts:
purple, white, and variegated.
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There are two sorts of plants to be recognized: (a) The one with the
stems, leaves and calyxes unarmed, or nearly so. (b) The other with the
stems, leaves and calyxes more or less aculeate. The first sort is figured
by Fuchsius, 1542, and by succeeding authors up to the present date.
The second sort is first noticed by Camerarius, 1588, and has
continued to the present time.
I.
THE OVAL.
Mala insana. Fuch. 513. 1542; Roeszl. 117. 1550; Tragus 894.
1552; Pineaus 514. 1561; Ger. 274. 1597; Sweert. t. 20, p. i. 1612;
Dod. 458. 1616.
Melongena sive mala insana vel melanzana. Lob. Obs. 138.
1576; Icon. i, 268. 1591.
Melongena, seu mala insana. Cam. Epit. 820. 1586.
Melongena. Matth. Opera. 760. 1598.
Melanzane. Dur. C. 279. 1617.
Solanum pomiferum fructu rotundo. Bauh. J. 3:618. 1651.
Melongena arabum. Chabr. 524. 1673.
Aubergine blanche. Vilm. 27. 1883.
Calyx-spiny.—
Melanzana fructu pallido. Hort. Eyst. 1713; Aut. Ord. 1:3; also
ib.; 1613.
White Egg-Plant. N. Y. Sta. 1886.
THE ROUND.
Calyx spiny.—
III.
THE LONG.
This type varies much in size and proportion, if the Chinese variety
described by Kizo Tamari as recently introduced into Japan belongs to
this class. He says it is about one inch in diameter by one foot and a
half long. This form may be either straight or curved.
IV.
We may note that the Arabic words melongena and bedengaim were
applied by Rauwolf to the long-fruited form, the calyx not spiny, while
the word betleschaim or melanzana batleschaim was applied to the
spiny-calyx form of the pear-shaped, if Gronovius's synonymy is to be
trusted.
S. montanum Linn.
Peru. The Peruvian Indians are stated to use the roots in soups.
S. quitoense Lam.
Peru. The berries resemble in size, color and taste small oranges and
are of a peculiar fragrance. The Peruvians eat this fruit.
S. repandum Forst. f.
Pacific Isles. In Viti, the fruit is eaten by the natives, either in soups or
with yams.
Brazil. The berries are eaten in Para, where they are called cubios and
the leaves are also eaten in Brazil.
S. torvum Sw.
S. trilobatum Linn.
In 1553, Peter Cieca says the inhabitants of Peru and vicinity had a
tuberous root which they eat and call papas. Cieza de Leon, who
traveled between 1532 and 1550, says the country of the Collao has for
the principal food of its inhabitants potatoes, which are like the earth-
nut. They dry these potatoes in the sun and keep them from one
harvest to another. After they are dried, they call them chunus, and
they are highly esteemed and valued among them. Chunus, or frozen
potatoes, are still the ordinary food in the Collao. Garcilasso de la Vegal
also speaks of the papas of the Collao, round and moist, and inclined to
rot soon. Prescott says the potato formed the great staple of the more
elevated plains of Peru, under the Incas. Acosta, who wrote about
1590, says they call "papas these rootes (which) are like to ground
nuttes, they are small roots which cast out many leaves. They gather
this papas, and dry it well in the sunne, then beating it they make that
which they call chuno which keepes many daies, and serves for bread...
they likewise eat of these papas boyled or roasted." Zarata, 1555,
speaks of the potato being cultivated by the Peruvians and called
papas. In 1565, Hawkins found potatoes at Santa Fe de Bogata and
carried some thence.
In the West Indies, we find no mention of the potato until some time
after the discovery of the islands. In 1564, Hawkins says the potatoes at
Margarita Island, just, off the coast of Venezuela, are "the most delicate
rootes that may be eaten, and doe far exceede parssnips or carets." In
1595, Captain Preston and Sommers, on their way to Virginia, stopped
at Dominica Islands, and the Indians brought to them "plantans and
potatos." In 1633, White found this root in great abundance in
Barbados.
Sir J. Banks considers that the potato was first brought into Europe
from the mountainous parts of South America in the neighborhood in
Quito in the early part of the sixteenth century. Yet the Spanish name of
battatas corresponds to the "betatas" of Peter Martyr and would
indicate that these tubers came from the coast region of South America;
yet, strangely enough, they are now called batatas Inglezas according
to McIntosh. Bowles, in his introduction to the Natural History of
Spain, is quoted by M. Drouyn de Thuys as saying that the potato was
first transported from Spain into Galicia and thence to Italy where it
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was so common in the sixteenth century as to be fed to animals; but the
first date we find is from Nuttall, who says that, according to Bauhin,
the potato was introduced into Europe from the mountainous parts of
Peru in the year 1590, and this strangely enough—too strange to be
true—is after the potato was known elsewhere. In Bauhin's Phytopinax,
1596, appears, according to Hallam, the first accurate description of the
potato, which he says was already cultivated in Italy. In Italy, it received
the name of the truffle, taratoufle, which reminds one of the description
of P. Martyr. Sismondi, whose work on agriculture was published in
1801, says the potato, little known in Lombardy, was introduced by
himself into the hills of Tuscany, where it was then known only to the
gardeners of Florence and Leghorn. Glasspoole says its cultivation in
Tuscany began in 1767. In 1588, Clusius, at Vienna, received a present
of two of the tubers from Flanders and gives a plate of the plant in his
book published in 1601. In 1600, Olivier de Serres speaks of the potato
as recently brought to France from Switzerland. It was not, however,
until the middle of the eighteenth century that, under the urging of
Parmentier, it became an object of general culture. The potato was
introduced into Sweden in 1720, where, notwithstanding the exertions
of Linnaeus, it did not come into general cultivation until aided by royal
edict in 1764. It has now reached the North Cape, where it is grown in
gardens. The potato has been grown on a large scale in Saxony only
since 1717; in Prussia, since 1738; in Germany since 1710.
The tenor of the whole history of the potato seems such as to imply that
at first its tuber was of such poor quality as not to obtain general liking,
that it was only as the quality was improved that its acceptance became
assured and that it is to the effort of growers that it has secured at the
present time a quality that forces universal approval.
The varieties of the potato are now innumerable and, while of several
distinct types of form and color, are all supposed to have been derived
from a common wild progenitor. It is interesting to observe, therefore,
that varieties were under culture in South America even before the
discovery. In a vocabulary of a now extinct tribe, the Chibcha, who once
occupied the region about the present Bogota, ten different varieties are
identified, one of which, "black inside," has not as yet appeared in
modern culture. At the present time, Vilmorin makes an extremely
artificial classification as follows: (1) The round, yellow varieties. (2) The
long, yellow varieties. (3) The variegated, long, yellow varieties. (4) The
round, red varieties. (5) The flat, pink, or red varieties. (6) The smooth,
long, red varieties. (7) The notched, long, red varieties. (8) The violet-
colored and variegated varieties. The yellow and red varieties are
mentioned by Bauhin, 1596, as the tawny and the purple. In 1726,
Townsend mentions the white and the red in England, as does Bryant
in 1783. In 1785, Varlo describes eight sorts: "the White Round, the
Red Round, the Large Irish White Smooth, the Large Round Red, the
Culgee, the Early-wife, the White Kidney, the Bull's-eye Red." In further
description he says "the Jerusalem is long and full of eyes, the Culgee is
red on one side, the Early-wife does not blossom and is of a light red,
and the Toadback is nearly akin to the large Irish, the skin almost
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black, and rough like a russetting; the Kidney is oblong, white with a
yellowish cast." In 1828, Fessenden says there are many varieties, and,
in 1832, Bridgeman says the varieties are very numerous. In 1848,
nearly 100 sorts were exhibited at the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society in Boston. Decaisne and Naudin give the number of varieties in
France in 1815 as 60, in 1855 as 493, in 1862 as 528.
A number of wild varieties of the potato have been grown at the New
York Agricultural Experiment Station, including the Solanum maglia.
One sort, which has not as yet been identified with its specific name,
corresponds to the notched class of Vilmorin. The maglia corresponds
to the round and oblong-flattened forms; the jamesii to the round form.
The colors of these wild potatoes are said by some growers to include
the white, the red, and the variegated. In their habits of growth, the
maglia forms its tubers deep under the ground, the jamesii very much
scattered and extending a long distance from the plant.
The potatoes which are now grown in the United States were derived
from several sources; from England of late years; from Bogota in 1847;
and from Chile in 1850.
S. uporo Dun.
Islands of the Pacific. In Viti, the fruit is prepared by the natives into a
sauce which is used at their cannibal feasts. The white settlers
occasionally use the fruit to prepare a sauce like the tomato and use
the leaves as a potherb. It is used as a vegetable in the Society Islands
and New Zealand.
Old World tropics. This species is cultivated for its fruit in the Circars.
The fruits are much esteemed by the natives, who eat them in their
curries.
Eastern North America. Pursh says the dried flowers make a pleasant
and wholesome tea substitute. In the American Naturalist 1879, it is
said this plant is used as a tea in Pennsylvania.
S. tenerrimus Linn.
Malay and shores of the East Indies. The fruit is eaten by the natives. A.
Smith says the acid, slightly bitter fruits are eaten as a condiment by
the Malays.
Africa and Madagascar. On the upper Nile, the fruit is eaten. The
bunches are two feet long with 200 plums each, the size of a sparrow
egg, taste like a mango, are yellow and hang curiously from the main
trunk and boughs like parasites. The fruits grow also from among the
leaves.
Europe and Mediterranean region. Henfrey says this plant has been
used in salads. It is grown in the flower garden in France.
Two races are now known in American gardens; one with prickly seed,
and the other with smooth seed. These have been described as follows:
I.
PRICKLY-SEEDED SPINACH.
Spinacia spinosa Moench.
II.
SMOOTH-SEEDED SPINACH.
Spinacia inermis Moench.
Tropical Asia. The fruit, when, largest, is of the size of a goose egg, of a
rich olive-green, mottled with yellow and black, with but a trifling
degree of scent and none of the quince-like odor of the other species.
The inner part nearest the rind is rather acid; that being removed, the
part nearest the stem is sweet and eatable, but withal it is not an
agreeable fruit. Brandis says the ripe fruit has an astringent acid and
turpentine taste but is eaten and pickled.
S. tuberosa Arruda.
S. heraclea All.
Southern Europe. Archer says the leaves and stems, shown at the
International Exhibition of 1862 as a tea substitute, are used by the
modern Greeks and are believed to be the sideritis of the ancients.
Northern climates. Lightfoot says the roots have been eaten in times of
necessity, either boiled or dried and made into bread. Henfrey says the
fleshy, subterranean rhizomes are sometimes collected as a table
vegetable. Loudon says these, when grown on rich moist soil, are white,
crisp and agreeable to the taste. Johnson says the young shoots,
though of agreeable taste, are of disagreeable smell but may be eaten as
asparagus.
Austria. The leaves are sold as Brazilian tea, which Lindley says is a
rather poor article.
Eastern North America. The seeds contain a sweet oil; they are
sometimes eaten like pistachios.
Japan. The Japanese eat its roundish, watery berries and use their
juice as a remedy for opthalmia.
East Indies. The winged seeds of its large fruit are eaten.
S. balanghas Linn.
Tropical eastern Asia. The seeds, when roasted, are nearly as palatable
as chestnuts. Rumphius says the seeds are considered esculent by the
inhabitants of Amboina, who roast them. Unger says the nuts are eaten
by the natives of the South Sea Islands generally.
S. carthaginensis Cav.
Tropical America. The seeds are called chica by the Brazilians and
panama by the Panamanians and are commonly eaten by the
inhabitants as nuts.
A tree of tropical Australia. The seeds are eaten and the taproots are
used, when young, as an article of food by the natives.
S. foetida Linn.
Old World tropics. Rheede says its fruit is edible. Graham says, at
Bombay, the seeds are roasted and eaten like chestnuts. Mason says, in
Burma, its seeds are eaten like filberts. Blanco says its seeds are eaten
in the Philippines.
S. guttata Roxb.
Northeastern Australia. The trunk of this tree bulges out in the form of
a barrel. The stem abounds in a mucilaginous or resinous substance
resembling gum tragacanth, which is wholesome and nutritious and is
said to be used as an article of food by the aborigines in cases of
extreme need.
S. scaphigera Wall.
Burma and Malay. The seeds when macerated in water swell into a
large, gelatinous mass. This jelly is valued by the Siamese and Chinese,
who sweeten it and use it as a delicacy.
S. urens Roxb.
East Indies. The seeds are roasted and eaten by Gonds and Kurkurs in
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Central India, according to Brandis. The plant yields a gum like gum
tragacanth, and the seeds, according to Drury,1are roasted and eaten
and also made into a kind of coffee.
New Zealand. This is an herbaceous plant with long roots, which are
saccharine and have served ship-wrecked people for a lengthened
period as sustenance.
South Africa. The seeds are gathered and eaten by the Kaffirs.
Nubia. The pulp of the fruit is eaten by the natives of Egypt and
Senegal.
Tropical India and Burma. Mason says in Burma the pulp of the fruit is
a favorite repast with children.
East Indies. The fruit, when very young, is made into a preserve and
eaten. The pulp of the fruit is edible and the ripe seeds are dried and
sold in the bazaars to clear muddy water.
S. spinosa Lam.
S. tieute Lesch.
Java. The bark of its root yields one of the most dangerous poisons
known, called tshettik or tjettik or upas radja The pulp of the fruit is
said to be edible.
Temperate regions. Roxburgh says the leaves are eaten by the natives of
India and considered very wholesome. Graham says the leaves are
eaten about Bombay.
Europe and adjoining Asia. The leaves, when young, form a good
green-vegetable and are not infrequently eaten by country people. They
are sometimes used to flavor cakes and other culinary preparations.
The blanched stalks form an agreeable asparagus.
Asia and African tropics and islands of Pacific. The tubers of the tacca
furnish a mealy nutriment to the inhabitants of the Society Islands and
the Moluccas, where the plant is found both wild and in a state of
cultivation. In the latter case, the tuberous root loses some of its
original acridity and bitterness. The roots are rasped and macerated for
four or five days in water and a fecula is separated in the same manner
that sago is and, like it, is employed as an article of food by the
inhabitants of the Malayan Islands and the Moluccas. In Otaheite, they
make cakes of the meal of the tubers. The tubers form an article of diet
in China and Cochin China and in Travancore, where they are much
eaten, the natives mix agreeable acids with them to subdue their
natural pungency. From the tubers, the main supply of the Fiji
arrowroot is prepared, and an arrowroot is also made from this plant in
the East Indian province of Arracan.
Tropical America. In Brazil, St. Hilaire says the leaves are cooked as are
those of purslane.
New Granada. The fruit is the size and shape of an olive, jet black and
of a pleasant taste.
The West Indian form of T. indica is cultivated for its fruit in the West
Indies, the pulp of which is mixed and boiled with sugar and forms an
important article of commerce. In Curacao, the natives eat the pulp raw.
In Martinique, they eat even the unripe fruit. Fresh tamarinds are
occasionally brought to this country. They have an agreeable, sour
taste, without any mixture of sweetness. As we usually find them, in the
preserved state, they form a dark colored, adhesive mass, consisting of
syrup mixed with the pulp, membrane, strings and seeds of the pod.
They are of a sweet, acidulous taste. On account of their laxative and
refrigerant effect, convalescents often find the pulp a pleasant addition
to their diet The tree is very abundant in Jamaica and is grown in the
government collection of fruits at Washington.
Europe, Persia and north Africa. Dioscorides says the young shoots
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were eaten, and the young shoots are now cooked and eaten in Cyprus.
Gerarde says "they are served at men's tables also in our age in
Tuscania; others report the like also to be done in Andalusia." The
young suckers, in which the acrid principle is not much developed, are
eaten as asparagus, as Lindley says, after careful boiling and changing
the water. In France, black bryony is grown in the flower gardens.
Panama. Dr. Seemann says the edible berry is called in Guiana emosse-
berry.
Dandelions are blanched for use as a winter salad. They are now very
largely grown by our market gardeners, and Thorbum, in 1881, offers
seed of two sorts. In 1871, four varieties were exhibited at the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society under the names of the French
Large-leaved, French Thick-leaved, Red-seeded and the American
Improved. Fearing Burr, who exhibited them, makes no mention of
dandelions in his Garden Vegetables, 1866. The common name is a
corruption of dent de lion, a word which is found in the Welsh Dant y
Llew of the thirteenth century. Its vernacular names in various
languages have usually reference to the peculiar indentation of the
leaves, or to some other resemblance or character of the plant. By
commentators, the dandelion has been identified with the aphake of
Theophrastus, in composition signifying absence of and phake, lentils,
or the name, perhaps, signifying that the plant can be used as a green
before lentils appear in the spring. The dandelion may be the ambubeia
of Pliny and the name may suggest the scattering of the seed, ambulo
meaning the going backward and forward, but some commentators
assign this name to the wild endive or chicory; the hedypnois of Pliny is
but doubtfully identified with our dandelion and appears to be derived
from two Greek words signifying sweet breath and may refer to the
sweet smell of the flowers.
The use of the wild plant as a vegetable seems to have been common
from remote times, but its culture is modem. In 1836, a Mr. Corey,
Brookline, Massachusetts, grew dandelions for the Boston market from
seed obtained from the largest of the wild plants. In 1863, dandelions
are described among garden esculents by Burr, but the context does
not indicate any especial varieties. In 1874, perhaps earlier, the seed
appears for sale in seed catalogs, and the various seed catalogs of 1885
offer six names, one of which is the "common." In England, dandelion
culture is not mentioned in Mawe's Gardener, 1778, nor in Martyn's
Miller's Dictionary, 1807; the first notice is in the Gardeners'
Chronicler where an instance of cultivation is noted, the herbage
forming "a beautiful and delicate blanched salad." In 1880, its culture
had not become common, as this year its cultivation in France, and not
in England, is noted. In France, Noisette gives cultural directions and
says the wild plant furnishes a spring potherb. The dandelion is not,
however, mentioned in L'Horticulteur Francaise, nor in Nouveau
Dictionnaire du Jardinage, 1826. Vilmorin mentions its culture in
France as dating from 1868, and the firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie.,
1885, offers four sorts of seed, one, the Improved Moss, as new. In
Vilmorin's Les Plantes Potageres, 1883, two forms are figured:
Pissenlit ameliore a coeur plein and Pissenlit ameliore tres hatif. The
first of these is named in Album de Cliches, Pissenlit ameliore frise,
and a fourth name or third form is figured, the Pissenlit mousse.
The type of the Pissenlit mousse can be readily found among the wild
plants on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station,
very closely resembling Vilmorin's figure in every respect when growing
on rich soil, except that the leaf divisions are scarcely as much crowded.
North temperate Europe and Asia. The berries, says Johns, are of a
mawkish, disagreeable taste but are eaten with impunity by children.
The nut contains a kernel which has an agreeable flavor like that of the
stone-pine. Brandis says the berries are sweet and harmless and are
eaten by the natives of the northwest Himalayas.
Tropical Africa. The plant is cultivated for its seeds, which the natives
boil and eat.
T. pedata Hook.
Tropical Africa. The plant is a climber, the stems of which often attain
the length of a hundred feet. The fruit attains a weight of 60 pounds
and contains at times as many as 500 seeds. These seeds, when boiled,
are eatable and a large quantity of oil can be expressed from them.
T. bellerica Roxb.
Tropical India and Burma. The kernels of the fruit are eaten.
East Indies. This plant is ranked amongst the fruits of India. It is about
the size of a French plum and is often made into a pickle.
T. glabrata Forst. f.
Friendly and Society Islands. The kernels of the fruit are eaten and have
the flavor of almonds.
T. latifolia Sw.
Jamaica. The kernels are eaten and have the flavor of almonds.
T. litoralis Seem.
T. pamea DC.
Guiana. The tree is cultivated on the Isle of France and elsewhere. The
almond-like kernels are good to eat and are served on the better tables
of the country.
T. platyphylla F. Muell.
Australia. The fruit is oblong, pointed, blue when ripe, and is eaten raw.
Tropical Africa. The climbing stems of this tree yield a good supply of
clear water when cut across.
New Zealand and Australia. This plant was first found by Sir Joseph
Banks, in 1770, at Queen Charlotte Sound, New Zealand, and its merits
were discovered by the sailors of Captain Cook's expedition around the
world. It reached Kew Gardens in 1772. This spinach also occurs in
Australia, both on the coast and in the desert interior, in New
Caledonia, China, Japan and Chile. Don says three varieties are found
in Chile: one with smooth leaves, one with leaves hoary beneath and a
third small and glabrous. The plant was cultivated as a spinach plant
in England in 1821 or earlier. It was in use in France in 1824 or earlier.
In the United States, its seed was distributed among members of the
New York Horticultural Society in 1827 and in 1828 it appeared in
seed catalogs. St. Hilaire records its use as a spinach in south Brazil,
and Bojer records it in the Mauritius. The plant is used as a spinach in
Tongatabu but not in New Zealand.
Brazil. The fragrant fruit of this orchid has the odor of the Tonquin
bean. It is sweeter than vanilla and is less penetrating.
Europe. This is an extremely bitter plant with the smell and taste of
hops and is said to be substituted for hops in ale in the Island of
Jersey.
Canary Islands. This plant can be gathered, says Black, only by expert
cragsmen let down the cliffs by ropes. The roots are eaten raw or boiled,
when raw tasting like earth-nuts, and stringy and insipid when boiled.
It is called the carrot tree, says Mueller, but the root is inferior to a
carrot.
New Granada. This species replaces the cacao in part in the West Indies
and South America and the seeds are brought into commerce.
Tropical America. This is the best-known species of the genus and the
bulk of the cacao, or cocoa, of commerce is produced by it. It is largely
cultivated in Guayaquil, Venezuela, Trinidad, Grenada, Jamaica and
elsewhere in tropical America. Cacao is also grown as an introduced
plant in the Mauritius and Bourbon. The fruit is an oblong-ovate
capsule or berry, six or eight inches in length, with a thick, coriaceous
and somewhat ligneous rind, enclosing a whitish pulp in which
numerous seeds are embedded. These are ovate, somewhat
compressed, about the size of an almond and consist of an interior thin
shell and a brown, oily kernel. Separated from the matter in which they
are enveloped, they constitute the cacao of commerce. Chocolate and
cocoa are variously prepared from the nuts.
T. guyanensis Voigt.
Guiana. This species furnishes a portion of the cacao of the West Indies
and South America.
T. speciosa Willd.
Brazil. In the West Indies, this species replaces cacao and its seeds enter
into commerce.
South America and Santo Domingo. The fruit is succulent, and bread is
made from the seeds.
China. The fruit is oblong, very succulent and is eaten by the natives of
the Himalayas.
North America and Siberia. Thoreau, In the Maine Woods, says, "This
night we had a dish of arbor-vitae, or cedar tea, which the lumberman
sometimes uses when other herbs fail." He did not find it very palatable.
Countries about the Mediterranean Sea. The root is edible and celery-
like.
Tropical India. The ripe berries, says Roxburgh, are fully as pungent as
black pepper and with nearly the same kind of pungency. They are
pickled by the natives and are most excellent.
Japan. The nuts are carefully gathered by the Japanese and the kernels
are eaten. An oil used for culinary purposes is expressed from them. In
China, the seeds are eaten like hazelnuts and, although reputed
somewhat laxative, are considered wholesome.
T. martianus H. Wendl.
Himalayan region. The fruit is eaten, though the pulp is scanty and
almost tasteless.
Mediterranean countries. The roots are long, white and fleshy, tapering
like the parsnip but never attaining the same diameter. The roots are
used, boiled or fried, and the flavor is mild and sweetish and reminds
one of the oyster, whence its name oyster plant. Mclntosh says that,
when dressed as asparagus, there is some resemblance in taste and
that the flower-stalks, if cut in the spring of the second year before they
become hard, and dressed like asparagus, make an excellent dish. The
roots, says Burr, thinly sliced, are sometimes used as a salad.
Old World tropics. This species grows abundantly in the lakes about
Cashmere and at Wurler lake and is said to yield annually ten million
pounds of nuts. These are scooped up from the bottom of the lake in
small nets and constitute almost the only food of at least 30,000
persons for five months in the year. When extracted from the shell, they
are eaten raw, boiled, roasted, fried, or dressed in various ways after
being reduced to flour6 They are also eaten in Lahore.
T. cochinchinensis Lour.
Cochin China. The seeds are eaten as are those of the ling.
A tropical African tree called okwa. The nuts contain an edible embryo
and are collected by the negroes and ground into meal.
Tropical Asia. Royle says this plant is used as a potherb in India. Wight
says the leaves are sometimes employed as a potherb. Ainslie says it is
eaten by the natives; Stewart, that it is a common weed eaten in the
Punjab in times of dearth but is apt to produce diarrhea and paralysis.
T. cucumerina Linn.
Tropical India. Its seed appears for sale in the Erfurt seed catalogs. The
unripe fruit is very bitter but is eaten by the natives of India in their
curries.
T. dioica Roxb.
T. corniculata Linn.
T. radiata Boiss.
Asia Minor and Persia. In China the curved legumes were formerly
eaten.
T. suavissima Lindl.
Virginia and southward. The leaves exhale the odor of vanilla when
bruised, and, in Florida, the plant has become in some degree an article
of commerce, being used by tobacconists for flavoring smoking tobacco.
Eastern North America. Barton reports that Muhlenburg told him that
the dried and toasted berries were considered by some of the Germans
of Pennsylvania an excellent substitute for coffee.
A shrub of tropical Asia. Loureiro says the berry is red, ovate, half the
size of a coffee bean, covered with a thin pellicle and contains a sweet,
clammy, inodorous, edible pulp. The berry, like an orange in miniature,
says Mason, is often found in Chinese preserves. Firminger says, in
India, the fruit is of the size of a large currant. It has a stone
surrounded by a small quantity of pulp, juicy and of an agreeable,
aniseed-like flavor. The plant is cultivated in the East and West Indies.
The fruits, says A. Smith, are about as large as hazelnuts and have a
red skin. When ripe they have an agreeable taste but, if gathered green,
they have a strong flavor of turpentine and the pulp is very sticky. They
are sometimes preserved whole in syrup and are occasionally sent to
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England.
Central and North America. Mueller says the seeds are available for
food.
Egypt and Syria. The name spelt is given generally to all wheats in
which the grain adheres to the chaff. Spelt is little cultivated except in
the warmer districts of southeastern Europe and the African and Asiatic
shores of the Mediterranean. This appears to be botanically the same
species as the T. bicorne of Forskahl's Egyptian Flora.
Greece and Asia Minor. This is the kussemeth of the Scriptures From it
the Syrians and Arabians make their bread. Its cultivation has not
extended to India, Egypt or Greece. In its wild state, says Bentham this
species has been described under the name of Crithodium aegilopoides.
The produce of lesser spelt is too small to be of any importance except
in very poor soils.
Some think this to be the grain called olura or zeia or zea by the
ancient Greeks. Spelt is at present cultivated to a small extent in
Europe. It was seen by Alexander the Great as a cultivated plant in his
campaign in Pontus. Its origin in Mesopotamia and Hamadam, in
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Persia, is doubtful; especially as its cultivation in these countries
cannot be carried back to any very remote antiquity.
This is the species which includes all the true wheats, excepting the
spelts. It is said to have been found wild in various parts of Asia where
it is not likely to have escaped from cultivation. According to Grecian
fable, it was originally native on the plains of Enna and in Sicily, but it
is much more probable that it is a native of the plains about the
Caspian.
Isis was supposed to have introduced wheat into Egypt; Demeter, into
Greece; and the Emperor Chin-nong, into China about 3000 B. C.
Standing crops of bearded wheat are figured in Egypt under the Fourth
Dynasty, about 2440 B. C., at Gizeh, but nowhere on these nor on
subsequent monuments with the minute accuracy required for
distinguishing species. In Greece, Theophrastus mentioned eight
varieties and among the carbonized seeds exhumed by Dr. Schliemann
in Greece is a very hard, fine-grained, sharp wheat, very flat on the
furrowed side, which is said to differ from any wheat hitherto known. In
Europe, wheat was cultivated before the period of written history as
samples have been removed from the debris of the lacustrine
habitations in Switzerland which do not differ in size and form from our
varieties. Wheat is mentioned by Diodorus as growing wild in Sicily,
and ears of bearded wheat appear on most of the ancient Sicilian coins.
On two Leontine brass coins are figures of Ceres in addition to the
usual ears of corn.
In France, wheat was the most valued cereal in the eighth century as
shown by the maximum price fixed by an edict of Charlemagne wherein
oats were to be sold at one denier, barley at two deniers, rye at three
deniers and wheat at four deniers a bushel. It is probable, says C. W.
Johnson, that wheat was not cultivated by the early Britons for the
climate, owing to the immense preponderance of woods and undrained
soil, was so severe and wet that, in winter, they could attempt no
agricultural employments, and even when Bede wrote, early in the
eighth century, the Anglo-Saxons sowed their wheat in spring. Wheat
remained an article of comparative luxury until nearly the seventeenth
century. That the cultivation of wheat in England was unimportant in
the reign of Elizabeth, is attested by Tussar. Yet wheat was cultivated
by the Romans and is mentioned by Columella, Pliny, Cicero, Caesar
and many others.
The first wheat raised in the New World was sown by Spaniards on the
Island of Isabela. The foundation of the wheat harvests of Mexico is said
to have been three or four grains, carefully preserved by a negro slave of
Cortez in 1530, which were found in some rice brought from Spain for
the use of the troops. In Quito, says Humboldt, the first wheat was
raised by a Franciscan monk in front of his convent. The first wheat
introduced into Peru was by a Spanish woman who took great pains to
disseminate it among the colonists, says Prescott, but no dates are
given. Garcilasso de la Vega affirms that, up to 1547, no wheaten bread
had been sold at Cusco, Peru. In 1542, John Alphonse, chief pilot to
Roberval, in speaking of the region about the present Montreal, says, "I
have told in one ear of corn 120 grains, like the corn of France and you
need not to sow your wheat until March and it will be ripe in the midst
of August." The first wheat grown in New England was that sown by
Gosnold, on the Elizabeth Islands, off the coast of Massachusetts,
"which sprang up eight or nine inches in fourteen days." In 1604, on
the Island of St. Croix, near Calais, Maine, the French had some wheat
sown, which flourished freely, and, in 1606, wheat was sown by
L'Escarbot near the port of Port Royal, Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. In
1610, wheat was among the plants in Champlain's garden at Quebec.
In Virginia, the first wheat appears to have been sown in 1611; in 1626,
samples of wheat grown in the Dutch colony of New Netherlands were
taken to Holland for exhibit. In 1629, wheat was ordered by the
Plymouth Colony, from England, for seed. In 1718, wheat was
introduced into the Valley of the Mississippi by the Western Company.
In California, wheat is spoken of by Father Baegert, as flourishing,
1751-1768; and it was cultivated by the Pimas Indians of the Gila River
in 1799.
The northern, limit to the growing of wheat is 57° north in Britain, 64°
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in, Norway, 60° in Russia and lower in Siberia. In North America, wheat
is raised with profit at Fort Liard, 60° north. The fine harvests of Egypt
and of Algiers, says Humboldt, as well as those of the valleys of Aragua
and Cuba, prove that the augmentation of heat is not prejudicial to the
harvests of wheat, unless it be attended with an excess of drought or
moisture. In the moist region on the slopes of the mountains of Mexico
and Xalapa, the luxuriance of the vegetation is such that wheat does
not form ears.
The varieties of wheat are almost endless, and their characteristics vary
widely under the influence of cultivation and climate. There are 180
distinct sorts in the museum of Cornell University; Darwin says Dalbret
cultivated during 30 years from 150 to 160 kinds; Colonel Le Conteur
possessed upwards of 150; and Philippar, 322 varieties. The summer
and winter kinds were classed by Linnaeus as distinct species but it
has been proved that the one can be converted into the other by
cultivation. Godron describes five species of wheat and De Candolle
four. Reports come from little-known regions of distinct kinds; in Japan
there is said to be a variety which cannot be forced to grow higher than
20 or 24 inches, though the length of the heads may increase. In
general, wheat is the most esteemed of the cereal productions but, so
far does habit govern, that in Abyssinia, according to Parkyns, the flour
of teff, or dagussa, scarcely palatable to Europeans, is preferred by the
natives to that of any other grain.
Chile. Mr. Bridges, writing in the Journal of Botany, 1842, says the
roots are eaten in times of scarcity in Peru.
Peru. The plant is grown more for ornament than for food purposes,
but the flowers and young leaves are frequently used to mix in salads,
and the seeds, gathered while young and green, are used for pickling
and as an excellent substitute for capers. "The seeds of this rare and
faire plant came first from the Indies into Spaine and those hot regions,
and from thence into France and Flanders, from whence I have received
seeds that hath borne with me both flowers and seeds," says Gerarde,
1597. We cannot agree with those authors who consider this the dwarf
form, as the figure given comes nearer to the tall, as it was figured by J.
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Bauhin, in his works printed in 1651, with the name scandens, 33
years before its introduction by Linnaeus. Ray, 1686, speaks of its use
as a vegetable, and this use is also spoken of by Townsend, 1726. In
American gardens, this nasturtium was noticed by McMahon, 1806,
and by all the early garden writers as being the predominant kind in
culture. The synonymy is as follows:
Peru. The Dwarf nasturtium was first brought into Europe from Peru,
where it is a native. It reached England in 1596 and is described by
Gerarde as coming from the Indies into Spain and thence into France
and Flanders, whence he received seeds. The plant, like the tall
nasturtium, is grown principally as an ornament, but the flowers and
leaves and green fruit may be used in salads or for pickling. This
species seems to have been first known in Europe about 1574; was
described by Monardes; is figured by Lobel, 1576; and is generally
spoken of about this period as a new and rare plant. It was in the
vegetable garden in England in 1726, probably before, and is
mentioned in American gardens in 1806.
Brazil and Chile. This species furnishes an edible cress. It bears a three-
lobed, sweet, fleshy, edible berry, black, juicy and not unlike in
appearance and flavor to the Zante, or currant, grape.
Chile. Philippi says this is one of the most eligible of the species of this
genus for its tubers, which can be eaten even in a raw state.
Bolivia and Peru; long cultivated on the Peruvian Andes for its tuberous
roots. The tubers are called ysano, are yellow and red and about the
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size of small pears. They are cooked and then frozen before being eaten;
the women of La Paz are very fond of this frozen dish.
West Indies. The berries, which are about the size of large grapes, have
a very pleasant flavor.
North America. The Indians of Maine prepare a tea from the leaves of
hemlock and this tea is relished as a drink. The spray is also used in
New England and elsewhere to a limited extent in the domestic
manufacture of spruce beer. According to McKenzie, the aborigines of
the West employ the inner bark as a food; it is taken off early in the
spring and made into cakes, which are eaten with salmon oil and are
considered dainties. Langsdorff speaks of the Thiinkets at Sitka eating
cakes made of bark of spruce fir, mixed with roots, berries and train oil.
Europe and North America. The young shoots are edible and resemble
asparagus.
Europe and North America. In Virginia, the poorer settlers ate the root
of the bulbrush and were very fond of it; it has a sweetish taste. Haller
says the roots are eaten in salads. Long says the seeds are esculent,
roasted; Lindley, that it is sometimes used as food under the name of
Cossack asparagus. This plant, says Clarke, nourishes luxuriantly in
the shallows of the Don. He found the people devouring it raw; "with a
degree of avidity as though it had been a religious observance. It was to
be seen in all the streets and in every house, bound into faggots. "They
peel off the outer rind and find near the root a tender, white part of the
stem, which, for about the length of inches, affords a crisp, cooling, and
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very pleasant article of food.
Europe and northern Asia. The rhizomes furnish a meal which is made
into cakes. They are used also as a vegetable.
Europe and the Orient. The English elm was early introduced into
Boston and is now grown here and there as a shade tree. In Norway, the
inhabitants kiln-dry the bark and in time of scarcity grind it into a meal
to be mixed with flour for bread. The fruit, in a green state, according to
Browne, is sometimes eaten as a salad. Some years ago, in England,
says Johnson, an immense quantity of dried elm leaves were used for
adulterating tea and for manufacturing a substance intended to be
used as a substitute for it. In Russia, the leaves of a variety are used as
tea. In times of great scarcity, the ground bark, the leaves and the
membranous fruit are all eaten as food in China.
Guiana. This plant has an acrid and aromatic fruit, used as a pepper
by the negroes in Guiana.
Tropical Asia. The fruit is used in the same way as is that of the species
above.
Cochin China. The pulp of the fruit is sparing but is of a grateful taste.
Equatorial Africa. A species which has nauseous and bitter roots and
white flowers and furnishes a vegetable to the natives. Grant writes, "the
men of the Moon roast its leaves and stalks and cook them as a
spinach."
U. dulcis Dun.
Burma, Malay and tropical Asia. The perfumed fruit is eaten. In the
Public Gardens of Jamaica, this species is grown as a fruit tree.
Eastern North America. Griffith says the roots are edible when cooked,
and the young shoots are a very good substitute for asparagus.
Canada and Maine to Wisconsin and the Rocky Mountains. The berry is
blue and sweet.
Northeastern United States and southward. The berries are often large,
black, with a bluish bloom and of a sprightly, acidulous taste. This
blueberry has been recommended by horticulturists for cultivation and
in some of its varieties is very deserving.
V. erythrocarpum Michx.
V. leschenaultii Wight.
Neilgherries. The berries, about the size of red currants, are agreeably
acid and make excellent tarts. Mueller says of Ceylon also, a tree,
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flowering and fruiting throughout the year.
V. leucanthum Schlecht.
Madeira. The berries are black, juicy, eatable and gratefully acid.
Jamaica. The berries are sapid, red, acid, astringent, bitter and, like
bilberries, they make good jelly. This species is grown in the Public
Gardens of Jamaica.
Ecuador and the mountains of Columbia. The berries come to the Quito
market under the name of mortinia.
V. ovalifolium Sm.
Northern North America. The berries are gathered before quite ripe, are
pressed into a cake, then dried and laid by. When used, a quantity is
put into a vessel of cold water and stirred rapidly with the hand until it
assumes a form not unlike soapsuds. It is pleasant to the taste, with a
slightly bitter flavor.
Northern United States. Elliott says the berries are eaten. The Indians of
Wisconsin and Michigan make extensive use of the fruit. Emerson says
the fruit is scarcely eatable.
Northern climates. Don says the berries are large, juicy, black, covered
with a mealy bloom, eatable, but neither grateful nor wholesome. The
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berries, says Johnson, are eaten occasionally but in any "large quantity
cause giddiness and headache." In Siberia, the berries are fermented,
distilled and furnish a strong alcoholic spirit. It is said that the berries
are used in France to color wine. Richardson says, beyond the Arctic
circle this species is, in good seasons, plentiful to an extraordinary
degree and is of a finer quality than in more southern localities.
Northern and arctic regions. This is the wi-sa-gu-mina of the Crees and
the cranberry most plentiful and most used throughout Rupert's Land.
This berry, says Richardson, is excellent for every purpose to which a
cranberry can be applied. Thoreau, in the Maine woods, made his
desserts on these berries stewed and sweetened, but Gray says they are
barely edible in America. The fruit is not much eaten in Britain but is
greatly valued in Sweden. The berries are tasteless and but little acid
when, gathered but, after exposure to frost, they become very sour.
They are often sold in the London market as cranberries. In Siberia,
they are kept in water in winter, where they acquire their proper acidity
and are eaten in spring.6
This annual plant has been found spontaneous in all temperate Europe
as far as 60° north; in southern Europe to the Canary Isles, Madeira
and the Azores; in north Africa, Asia Minor and in the region of the
Caucasus. This species seems quite variable in nature, and, as long ago
as 1623, Bauhin records its variability in size, saying it occurs with
narrow, broad and entire leaves. Corn salad is described by Lobel,
1576; Dalechamp, 1587; as also by Camerarius 1588; but with all, as
occurring in fields and without mention of culture, although its value
as a salad is recognized. In 1597, Gerarde says it has grown in use
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among the French and Dutch strangers in England, and "hath beene
sowen in gardens as a sallad herbe." He figures two varieties. J. Bauhin
describes two sorts and gives Tabernaemontanus as a witness that it
was found in gardens as well as in fields and vineyards. Ray, 1686,
quotes J. Bauhin only; Chabraeus, 1677, describes it as grown in
gardens as a salad herb; Worlidge, 1683, Maeger, 1683, Quintyne,
1693 and 1704, Townsend, 1726, Stevenson, 1765, Mawe, 1778,
Bryant, 1783, all refer to its culture in England. In France, according
to Heuze, the species is spoken of as cultivated by Olivier de Serres and
is referred to as if a well-known cultivated salad in Le Jardinier
Solitaire, 1612. Corn salad was in American gardens previous to 1806.
Vilmorin describes four varieties, which are distinct. All these have
blunt leaves. The variety quite frequently distributed in American
gardens is that which is figured by the herbalists as having pointed
leaves; as, for instance:
The round-leaved form, the mache ronde of Vilmorin, has its type
figured by Dodonaeus in his Pemptades, 1616, under the name album
olus.
V. spinosa Roxb.
Tropical Asia. The berry is the size of a cherry, succulent and edible.
West Indies and Mexico. The best vanilla is the produce of this species
but several other South American species are also used. The product is
employed very extensively for flavoring.
East Indies. This species is a tree of Ceylon from whose seeds the
natives make a kind of bread.
Fiji Islands. The kernel has a slightly astringent taste but is eaten
readily by the natives of Viti, especially the youngsters.
Veltheimia. Liliaceae.
Eastern equatorial Africa. This plant grows in the swamps of the Nile,
and its flowers are utilized as a spinach.
V. foetens Decne.
Middle and northern Europe and northern America. The fruit is a poor
substitute for cranberries, hence the name cranberry tree. The fruit,
when ripe, is of a pleasant, acid taste and is sometimes substituted for
cranberries. Thoreau stewed them with sugar and says the lumbermen
of Maine cook them with molasses; he afterwards saw them in a garden
in Bangor. In Norway and Sweden, the berries are eaten with honey and
flour, and a spirit is distilled from them. A miserable food for savage
nations, says Lindley. On the Winnipeg river, the fruit is of an orange
color, fleshy and agreeable to the taste. This plant is the nipi minan of
the Crees. Probably this is the fruit brought from the North and called
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by the Narragansett Indians wuchipoquameneash, described by Roger
Williams as "a kind of sharp fruit like a barberry in taste."
New York to Georgia. The blackish berries are sweet and eatable.
V. stellulatum Wall.
Asia, Europe and northern America. This vetch has been occasionally
cultivated, as affording provender of good quality, but it does not ripen
a sufficient quantity of seed to make it easy to grow it as an annual
green crop. Johnson says the seeds may be used as food.
V. ervilia Willd.
Europe and Asia. The European bean appears to be among the most
ancient of our cultivated esculents. A variety has been found in the
lacustrine deposits of Switzerland ascribed to the Bronze Age. It was
cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans, by the Hebrews and by
the ancient Egyptians, although it is not among the seeds found in the
catacombs, perhaps, De Candolle remarks, because it was reported
unworthy for the nourishment of priests, or certain priests, or from
motives of superstition. Herodotus states that the priests in Egypt held
beans in such aversion that none were sown throughout the land; if by
chance a single plant anywhere sprang up, they turned away their eyes
from it as from an impure thing. Wilkinson remarks that this statement
applied, apparently, only to the priests for the people were allowed to
eat these beans.
The Emperor Chin-nong is said to have introduced the bean into China
in the year 2822 B. C. The period of its introduction into Britain is
unknown but Gerarde, 1597, appears to have known only two
varieties. At Teneriffe, at the discovery, the people are said to have had
beans and peas or vetches, all of which they call hacichei. In 1667,
Father Carii speaks of "kidney beans and common beans " in Congo. In
1776, they were seen by Thunberg in Japan. The first introduction into
the North American colonies was by Captain Gosnold, 1602, who
planted them on the Elizabeth Islands near the coast of Massachusetts,
where they nourished well. They were also cultivated in Newfoundland
as early as 1622, in New Netherlands in 1644, and in Virginia prior to
1648. Beans are mentioned as cultivated in New England prior to 1671
by Josselyn. In McMahon's work of 1806, fourteen kinds are
enumerated. In 1828, Thorburn gives, in his seed list, six kinds and in
1881 but four. European beans are seldom cultivated in America now,
their place being taken by the kidney beans.
Linnaeus forms this bean into two botanical varieties, as does also
Moench, who names the one hortensis, or the garden bean, the other
equina, or the horse bean. These are both figured or mentioned by the
early botanists; the hortensis, or garden bean, by Fuchsius, 1542, and
Tragus, 1552. The equina is described by Pena and Lobel in their
Adversaria, 1570, and by Lyte in his Dodoens, 1586, as well as by
Dodonaeus, 1566. R. Thompson, 1850, describes ten varieties, giving
synonyms and these include all known to him. Let us follow up his
synonymy, in order to see whether varieties of modem origination
appear. This synonymy is founded upon identity of names in most
instances and applies to the garden bean only, yet collateral evidence
would seem to indicate a substantial correctness:
The only two other varieties advertised lately are Beck's Dwarf Green
Gem and Seville Long-pod. There is certainly no indication here that
types have appeared in modern culture. The crowd of new names which
appear during a decade gradually becomes reduced to a synonymy,
and we find at last that the variation gained has been within types only.
V. gigantea Hook.
California to Sitka. The seeds are eaten by the Indians. Gray remarks
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that the seeds are eatable, when young, like green peas.
V. monanthos Desf.
V. pisiformis Linn.
Europe, North Africa and the Orient. In 1686, according to Ray, this
tare was grown throughout Europe for feeding animals. There are a
number of varieties, the most prominent of which are the spring and
winter tares. The seed of the white vetch is eaten in some countries. The
seeds are said by Johnson to be neither very palatable nor nutritious.
In many cantons of France, the seeds are, however, eaten in soup and
enter into the composition of flours used for breadmaking.
Northern Asia, Himalayan regions and Europe. The seeds may be used
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as food.
Russia. This species has been cultivated of late years with much
success in several parts of northern and central Europe.
Guiana. The Spaniards collect the seeds and eat them roasted.
Brazil. The leaves, dried and pulverized, are used as tea in Brazil.
V. doniana Sweet.
Tropical Africa. The fruit is eatable, says Sabine, but is inferior to both
the sugar and yellow plums of that country.
Australia. The stems are herbaceous rather than shrubby, erect. The
whole plant is pervaded with acidity and proves valuable in cases of
scurvy. The berries are edible.
V. acida Chapm.
South America and West Indies. The whole plant has an acid taste.
V. adnata Wall.
Eastern America. The berries are pleasant and the flowers fragrant. This
grape is referred to by Wood in his New England's Prospects as the
"smaller kinde of grape which groweth in the Islands, which is sooner
ripe and more delectable." As it occurs wild, it presents many varieties
in its fruit and has produced, according to William Saunders, the
cultivated forms known as Lenoir, Herbemont, Devereaux, Alvey,
Cynthiana and Norton's Virginia; according to Ravenel, Clinton and
Delaware. This species was introduced into England in 1656.
V. africana Spreng.
V. antarctica Benth.
V. arborea Linn.
Orient and North America. The fruit is said to become agreeable when
perfectly matured, but Nuttall says, to his taste, it is always nauseous.
Arizona and Utah. The fruit is small, borne in small clusters and is said
to be quite luscious.
V. auriculata Wall.
Himalayan region, Burma and Java. The berries are large and juicy.
V. berlanderi Planch.
Texas and northern Mexico. This vine bears a very large cluster of rich,
though remarkably small, fruit. The quality is fine for wine.
New Hampshire to North Carolina and westward. The berries are small
and generally sweet and agreeable.
V. caesia Sabine.
Tropical Africa. The berries are round and black, with an austere, acid
taste not very agreeable to Europeans; the grapes are eaten chiefly by
the negroes, who are very fond of them.
V. californica Benth.
Southwestern United States. The quantity of the fruit that an Indian will
consume at one time is scarcely credible. The ancient Pueblo Indians
were in the habit of cultivating this grape as is evident from the peculiar
distribution of the plant near reined settlements. In Arizona, near Fort
Whipple, they are found arranged in rows and the vines are very old.
The berry is small and round and much resembles the ordinary frost
grape of New England but it is larger, more juicy and richer in flavor.
V. candicans Engelm.
V. capensis Burm.
South Africa. The berry is said to be excellent but with a different flavor
from our grapes. It is brought to the table at the Cape of Good Hope.
West Indies and moist thickets in Florida and along the shores of the
Gulf of Mexico as far as southern Texas. This grape was found in
Arkansas by Nuttall. Its grapes are small, sour and generally
unpalatable, yet sometimes it has fruit agreeably acid. Its vines are said
to be so full of sap as to be used in the West Indies to allay thirst.
Sloane says, in Jamaica, it is red or deep purple and the size of a
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currant and agreeably acid, as well as astringent. Loudon says it was
introduced into England in 1800.
Eastern United States. The fruit hangs in short clusters, is dark purple,
almost black when ripe, with a dark blue bloom, about the size of a
large pea. It is very acid, says Emerson, but pleasant, with a rich, spicy
taste and without any acerbity remaining after eating. Natural varieties
of this grape have been transferred to gardens in Massachusetts and
the berries of these plants are described as of "a juicy, agreeable, wine
taste," "oval, sweet and spicy," "round and sweet," "sweet and
agreeable." This species has been strongly recommended for wine-
making. Some of the varieties have red, others black fruits.
V. elongata Wall.
V. geniculata Miq.
V. heterophylla Thunb.
V. hypoglauca F. Muell.
V. imperialis Miq.
V. indica Linn.
Eastern United States. This is probably the grape seen by the Northmen
at Vinland, when the two Scotch slaves sent out to explore brought
back a bunch of grapes in 1006. This grape was mentioned by Edward
Winslow in Massachusetts, 1621, as "white and red and very sweet and
strong also." Master Graves says "vines doe grow here plentifully laden
with the biggest grapes that ever I saw; some I have seen four inches
about." The fox grape is often mentioned by the colonists. In 1769, the
French settlers on the Illinois River made upwards of one hundred
hogsheads of strong wine from the wild grape. The fruit varies much in
size, color and taste, and some of the natural varieties are very fair fruit
and may be found even now around many New England homesteads,
although they all have more or less of the strong, musky flavor, which
in some varieties is disagreeably intense. Emerson says he has gathered
grapes in the woods decidedly superior to the Isabella.
V. latifolia Roxb.
V. mutabilis Miq.
V. opaca F. Muell.
East Australia. The vine produces as many as eight to ten large tubers.
Though insipid, these are eagerly sought by the natives for food.
Asia and African tropics. The berries are large, edible and particularly
sweet.
V. quadrangularis Wall.
Arabia to India and central Africa. The berries are eaten in India, and
the young shoots and leaves are used by the natives as a potherb.
V. rubifolia Wall.
V. schimperiana Hochst.
V. sicyoides Miq.
V. thrysiflora Miq.
V. trifolia Linn.
Asia and Australian tropics. The leaves are acid and edible.
V. uvifera Baker.
Tropical Africa. The berries are black, pulpy, of an austere, acid taste
but are eaten by the natives.
Some believe that the vine was introduced into England by the Romans,
while, according to others, it was first brought by the Phoenicians, who
also have the credit of having transplanted it from Palestine to the
islands of the Mediterranean. The earliest English chronicles make
mention of vineyards, and vine culture is said to have continued until
the Reformation; but the English climate is not suitable and the grape is
grown only under glass except in a few favored locations. The vine was
brought to the New World by Columbus, and, in 1494 at Hayti,
"cuttings from European vines already began to form their clusters." In
1741, there were some thousands of vines from Portugal thriving at
Augusta, Georgia, and there are accounts of this vine in New Albion in
1647. There are accounts of wine-making from grapes of unknown
species in Virginia in 1630, 1647, 1651; in Massachusetts, in 1634; in
Pennsylvania, in 1683 and 1685; and in Indiana in 1804. In Chile and
in California, its culture seems successful. In California, its introduction
was due to the Missions which were mainly established from 1769 to
1820. Except in California, here and there a single vine in exceptional
localities may succeed.
The currant, or Zante, grape is the variety which furnishes the dried
currants of commerce, the individual grapes being no larger than peas,
entirely free from seeds and of an agreeable flavor. This vine was
introduced into the United States in 1855 and is now grown in
California, where, however, it troubles the cultivator by occasionally
producing seeds. At present, our supply of currant grapes comes from
the Ionian Islands chiefly but they are also grown in France. Unlike
other grape vines, this, in Zante, will not succeed upon the hills but
flourishes in low lands, retentive of moisture, incapable of drainage and
flooded for two months of the year.
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Voandzeia subterranea Thou. Leguminosae. GROUNDNUT.
Guiana. The tuberous roots are baked and eaten in Guiana like
potatoes. They are of a reddish color externally and white within.
New Zealand. This tree resembles the beech in leaf and general
appearance and bears a fruit the color and size of a Damson plum. The
fruit is sweet and pleasant.
Himalayas, Burma, India and Malay. The fruit is of a dark orange color,
the size of a large lemon, and is filled with a soft, yellowish pulp, in
which are immersed a few seeds the size of a horse bean. It is thought
good by the natives.
China. The flowers, leaves and fruit are used for food.
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Xanthorrhoea arborea R. Br. Juncaceae (Xanthorroeaceae).
GRASS GUM TREE.
Southern Australia. The tender, inner leaves are esculent and far from
disagreeable, having a milky taste with a slight, balsamic flavor.
Tropical America. This plant is generally planted in Jamaica for the use
of the table. Lunan says, in wholesomeness and delicacy, it is superior
to spinach and vies with any European vegetable whatever. The roots
are said to be edible. Starch is obtained from the rootstocks.
Cosmopolitan tropics. The fruits resemble yellow plums, are edible and
of an agreeable taste. They have an acid-sweet, aromatic taste, with
some degree of austerity. The plant bears round, orange-colored fruits,
of which the natives of the Fiji and other islands of the Pacific Ocean are
very fond, though they are rather tart. Before they are ripe they possess
a powerful odor of essential oil of almonds. In the Circars, its yellow
fruit, which is about the size of a pigeon's egg, is eaten by the natives.
X. frutescens Aubl.
Tropical America. The seeds have an acrid, aromatic taste and are used
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by the negroes in Guiana instead of pepper.
Jamaica. The wood, bark and berries have an agreeable, bitter taste,
not unlike that of the orange seed. Freshly gathered from the tree, the
berries are agreeable to the palate and grateful to the stomach.
Brazil. Arruda says the capsules have the taste and pungency of black
pepper and are used by many as a spice in cooking and by some are
preferred even to pepper. The fruit, says St. Hilaire, has the odor and
taste of pepper but is not as strong. It can be employed as a spice.
X. undulata Beauv.
Venezuela. The sweet and fermented juice of this plant yields a spirit by
distillation; the young leaves are eaten.
Southwestern North America and Mexico. The fruit is the size of a large
fig with a sweet, edible pulp. The Indians of Arizona, New Mexico and
Utah are very fond of the fruit and dry it for winter use. The young
flower-buds, when about to expand, are also roasted but to Whites are
insipid food. Bartlett saw in an Apache camp a pot of the flowers boiling
for food.
Y. glauca Nutt.
America. The plant bears an edible fruit often three inches long and
one-half inch across.
Y. treculeana Carr.
Mexico and western Texas. The fruit is said to resemble a pawpaw and
to be edible.
Malay. This palm is found in Malacca and is called by the natives salak
batool. The fruit is edible.
Z. conferta Griff.
Malay and Sumatra. The fruit is large, deep brown and hangs
sometimes quite down in the mud in deeply clustered branches, almost
hidden by the half-decayed bracts. The pulp surrounding the seeds is
intensively acid and is much used by the Malays as a condiment.
Z. edulis Blume.
Burma and Malay. The fruit is much sought after by the Burmese on
account of the fleshy and juicy covering of the seeds, which has a
pleasantly acid and refreshing taste. The fruit is eaten. It is about the
size of a walnut and is covered with scales like those of a lizard; below
the scales are two or three sweet, yellow kernels, which the Malays eat.
A preserve is also made of the fruit.
New Granada. The seeds are boiled and reduced to a mash which is
served with milk and sugar. Bread is also made from them.
West Indies and Florida. This cycad furnishes the Seminole Indians
with their white meal. An arrowroot has been prepared from it at St.
Augustine. It is now cultivated to a limited extent.
Z. pumila Linn.
Z. tenuis Willd.
Bahama Islands. The plant yields from its trunk a pure starch, used as
a fine arrowroot in the Bahamas.
Himalayas and China. This is a small tree, the fruits of which are used
in China as well as in India as a condiment. Its aromatic capsules are
used as a condiment in India.
Z. budrunga Wall.
Himalayas and Burma. The capsules are used for their warm, spicy,
pepper-like pungency.
Z. piperitum DC.
China and Japan. The bark, leaves and fruits are used as a spice.
Z. rhetsa DC.
East Indies. The unripe capsules are like small berries and are
gratefully aromatic, tasting like the peel of a fresh orange. The seeds are
used as a condiment in Malabar. On the Coromandel Mountains, its
aromatic bark is put in food as a condiment, and its seeds are used as a
pepper substitute.
Tropical America. The earliest record of maize is in the Popol Vuh, the
sacred book of the Quicke Indians of western Guatemala, whose
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records extend back to the eighth century. In the Popol Vuh the legend
runs: "In Paxil, or Cayala (land of divided and stagnant waters) as it is
called, were the ears of yellow maize and of white. These are the. names
of the barbarians who went to seek food the Fox, the Jackal, the
Paroquet and the Crow — four barbarians who made known to them
the ears of the white maize and of the yellow, who came to Paxil and
guided them thither. There it was they obtained at last the food that
was to enter into the flesh of man, of man created and formed; this it
was that was his blood, that became the blood of man — this maize that
entered into him by the provision of him who creates, of him who gives
being. And they rejoiced that they had at last arrived in this most
excellent land, so full of good things, where the white and yellow maize
did abound, also the cacao, where were sapotes and many fruits and
honey; all was overflowing with the best of food in this country of Paxil,
or Cayala. There was food of every kind; there were large and small
plants, to which the barbarians had guided them. Then they began to
grind the yellow and white maize and of them did Xmucane make nine
drinks, which nourishment was the beginning of strength, giving unto
man flesh and stature. Such were the deeds of the begetter and giver of
being, Tepeuh, Gucumatz. Thereupon they began to speak of creating
our first mother and our first father. Only yellow maize and white maize
entered into their flesh and these alone formed the legs and arms of
man; and these were our first fathers, the four men who were formed,
into whose flesh this food entered."
So much was this grain esteemed that the palace gardens of the Incas
were decorated with maize in gold and silver, with all the grains, stalks,
spikes, leaves, and, in one instance, in "the gardens of gold and silver"
there was an entire corn field of some size, representing the maize in its
natural shape. De la Vega notices the curious workmanship with which
the golden ear was half-disclosed amidst the broad leaves of silver and
the light tassel of the same material that floated gracefully from its top.
At Titiaca, the sacred temple was surrounded with broad fields of
maize, which imbibed a portion of its sanctity, and the yearly produce
was distributed among the different public magazines, in small
quantities to each, as something that would sanctify the remainder of
the store. Acosta says they take a certain portion of the most fruitful of
the maize that grows on their farms, "the which they put in a certain
grenier which they do call Pirua, with certain ceremonies, watching
them nights: they put this Mays in the richest garment they have, and
being thus wrapped and dressed, they worship this Pirua and hold it in
great veneration, saying it is the mother of the Mays of their inheritance,
and that by this means the mays augments and is preserved." Rivers
and Tschudi say, "the corn-stalks with many ears or with double ears
were considered as sacred things but not as Deities: they were called by
the Indians Hirantazara, or Aryherazara, because they danced with the
dance Arihuay, when the corn was suspended by branches of willow; in
the same way did they worship the ears, the grains of wliich were of
various colors, or were arranged in rows, united in the shape of a cone."
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In 1532-50, Cieza de Leon found maize abundant in fields, requiring
four months for its growth. Gibbon, 1851, describes the corn at Tarma
as being small-grained and of four colors: red, white, yellow and blue.
Herndon says, on the Montana, three crops are made in a year. On the
Island of Titraca, says Squier, the stalks of the maize are scarcely three
feet high, and the ears, not longer than one's finger, are closely covered
with compact, vitreous grains. On the coast of Peru, says de la Vega, the
sowing is done by the ancient Peruvians, "by making holes with thick
stakes, into which they put the heads of fish together with two or three
grains of maize." This seems to be the same method now in vogue
among the Indians in some parts of Mexico and as described in part by
Bancroft, for the ancient Aztecs.
The first mention of corn in the present territory of the United States
and Canada, seems to have been in the Icelandic Sagas. At Hop,
supposed by Prof. Rafn to be in the vicinity of Taunton River,
Massachusetts, Karlsefne, in 1006, "found there upon the land self
sown fields of wheat, there where the ground was low but vines there
where it rose somewhat." Karlsefne is said to have sent out two Scotch
people to explore and when they returned they brought back "a bunch
of grapes and a new sowen ear of wheat." Again, in 1002, Thorwald, on
an island far to the westward of Vinland, "met with a wooden
Komhjalmr" (corn shed?), but saw no other signs of inhabitants, nor of
wild beasts.
The Navajo Indians have this tradition: "All the wise men being one day
assembled, a turkey hen came flying from the direction of the morning
star and shook from her feather an ear of blue corn into the midst of the
company." At the present time, blue, yellow, white, red and even black
corn is cultivated in New Mexico, the blue being predominant and most
esteemed. In Virginia, in 1585, Sir Richard Grenville is recorded as
having destroyed the standing corn of the natives. Heriot 1586,
mentions a kind of grain called mayze in the West Indies. Corn is
mentioned by Strachey under the name of poketawes. In A True
Declaration of Virginia, 1610, the corn is said to grow to a height of
twelve or fourteen feet, "yielding some four, five, or six eares, on every
staike and in every eare some five hundred, some seaven hundred
comes." Corn cultivated after the Indian method was grown in 1608, the
first successful attempt by Englishmen on record.
In August, 1636, when the English made their attack on the Indians at
Block Island, "two hundred acres of corn were under cultivation and
the maize, already partly harvested, was piled in heaps to be stored
away for winter use." The Indians have a tradition, says Roger Williams,
that "the crow brought them at first an Indian Grain of Corn in one
Eare, and an Indian, or French, Beane is another, from the great God
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Kautantouwits' field in the Southwest, from whence they hold came all
their corne and beanes." Indian corn was found as a common food
when Europeans first landed at New York in 1609, extensive fields
being cultivated and the grain preserved.8 In 1653, when Le Moine
navigated Lake Ontario and landed among the Senecas, they gave him
"bread made from Indian corn, of a kind to be roasted at the fire." In
1687, in an invasion into the country of the Senecas by Marquis de
Nouville, the quantity' of corn destroyed was estimated at 1,200,000
bushels. In 1696, the French army under Frontenac invaded the
country of the Onondagas and spent three days in destroying the
growing crops in the fields which extended a league and a half from the
fort.
We thus see that the culture of corn was general in the New World at the
time of the discovery; that it reigned from Brazil to Canada, from Chile
to California; that it was grown extensively in fields; and that it had
produced many varieties — always an indication of antiquity of culture.
It furnished food in its grain, and, from its stalks, sugar to the
Peruvians, honey to the Mexicans and a kind of wine or beer to all the
natives of the tropics.
Ruellius, a native of France, 1536, asserts that maize came from Arabia
and calls it Turcicum frumentum. This seems to indicate that he knew
the grain in France. The variety of names used for this grain in various
parts of France, such as: “wheat of Turkey," "wheat of Rome," "wheat of
Barbary," "wheat of Guiana" and "wheat of Spain," indicate that in the
course of cultivation the seed had been received from diverse sources.
It was not until after the year 1610, says Targioni-Tozzetti, that maize
found its way through Spain and Sicily. Cardan, 1553, and Matthiolus,
1570, both Italians, mentioned the plant in their writings, but the
former does not affirm that it was known in Italy, nor does the latter in
his edition of 1645, and, indeed, says that it should be called "Indian
wheat " and not "Turkish wheat," because it came from the West Indies
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and not from Asia nor from Turkey. In 1685, George de Turre says that
the maize, or Turkish wheat, was imported into Italy "since a few years."
Ramusio, who died in 1557, is quoted by Pickering as stating that the
plant was first seen in Italy in his time.
Southern states of North America. The bulbous roots were eaten by the
Creek Indians in times of scarcity. In France, this species is cultivated in
the flower gardens.
Egypt and Arabia. The leaves are boiled and eaten by the Arabs.
Japan. This is a kind of wild ginger of Japan where the root is said to be
utilized.
Tropical Asia and the Malayan Archipelago. The leaves and shoots are
used as greens in Bengal.
North America and eastern Asia. Wild rice is found on the swampy
borders of streams and in shallow water, common in the United States,
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especially northwestward. Gould has found it nine feet tall at the foot of
Lake Champlain and in places on the Hudson and Delaware Rivers,
where the tibe ebbs and flows, over twelve feet high. The seeds have
furnished food from early times to the Indians and the plant has been
considered worthy of cultivation. In 1791, seeds from Canada were sent
to England and attempts were made at its culture. Father Hennepin, in
1680, in his voyage on the upper Mississippi, ate the grain and
pronounced it better and more wholesome than rice. In 1784, Jonathan
Carver speaks of wild rice as being the most valuable of all the
spontaneous productions of the Northwest. Jefferys, 1760, says the
people of Louisiana gather the seeds and make them into a bread. Flint
says, but for this grain the Canadian traders and hunters could hardly
exist. Pinkerton says, "this plant seems to be designed by nature to
become the bread corn of the north." Almost every observer who has
mentioned it has used terms of praise. Gould says the plant seems
especially adapted for the soiling of cattle and that its use increases the
yield and the richness of milk. In Louisiana, its use is recommended for
hay, and in Savannah, Georgia, says Elliott, under the name of wild
oats, it is used almost exclusively during the summer as green fodder
for cows and horses. The one objection to its culture seems to come
from the seed dropping so readily when ripe. The northern Indians, of
the lakes and rivers between the Mississippi and Lake Superior, gather
the seed by pushing the canoe amongst the stems' and shaking the
heads over the boat. An acre of wild rice is supposed to be equal to an
acre of wheat in the nutriment afforded. The seeds are black, smooth,
narrow, cylindrical, about half an inch long, white and farinaceous
when cooked and are very palatable.
Z. joazeiro Mart.
East Indies and Malay; cultivated generally in the East Indies. More
than 1200 years ago this plant was introduced into China by way of
Persia and now yields an excellent dessert fruit for the Chinese, who
recognize many varieties, differing in shape, color and size of the fruits.
Those of one variety are called Chinese date. In India, the fruit is more
or less globose in the wild and common sorts and is ovoid or oblong in
the cultivated and improved plant. The pulp is mealy, sweetish, with a
pleasant taste, and, in South India, an oil is extracted from the kernel.
Wallich describes a variety which produces a fruit of a long form, about
the size of an egg, and which is of excellent quality. A variety with a
small, sour berry is a great favorite with the Burmese. In Abyssinia, its
fruits are made into a substance like dry cheese. In Mauritius, six
varieties are described, of these four are pleasant tasting and two not
good.
Z. lycioides A. Gray.
Texas and the neighboring Mexican states. The plant bears round,
black, edible but rather astringent berries, about the size of a rifle ball,
which are called gerambuyo prieto and cornudo de cuervo.
Z. mucronata Willd.
Tropical Africa, Cape of Good Hope and Senegal. The red fruit is eaten
and is used in Africa for making into a bread and also for the
preparation of a pleasant beverage.
Z. napeca Willd.
Z. obtusifolia A. Gray.
Texas. The large, round, black berries are eaten by Mexicans although
nearly tasteless.
Z. oxyphylla Edgew.
Z. reticulata DC.
Z. rotundifolia Lam.
Persia and East Indies. The fruit is eaten and during famines has
supported thousands. The taste is sweet and acidulous.
Z. rugosa Lam.
East Indies and Burma. The fruit is eaten but has a peculiar, mawkish
flavor. The fruit is yellow and the size of a small cherry.
North Africa and the Orient. The fruit is oblong, about the size of a sloe
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and has a pleasant, subacid taste. It is used as food by the inhabitants
of Egypt and Arabia.
Z. xylopyrus Willd.
East Indies. The fruits are not eaten by men but the kernels are.
Europe. In the outer Hebrides, the root of this plant, which after storms
is cast upon the shores in great abundance, is chewed for the
saccharine juice which it contains. The plant is much used as a
manure.
North Africa and Arabia. The aromatic seeds are employed by the Arabs
in the place of pepper.
Spain, north Africa and western Asia. The flowers are used as a caper
substitute.
Agr. Gaz.
Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales. Sydney, 1890. Issued
by direction of the minister for mines and agriculture. (Monthly.)
Amer. Agr.
American Agriculturist. Weekly published by the Orange Judd
Co. New York, Springfield, Mass. and Chicago, 1842.
Amer. Gard.
American Gardening. A Weekly Illustrated Journal of
Horticulture. New York, 1892-1904. Before its union with Popular
Gardening in 1892, the publication was known as The American
Garden.
Amer. Nat.
American Naturalist. Monthly. Boston, Mass., 1868.
Anghiera, Peter Martyr de: The Decades of the New World, or West
India: written in the Latin tongue, and translated into Englysche
by Rycharde Eden. London, 1555.
Anthrop. Journ.
Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, Eng. Containing
in 1865, vol. 3, an article by Berthold Seemann.
Antiq. Culin.
Antiquitates Culinariae; or Curious tracts relating to the culinary
affairs of the old English. With a preliminary discourse, notes and
illustrations, by the Reverend Richard Wamer. London, 1791.
Apicius Opson.
Apicius, Coelius: De Opsoniis. 1709.
Bancroft, G. Hist. U. S.
Bancroft, George: History of the United States from the Discovery
of the American Continent. Fifth Ed. Boston, 1838-75. II vols.
Bauhin, C. Phytopinax.
———— Pinax.
Bauhin, Caspar: Theatri Botanici. Basileae. Helvet., 1623.
Bound with Bauhinus, C., Theatri Botanici. 1620.
———— Prodromus.
Bauhin, Caspar: Theatri Botanici in quo plantae supra
sexcentae ab ipso primum descriptae cum plurimis figuris
proponuntur. Editio altera emendatior. Basiliae, 1671. Bound
with Bauhinus, C., Theatri Botanici. (Imp. Jo. Reg.), 1671.
————On Study.
Bretschneider, Emil, M. D.: On the Study and Value of Chinese
Botanical Works, with Notes on the History of Plants and
Geographical Botany From Chinese Sources. Foochow, Preface
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Camerarius Epit.
Camerarius, Joachimus: De plantis epitome utilissima, Petri
Andreae Matthioli. . . . Accessit, praeter indicem quam
exactissimum, . . . auctore Francisco Calceolario. Francofurti ad
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Church, A. H. Food.
Church, Arthur Herbert: Food; Some Account of the Sources,
Constituents, and Uses. London, 1887.
—— Angelo.
A Curious and Exact Account of a Voyage to Congo In the Years
1666 and 1667 By the R. R. F. F. Michael Angelo of Gatino and
Dennis de Carii of Pacenza, Capuchius and Apostolick Missioners
into the said Kingdom of Congo. In Vol. i.
—— Baumgarten.
The Travels of Martin Baumgarten A Nobleman of Germany
through Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Syria. In Three Books. In
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Vol. i.
—— Brewer.
A Voyage To the Kingdom of Chili in America, Performed by Mr.
Henry Brewer, and Mr. Elias Herckeman, In the Years 1642 and
1643 With a description of The Isle of Formosa and Japan.
Translated from the High Dutch Original, Printed at Frankford
upon the Maine, 1649. In Vol. i.
—— Merolla.
A Voyage to Congo, And Several Other Countries chiefly in
Southern Africk. By Father Jerom Merolla da Sorrento, a
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Clusius Hist.
Clusius, Carolus: Rariorum plantarum historia. Antverpiae, 1601.
Dall,W.H. Alaska.
Dall, William H.: Alaska and Its Resources. Boston, 1897.
Dodonaeus Frument.
Dodonaeus, Rembertus (Dodoens): Frumentorum, leguminum,
palustrium et aquatilium herbarum, ac eorum, quae eo pertinent,
historia . . . Antver-piae, 1566.
———— Pempt.
Dodonaeus, Rembertus (Dodoens): Stirpium historiae pemptades
sex, sive libri xxx. Antverpiae, 1583.
Durante, C. Herb.
Durante, Castor: Herbario novo. Venetia, 1617.
Enc. Brit.
The Encyclopaedia Brittanica or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and
General Literature. Eighth Ed. With Extensive Improvements and
Additions; and Numerous Engravings. Vol. 17 Boston, 1859.
(Containing quotation by Eraser on buckwheat.) Vol. 21 1860.
(Containing article on tea by several authors.) 22 vols. 2 2nd
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Feuillee, Louis: Descriptions of medicinal plants which are in
particular use in the South American countries of Peru and Chile.
Paris, 1725.
———— Obs.
Feuillee, Louis: Journal des observations physiques,
mathematiques et botaniques. Paris, vols. i and 2, 1714; vol. 3,
1725. Contains many botanical plates and descriptions, especially
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Forster, J. R. Obs.
Forster, John Reinold: Observations made during a Voyage
Round the World, on Physical Geography, Natural History, and
Ethic Philosophy. London, 1778.
Eraser, J. B. Mesopotamia.
Fraser, J. Baillie: Mesopotamia and Assyria, from the Earliest Ages
to the Present Time; with Illustrations of their natural History.
Edinburgh, 1842.
Galen De Aliment.
Galenus, Claudius: De alimentorum facultatibus libri tres.
Lugdini, 1547.
Gard. Chron.
The Gardener's Chronicle; A weekly illustrated journal of
horticulture. London, 1841.
Gerarde, J. Herb.
The Herball or generall historie of plantes. Gathered by John
Gerarde of London, Master in Chirurgerie. First Ed. London, 1597.
Enlarged and amended by Thomas Johnson. 1636. Also a 1633
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Ed.
———— and Trumbull in Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts. See American
Journal of Science and Arts.
Hakluyt Voyages.
The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries Of the
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