FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



Vernacular. Aloo, By. 



Habitat. West Indies. Common in Bombay. 



Remarks. C. grandifolium and C. sagittifolium, though frequently 

 met with in Bombay, are not commonly eaten, although edible, the latter 

 being greatly prized in the West Indies. Caladium Seguinum, W. or 

 Dum Cane of America is used in the West Indies and South America to 

 set sugar ; and two years ago the writer failing to bring some (Imphee ?) 

 syrup to a good grain, found that the native sugar-makers of the Deccan 

 use the stalks of the three species of Caladium here catalogued for the 

 purpose. The natives of Bombay could not have learnt this from the 

 West Indies, and such remarkable coincidences of which Botany offers 

 many instances, deserve the attention of philologists. Of this order 

 also Colocasia himalensis forms the principal food of some of the hill 

 tribes of the Himalayas ; and Colocasia macrorhiza yields the cele- 

 brated Tarah or Kopek root of Polynesia and Australasia, now being 

 cultivated in Britain. According to Simmonds the tuber of C. costatum 

 is eaten by the natives of the Pedir coast. Other species are also nutritive. 

 Of N. O. 258, Acoracese, Calla palustris of Lapland has edible rhizones. 



N. 0. 260. NAIADACEJE. NAIADS. 



Aponegeton monostachyon. W. Simple spiked Aponogeton^ 



Linn. Syst. Hexandria Trigynia. 



The tubers, used as a vegetable. 



Vernacular ? 



Habitat. East Indies. 



Remarks. A. distachyon, W. Broad-leaved Aponogeton of the Cape, 

 has also edible roots, and those of Potamogeton natans, W. Broad-leaved 

 Pondweed, are eaten in many countries. Of N. O. 265. Cyperacese, 

 Scirpus tuberosus, is the Pi-tsi or Water Chesnut of China; Cyperus 

 esculentus, W. the Rush-nut of South Europe ; and C. usitatus of the 

 Cape, and C. bulbosus, have also edible roots. For Carex indica, see 

 " Starches." 



N. 0. 266. GR AMINES. GRASSES. 



CEREALS. 



Remarks. See " Agricultural Produce Cereals." Although few of them 

 are Eastern products, the edible species of the following cryptogamic orders 

 are enumerated for the purpose of completing the list of " Fruits and 

 Vegetables." They are chiefly taken from Balfour's "Class Book of 

 Botany," 

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