CHAPTER III 



WILD SEEDS OF FOOD VALUE, AND HOW 

 THEY HAVE BEEN UTILIZED 



The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush 

 Lays her full mess before j^ou. 



Shakespeare. 



THE Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru 

 brought to the knowledge of the white race a 

 number of vegetable foods that are to-day on every 

 American table — such as Indian corn, the potato, 

 the pepper, and certain varieties of beans. Others 

 are still unknown to the world at large. Among 

 the latter that Cortes found in every-day use in 

 Mexico was a square-stemmed, blue-flowered herb, 

 which the chroniclers of that time called Chian or 

 Cilia. It seems to have ranked in popularity with 

 staples like maize, frijoles, mague}^ cacao and chili; 

 and was gro^\^l with these in the fields and floating 

 gardens of the Aztecs, for the sake of the small but 

 numerous nutritious seeds of a pleasant, nutty 

 flavor. Writers on the products of the New World 



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