8o sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Baccaurea dulcis Muell. Euphorhiaceae. 



Malayan Archipelago; cultivated in China.' The fruits of this species are rather 

 larger than a cherry, nearly round and of a yellowish color. The pulp is luscious and 

 sweet and is greatly eaten in Sumatra, where the tree is called choopah and in Malacca, 

 where it goes by the i\ame of rambeh.^ 



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. 



Bactris gasipaes H. B. & K. Palmae. peach palm. 



Venezuela. On the Amazon, says Bates, ^ this plant does not grow wild but has been 

 cultivated from time immemorial by the Indians. The fruit is dry and mealy and may 

 be compared in taste to a mixtvire 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 fridt being a farinaceous mass. Humboldt says every cluster contains from 5 

 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.* 



B. major Jacq. prickly palm. 



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.^ 



B. maraja Mart, maraja palm. 



Brazil. This palm has a fruit of a pleasant, acid flavor from which a vinous beverage 

 is prepared."* 



' Royle, J. F. Illustr. Bol. Himal. i: 136. 1839. 

 Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:887. 1870. 



Royle, J. F. Illustr. Bot. Himal. i : 136. 1839. 



* Royle, J. F. Illustr. Bot. Himal. i: 138. 1839. 



Bates, H. W. Nai. Amaz. 728. 1879. Humboldt Libr. Set. 

 Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 63. 1891. 

 'Seemann, B. Pop. Hist. Palms 209. 1856. 

 Prestoe Trinidad Bot. Card. Rpt. 39. 1880. {Guilielma speciosa) 

 Titford, W. J. Hort. Bot. Amer. 109. 1812. 

 "Seemann, B. Pop^ Hist. Palms 98. 1 85-). 



