08 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Borassus flabellifer Linn. Palmae. doub palm, palmyra palm, tala palm, wine 



PALM. 



A common tree in a large part of Africa south of the Sahara and of tropical eastern 

 Asia. The fruits, but still more the young seedlings, which are raised on a large scale 

 for that purpose, are important as an article of food.' Livingstone ' says the fibrous pulp 

 arotmd the large nuts is of a sweet, fruity taste and is eaten. The natives bury the 

 nuts imtil the kernels begin to sprout; when dug up and broken, the inside resembles 

 coarse potatoes and is prized in times of scarcity as nutritious food. During several 

 months of the year, palm wine, or sura, is obtained in large qtoantities and when fresh 

 is a pleasant drink, somewhat like champagne, and not at all intoxicating, though, after 

 standing a few hoiors, it becomes highly so. Grant ' says on the Upper Nile the doub palm 

 is called by the negroes m'voomo, and the boiled roots are eaten in famines by the 

 Wanyamwezi. 



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 pedimcles, cut before flowering, and 

 is collected in bamboo tubes or in earthem pots tied to the cut 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 fnait 

 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. 



Borbonia cordata Lirm. Leguminosae. i 



South Africa. At the Cape of Good Hope, in 1772, Thunberg ' found the country 

 people making tea of the leaves. 



Boscia senegalensis Lam. Capparideae. 



Africaji tropics. The seeds are eaten by the negroes of the Senegal.' 



Boswellia frereana Birdw. Burseraceae. 



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.' 



> Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 545. 1874. 



Livingstone, D. and C. Exped. Zambesi 112. 1866. (B. aethiopium) 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 125. 1879. (B. aethiopium) 



* Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 544. 1874. 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 84. 1858. 



Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 172. 1874. 



' Thunberg, C. P. Tror. 1:128. 1795. 



Baillon, H. Hist. Pis. 3 : 1 69- 1 874. 



Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 153. 1879. 



