STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS I3I 



C. sylvestre Gaertn. 



Amboina. The plant bears nuts with edible kernels.^ 



Canavalia ensiformis DC. Leguminosae. horse bean, overlook, sword bean. 



Tropicjkl Africa. This climbing plant is commonly cultivated about Bombay. The 

 half-grown pods are eaten.^ It is cultivated in the Peninsula for its esculent pods; ' in 

 Biorma to a small extent, where its young pods are eaten; * and also in the Philippines.* 

 The plant is common in woods in the East Indies, tropical Africa, Mexico, Brazil and the 

 West Indies. It is called overlook by the negroes of Jamaica.' Elliott ' says it is found 

 only in a cultivated state and is probably the domesticated form of C. virosa. Firminger * 

 says it is a native vegetable of India, the pod large, flat, sword-shaped, fully nine inches 

 long, and more than an inch and a quarter wide. Though rather coarse-looking, yet 

 when sliced and boiled, is exceedingly tender and little, if any, inferior to the Frenclj bean. 

 Roxbvu"gh ' describes three varieties: flowers and seeds red; flowers white and seeds red; 

 flowers and large seed white. This last variety is considered the best and is used on the 

 tables of Europeans as well as by the natives of Sylhet where it is indigenous. Drury 1* 

 says it is a common plant in hedges and thickets and in cultivation. It is called in India 

 tnukhun 5eeK." 



Canella alba Mvirr. Canellaceae. wild cinnamon. 



West Indies. The bark is employed by the negroes as a condiment and has some 

 reputation as an antiscorbutic.^^ 



Canna achiras Gill. Scitamineae. canna. 



South Africa. This plant is said to furnish tubers used as food in Peru and Chile. 1* 

 It is one of the species cultivated in the West Indies for the manufacture of the arrowroot 

 known as tous les mois according to Balfour." 



C. coccinea Mill, indian shot. 



East Indies. This plant is said by Mueller >* and Balfoiu- to yield the tous les mois 

 of the West Indies. 



'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 2:85. 1832. 



* Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 686. 1879. 



* Ibid. 



* Ibid. 

 Ibid. 



Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 1:212. 1870. {C. gladiata) 

 Elliott, W. Bol. Soc. Edinb. 7:296. 1863. (C. gladiata) 

 Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 148. 1874. 

 Ibid. 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 105. 1858. 



" Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 148. 1874. 



"U. S. Disp. 198. 1865. 



" Lindley, J. Med. Econ. Bot. 50. 1849. 



" Balfour, J. H. Bot. Man. boy. 1875. 



"MueUer, F. Set. Pis.?,?,. 1891. 



