STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 1 33 



Capparis aphylla Roth. Capparideae. caper, kureel. 



Northern Africa, Arabia and East Indies. In India, the bud of this plant is eaten 

 as a potherb, and the fruit is largely consumed by the natives, both green and ripe ^ and 

 is formed into a pickle.^ In Sind, the flower-buds are used as a pickle, and the unripe 

 fruit is cooked and eaten. Both the ripe and unripe fruit, prepared into a bitter-tasting 

 pickle, is exported into Hindustan.' Its fruit, before ripening, is cooked and eaten by the 

 Banians of Arabia.'' The African species is described by Barth ^ as forming one of the 

 characteristic featiores in the vegetation of Africa from the desert to the Niger, the dried 

 berries constituting an important article of food, while the roots when burned yield no 

 small quantity of salt. 



C. horrida Linn. f. caper. 



Tropical Asia and Malays. In the southern Punjab and Sind, the fruit is pickled. 



C. spinosa Linn, caper. 



Mediterranean regions. East Indies and Orient. This species furnishes buds which 

 are substituted for the capers of commerce.' It is used as a caper.'' The preserved buds 

 have received wide distribution as a vegetable. The caper was known to the ancient 

 Greeks, and the renowned Phryne, at the first period of her residence in Athens, was a 

 dealer in capers.* The Greeks of the Crimea, according to Pallas,^ eat the sprouts, 

 which resemble those of asparagus, as well as the bud, shoot, and, in short, every eatable 

 part of the shrub. Wilkinson '" states that the fruit of the Egyptian caper, or lussef, 

 is very large, like a small cucvimber, about two and a half inches long and is eaten by the 

 Arabs. According to Ruellius," Aristotle and Theophrastus describe the plant as not 

 cultivated in gardens, but in his time, 1536, it was in the gardens of France. In Sind 

 and the Punjab, the fruit is pickled and eaten. It is now cultivated in the south of Europe 

 for the flower -buds, which furnish the capers of commerce. About 1755, capers were 

 imported into South Carolina by Henry Laurens.'^ They were raised successfully for two 

 years in Louisiana, before 1854, but the plants afterwards perished by frost." 



C. tomentosa Lam. kowangee. 



This is the kowangee of tropical Africa. In famines at Madi, spinach is made from 

 its leaves." 



' Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 3. 1873. 

 ' Royle, J. F. Illuslr. Bot. Himal. 1:73. 1839. 

 > Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 14. 1874. 

 < Forskal Fl. Aeg. Arab. 82. 1775. 



' Masters, M. T. Treai. Bo/. 1:217. 1870. (C. sodada) 

 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 140. 1879. 

 ' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 359. 1859. 

 Ibid. 



' Pallas, P. S. Trav. Russia 2:449. 1803. 

 ' Wilkinson, J. G. Anc. Egypt. 2:2^. 1854. 

 " Ruellius Nat. Stirp. 561. 1536 

 " Hist. Mass. Horl. Soc. 29. 1880. 

 " Bry, H. M. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 225. 1854. 

 " Speke, J. H. Journ. Disc. Source Nile 562. 1864. 



