STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS I45 



seed bread may often be found in restaurants in the United States. In Schleswig- 

 Holstein and Holland, they are added to a skim-milk cheese called Kummel cheese. The 

 roots are edible and were considered by Parkinson ' to be superior to parsnips and are 

 still eaten in northern Europe. The young leaves form a good salad and the larger ones 

 may be boilecf and eaten as a spinach.^ Lightfoot ' says the young leaves are good in 

 soups and the roots are by some esteemed a delicate food. It was cultivated in American 

 gardens in 1806 and is still to be found. 



The seeds of caraway were found by O. Heer ^ in the debris of the lake habitations 

 of Switzerland, which establishes the antiquity of the plant in Europe. This fact renders 

 it more probable that the Careum of Pliny * is this plant, as also its use by Apicius ' would 

 indicate. It is mentioned as cultivated in Morocco by Edrisi in the twelfth century. 

 In the Arab writings, quoted by Ibn Baytar, a Mauro-Spaniard of the thirteenth century, 

 it is likewise named; and Fleuckiger and Hanbury think the use of this spice commenced 

 at about this period. Caraway is not noticed by St. Isidore, Archbishop of Seville in 

 the seventh century, although he notices dill, coriander, anise, and parsley; nor is it named 

 by St. Hildegard in Germany in the twelfth century. But, on the other hand, two German 

 medicine books of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries use the word cumich, which is still 

 the popular name in southern Germany. In the same period the seeds appear to have 

 been used by the Welsh physicians of Myddvai, and caraway was certainly in use in Eng- 

 land at the close of the fourteenth century and is named in Turner's Ltbellus, 1538, as 

 also in The Forme of Cury, 1390. 



C. coptictun Benth. & Hook. f. 



Europe, north Africa and northern Asia. This small plant is very much cultivated 

 during the cold season in Bengal, where it is called ajowan, ajonan or javanee. The seeds 

 have an aromatic smell and warm pungent taste and are used in India for culinary pur- 

 poses as spices with betel nuts and paw leaves and as a carminative medicine.' The 

 seeds are said to have the flavor of thyme. 



C. ferulaefolium Boiss. 



Mediterranean region. This plant is a perennial herb with small, edible tubers. 

 Its whitish and bitterish roots are said by Dioscorides to be eaten both raw and cooked. 

 In Cyprus, these roots are still cooked and eaten. 



C. gairdneri A. Gray, edible-rooted caraway. 



Western North America The root is a prominent article of food among the Cali- 

 fornia Indians.' The Nez Perc6 Indians collect the tuberous roots and boil them like 



'Parkinson Par. Terr. 515. 1904. (Reprint of 1629.) 

 Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. ii;,. 1862. 

 'Lightfoot,;. Fl. Scot. i:i6g. 1789. 



Card. Chron. 1068. 1866. 

 Pliny lib. 19, c. 49. 



Apicius lib. I, c. 30; 2, c. 4; 8, c. 2. 



' Dutt, U. C. Mat. Med. Hindus 173. 1877. 

 Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 93. 1891. 



Brewer and Watson Bot. Cal. 1 1259. 1880. 



