152 STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



Cassia auriculata Linn. Leguminosae. cassia. 



East Indies. In some parts of the country, a spirituous liquor is prepared by adding 

 the bruised bark to a solution of molasses and allowing the mixture to ferment.' 



C. fistula Linn. 



Tropical Asia. This handsome tree has been introduced into the West Indies and 

 northern Africa, whence its pods are imported for use in medicine. In Mysore, stalks 

 of it are put in the gro\md and worshipped. It is classed by Unger ' as among the little- 

 used vegetable foods, the pulp apparently being eaten. This pulp about the seeds is, 

 however, a strong purgative. 



C. occidentalis Linn, stinking weed. 



Cosmopolitan tropics. Rafinesque ' says the pods of this plant are long, with many 

 seeds, which the coimtrymen use instead of coffee. It is found in tropical and subtropical 

 America * and in both Indies.^ It has been carried to the Philippines, and its seeds, while 

 tender, are eaten by boys.' Naturalized in the Mauritius, the natives use the roasted 

 seeds as a substitute for coffee. Livingstone found the seeds used as coffee in interior 

 Africa. 



C. sophera Linn, cacay. 



Old World tropics. This plant is said by Unger ' to be used as a vegetable in 

 Amboina. 



Cassytha cuscutifonnis (?) Laurineae. dodder-laurel. 



The white drupes of this north Australian species are edible. The plants are semi- 

 parasitical and are often called dodder-laurel.* 



C. filiformis Linn. 



Cosmopolitan tropics. The plant is put as a seasoning into buttermilk and is much 

 used for this piirpose by the Brahmans in southern India.' In Yemen, its berries are eaten 

 by boys.i" 



Castanea dentata Borkh. CupuUferae. American chestnut. 



Southward from Maine as far as Florida and westward as far as Michigan but not 

 in the prairie regions. Chestnuts were mixed with pottage by the Indians of New England 

 and they now appear in season in all our markets and are sold roasted on the streets of our 

 cities. The American variety bears smaller and sweeter nuts than the European. 



' Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 120. 1873. 

 ' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 333. 1859. 



Rafinesque, C. S. Fl. La. 100. 1817. (C.ciliata) 

 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 752. 1879. 



Masters, M. T. Treas. Bot. 1:232. 1870. 

 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 752. 1879. 

 ' Unger, F. V. S. Pal. Off. Rpt. 359. 1859. 

 Black, A. A. Treas. Bot. 1:234. i27o- 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 123. 1873. 



" Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 729. 1879. 



