STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 1 57 



favorite food with the ancients; there are specimens preserved in the museum at Naples 

 which were exhumed from a house in Pompeii. The Egyptians extracted from the husk 

 of the pod a sort of honey, with which they preserved fruits; in Sicily, a spirit and a sirup 

 are prepared from them; ^ in the island of Diu or Standia, the luscious pulp contained 

 in the pod is'caten by the poor and children and is also made into a sherbet. These pods 

 are imported into the Pimjab as food for man, horses, pigs and cattle ^ and are imported 

 into England occasionally as a cattle food.' In 1854, seeds of this tree were distributed 

 from the United States Patent Office.* 



Ceratostema grandiflorum Ruiz & Pav. Vacciniaceae. 



Peruvian Andes. This tall, evergreen shrub produces berries of a pleasant, acidulous 

 taste.* 



Cercis canadensis Linn. Leguminosae. judas tree, redbud. 



North America. The French Canadians use the flowers in salads and pickles.' 

 C. siliquastrum Linn, judas tree, love tree. 



Mediterranean coimtries. The pods are gathered and used with other raw vegetables 

 by the Greeks and Turks in salads, to which they give an agreeable odor and taste.' The 

 flowers are also made into fritters with batter and the flower-buds are pickled in vinegar.' 



Cereus caespitosus Engelm. & A. Gray. Cacteae. 



Texas. The fruit, rarely an inch long, is edible, and the fleshy part of the stem is 

 also eaten by the inhabitants of New Mexico.' The fruit is of a purplish color and very 

 good, resembling a gooseberry. The Mexicans eat the fleshy part of the stem as a vege- 

 table, first carefully freeing it of spines."" 

 C. dasyacanthus Engelm. 



Southwestern North America. The fruit is one to one and one-half inches in diameter, 

 green or greenish-purple, and when fully ripe is delicious to eat, much like a gooseberry.'^ 



C. dubius Engehn. 



Southwestern North America. The ripe fruit, one to one and one-half inches long, 

 green or rarely purplish-, is insipid or pleasantly acid.'^ 



C. engelmanni Parry. 



Southwestern North America. This plant bears a deliciously palatable fruit.'' 



' Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bot. 1:113. 1834. 

 Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 166. 1874. 

 'Church, A. H. Foods 124. 1887. 

 * U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 27. 1854. 



'Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. ^gg. 1891. {Vaccinium grandiflorum) 

 ' Browne, D. J. Trees Amer. 222. 1846. 

 'Walsh, R. Trans. Horl. Sac. Lond. 6:34. 1826. 

 Johns, C. A. Treas. Bot. 1:256. 1870. 

 Fendler, A., and Gray, A. PI. Fendl. 50. 1849. 

 '"Smith, A. Treas. Bo<. 1:439. 1870. (Echinocereus pectinatus) 

 " Fendler, A., and Gray, A. PI. Fendl. 50. 1849. 

 Ibid. 

 " Parry Bot. U. S. Mex. Bound. 21. 1854. 



