sturtevant's notes on edible plants i6i 



the curious names of fat-hen and good-king-Henry, this plant was formerly largely culti- 

 vated in the gardens in England as a potherb, and even in the beginning of the present 

 century was still esteemed in Lincolnshire and some of the Midland counties but is now 

 little used. Lightfoot ' says, in Scotland, the young leaves in the spring are often eaten 

 as greens anSI are very good. Glasspoole ^ says, in Lincolnshire, it was preferred to garden 

 spinach, and the young shoots used to be peeled and eaten as asparagus. The plant is 

 now but rarely cultivated. Gerarde speaks of it in 1597 as a wild plant only, while Ray, 

 1686, refers to it as frequently among vegetables. Bryant, 1783, says: " formerly culti- 

 vated in English gardens but of late neglected, although certainly of siifficient merit." 

 In 1807, Miller's Gardener's Dictionary says it is generally in gardens about Boston in 

 Lincolnshire and is there preferred to spinach. It cannot ever have received very general 

 culture as it is only indicated as a wayside plant by Tragus, 1552; Lobel, 1570 and 1576; 

 Camerarius, 1586; Dalechamp, 1587; Matthiolus, 1598; and Chabraeus, 1677. Itsvalue 

 as an antiscorbutic finds recognition in its names, bonus Henricus and tota bona. 



C. capitatimi Aschers. elite, strawberry blite. 



Northern and southern regions. Gerarde' says: "it is one of the potherbes that 

 be unsavory or without taste, whose substance is waterish." The fruit, though insipid, 

 is said formerly to have been employed in cookery. The leaves have a spinach-like flavor 

 and may be used as a substitute for it.^ Unger ^ says even the blite or strawberry spinach 

 finds constmiers for its insipid, strawberry-like fruit. The plant is found indigenous and 

 common from Western New York to Lake Superior and northward.' Blitum capitatum, 

 if Linnaeus's synonymy can be trusted, was known to Bauhin,^ 1623, and by Ray,* 1686. 

 Miller's Gardener's Dictionary refers it to J. Bauhin ' who received the plant in 1651. 

 The species was, during this time, little known outside of botanical gardens. 



C. quinoa Willd. petty rice, quinoa. 



South America. This plant, indigenous to the Pacific slopes of the Andes, constituted 

 the most important article of food of the inhabitants of New Granada, Peru and Chile 

 at the time of the discovery of America, and at the present day is still extensively culti- 

 vated on account of its seeds, which are used extensively by the poorer inhabitants. There 

 are several varieties, of which the white is adtivated in Europe as a spinach plant, rather 

 than for its seeds. However prepared, the seed, says Thompson, is unpalatable to strangers. 

 Gibbon,^'' who saw the plant in Bolivia, says that when boiled like rice and eaten with 

 milk, the seeds are very savory. Seeds from France but originally from Peru, were dis- 



Lightfoot, J. PI. Scot. 1:147. 1789- 



Glasspoole, H. G. Rpt. Ohio State Bd. Agr. 528. 1875. 



Gerarde, J. Herb. 321. 1633 or 1636. 2nd Ed. 



Thompson, W. Treas. Bot. 1:150. 1870. {Blitum capitatum) 



Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 357. 1859. (Blitum capitatum) 



Gray, A. Man. Bot. 408. 1868. (Blitum capitatum) 



' Bauhin, C. PiTUix n. 7. 1 19. 1623. 



'JUy Hist. PI. i: n. 5, 7. 197. 1686. 



Bauhin, J. Hist. PI. 2:973. 1651- 



" Hemdon, W. L., and Gibbon, L. Explor. Valley Amaz. 2: 139. 1854. 



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