STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 1 65 



and delicious. It frequently contains four or five black seeds about the size of pumpkin 

 seeds.' 



C. obovatum Sabine. 



African tropics. The fruit is the size of an apple, with a short apex and is much 

 inferior to tfifc star apple of the West Indies. 



C. prunifenim F. Muell. 



Australia. The fruit is of a pluip-like appearance and is edible." 



C. roxburghii G. Don. pitakara. star apple. 



Asiatic tropics. The fruit is greedily eaten by the natives.' It is the size of a small 

 crab, yellow when ripe, smooth and is greedily eaten although insipid. The pulp is toler- 

 ably firm but is exceedingly clammy, adhering to the lips or knife with great tenacity.* 



Chrysosplenium altemifolium Linn. Saxifrageae. golden saxifrage. 



Europe, northern Asia and North America. The leaves are eaten as a salad in the 

 Vosges Mountains.* 



C. oppositifolium Linn. 



Europe, northern Asia and East Indies. In some countries, this plant is eaten as 

 a salad.* The leaves are eaten in salad and soup.' 



Cicer arietinum Linn. Leguminosae. chick-pea. Egyptian pea. 



Eiu-ope, Orient and the East Indies. This plant is represented as growing wild in 

 the Caucasus, in Greece and elsewhere; it is also foimd escaped from cultivation in the 

 fields of middle Eiu'ope. The Jews, Greeks and Egyptians cultivated it in ancient times. 

 It is extensively cultivated at the present time in the south of Europe, in the Levant, in 

 Egypt as far as Abyssinia and in India. The seeds vary in size and color in the different 

 varieties. In Paris, they are much used for soups. In India, they are ground into a 

 meal and either eaten in puddings or made into cakes. They are also toasted or parched 

 and made into a sort of comfit. In India, says Wight: * " The leaves of the plant secrete 

 an acid which the natives collect by spreading a cloth over night on the plant and wring- 

 ing out the dew in the morning. They then use it as vinegar or for forming a cooling 

 drink." In 1854, the seed was distributed from the United States Patent Office.' 



The shape of the tmripe seed, which singiilarly resembles a ram's head, may account 

 for its being regarded as unclean by the Egyptians of the time of Herodotus.'" It was 



' Lunan, J. Hort. Jam. 1:259. 1814. 



Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 2<)8. 1891. (Niemeyera prunifera) 



' Royle, J. F. Illustr. Bol. Himal. 1:263. 1839. 



Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 4:33. 1838. 

 Johns, C. A. Treas. Bot. 1:280. 1870. 



Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. no. 1862. 

 'Baillon.H. Hm/. P/i. 3:418. 1874. Note. 



Wight, R. Illustr. Ind. Bot. i: 192. 1840. 

 U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. XVI. 1854. Preface. 



" Pickering, C. Geos. Dist. Ans. Pis. 380. 1863-1876. 



