STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 1 69 



state long before. Herodotus says: " the bark was the lining taken from birds' nests 

 built with clay against the face of precipitous mountains in those countries where Bacchus 

 was nurtured." It has been cultivated for some time in Mauritius, the West Indies, 

 Brazil and other tropical countries. 



Cistus ladaniferus Linn. Cistineae. laudanum. 



Western Mediterranean regions. This species, which furnishes the laudanimi of 

 Spain and Portugal, is often to be met with in gardens. Loudon ' says the gum which 

 exudes from it is eaten by the common people. 



C. villosus Linn, shaggy rock-rose. 



Spain. This plant is used in Greece in prteparing infusions similar to tea. It is the 

 cistus mas of the ancients.* 



Citriobatus sp. ? Pittosporeae. native orange, orange thorn. 



Australia. A species of this genera is the native orange and orange thorn of the 

 Australian colonists. The fruit is an orange berry with a leathery skin, subglobular, 

 about one and one-half inches through and is eaten by the natives.' 



Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. Cucurbitaceae. bitter gourd, colocynth. 



Tropical Africa. This creeping plant grows abundantly in the Sahara, in Arabia, 

 on the Coromandel coast and in some of the islands of the Aegean. The fruit, which is 

 about as large as an orange, contains an extremely bitter and drastic ptilp, from which 

 the drug colocynth is obtained.* Thunberg' says this gourd is rendered so perfectly 

 mild at the Cape of Good Hope, by being properly pickled, that it is eaten by the natives 

 and by the colonists. The gourds are also made into preserves with sugar, having been 

 previously pierced all over with knives and then boiled in six or seven waters until all 

 the bitterness disappears. Gypsies eat the kernel of the- seed freed from the seed-skin 

 by a slight roasting. Fluckiger ^ says the seed kernels are used as a food in the African 

 desert, after being carefully deprived of their coatings. Stille ' says they are reported to 

 be mild, oleaginous and nutritious. Captain Lyon * speaks also of their use in northern 

 Africa. In India, according to Vaupell,^ there is a sweet variety which is edible and 

 cultivated. 



C. vulgaris Schrad. watermelon. 



Tropical Africa. The watermelon has succeeded especially well under American 

 culture, the varieties being many in nimiber and continuously increasing, either through 

 importation or through the process of selection. The size has also become enormous 



Loudon, J. C. Enc. Agr. 117. 1866. 

 Baillon, H. Hist. Pis. ^-.ziT. 1875. Note. 



Syme, J. T. Treas. Bot. 1:290. 1870. 



Fluckiger, F. A. Sci. Record 63. 1874. 

 Thunberg, C. P. Trav. 2:171. 1796. 



Fluckiger, F. A. Sci. Record 63. 1874. 



' Stille, A. Therap. Mat. Med. 2:428. 1874. 



*U. S. Disp. 315. 1865. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 253. 1879. 



