sturtevant's notes on edible plants 183 



to stand in the sun, which causes the oil to rise to the top, when it is skimmed ofiE. The 

 residuum, called kora, is pounded or mashed, wrapped in banana leaves and then buried 

 under salt water covered with piles of stones. This preparation is a common food of the 

 natives.! Toddy or palm-wine, is also made frbm the sap of the flower-spathes. 



C. oleracea Mart, iraiba palm. 



Brazil. The leaf-buds, or cabbages, are edible.^ 



C. ventricosa Arruda. 



Brazil. The oily pulp of the fruit and the almond of the inner stone is eaten and 

 is sold in the markets. The pith contains a fecula which is extracted in times of want 

 and is eaten.' 



Codiaeum variegattun Blume. Euphorbiaceae. 

 India. This species is used as a vegetable.* 



Coffea arabica Linn. Rubiaceae. coffee. 



Arabia and African tropics. This shrub is found wild in Abyssinia' and in the Sudan 

 where it forms forests.' It is mentioned as seen from the mid-Niger to Sierra Leone and 

 from the west coast to Monrovia. In the territory west of Braganza, says Livingstone,' 

 wild coffee is abundant, and the people even make their huts of coffee trees. On or about 

 the equator, says Grant,* the m'wanee, or coffee, is cultivated in considerable quantities 

 but the berry is eaten raw as a stimulant, never drunk in an infusion by the Wanyambo. 

 The Ugundi, says Long,' never make a decoction of coffee but chew the grain raw; 

 this is a general custom. The Unyoro, says Burton,*" have a plantation of coffee about 

 almost every hut door. According to the Arabian tradition, says Krapf," the civet-cat 

 brought the coffee-bean to the mountains of the Arusi and Ilta-Gallas, where it grew and 

 was long odtivated, until an enterprising merchant carried the coffee plant, five hundred 

 years ago, to Arabia where it soon became acclimated. 



About the fifteenth century, writes PhiUips," the use of coffee appears to have been 

 introduced from Persia to Aden on the Red Sea. It was progressively used at Mecca, 

 Medina, and Cairo; hence it continued its progress to Damascus and Aleppo. From 

 these two places, it was introduced into Constantinople in the year 1554. Rauwolf," 

 who was in the Levant in 1573, was the first European author who made any men- 



1 Wilkes, C. U. S. Explor. Exped. 3:334. 1845. 



' Seemann, B. Pop. Hist. Palms 180. 1856. 



Koster, H. Trav. Braz. 2:366. 1817. 



Unger, P. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 359. 1859. (C. chrysosticton) 



' De Candolle, A. P. Geog. Bot. 2:969. 1855. 



Ibid. 



'Livingstone, D. Trav. Research. So. Air. 466. 1858. 



' Speke, J. H. Journ. Disc. Source Nile 571. 1864. 



Long, C. C. Cent. Afr. 142. 1877. 



" Burton, R. F. Lake Reg. Cent. Afr. 399. i860. 



" Krapf Trav. East Afr. 47. 



Phillips, H. Comp. Orck. 104. 1831. 



"Phillips, H. Comp. Orch. Z05. 1831. 



