STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS I9I 



matter and, when baked, become very agreeable to the taste.' The baked ti root, says 

 ElHs,^ macerated in water, is fermented and then a very intoxicating Hquor is obtained 

 from it by distillation. The large, tuberous roots are eaten by the natives of Viti.' The 

 tuberous root often weighs from 10 to 14 pounds and, after being baked on hot stoves, 

 much resembles in taste and degree of sweetness stock licorice. The Fijians chew it, or 

 use it to sweeten puddings.^ The root is roasted and eaten.^ 



Coriandrum sativum Linn. Umbelliferae. coriander. 



Southern Exirope and the Orient. The seeds of this plant were used as a spice by 

 the Jews and the Romans. The plant was well known in Britain prior to the Norman 

 conquest and was employed in ancient English medicine and cookery.' Coriander was 

 cultivated in American gardens prior to 1670.' The seeds are carminative and aromatic 

 and are used for flavoring, in confectionery and also by distillers. The young leaves 

 are put into soups and salads. In the environs of Bombay, the seeds are much used by 

 the Musselmans in their curries.* They are largely used by the natives of India as a 

 condiment and with betelnuts and pau leaves.' In Burma, the seeds are used as a condi- 

 ment in curries.'" The ripe fruits of coriander have served as a spice and a seasoning from 

 very remote times, its seeds having been found in Egyptian tombs of the twenty-first 

 dynasty;" a thousand or so years later, Pliny '^ says the best coriander came to Italy from 

 Egypt. Cato,"' in the third century before Christ, recommends coriander as a seasoning; 

 Colimiella," in the first century of our era and Palladius,'^ in the third, direct its planting. 

 The plant was well known in Britain prior to the Norman conquest '^ and was carried to 

 Massachusetts before 1670.'' In China, it can be identified in an agricultural treatise of 

 the fifth century and is classed as activated by later writers of the sixteenth and eighteenth 

 centuries.'* In Cochin China, it is recorded as less grown than in China.'' In India, it 

 is largely used by the natives as a condiment."" Coriander has reached Paraguay and is 



'Wilkes, C. U. S. Explor. Exped. 3:337. 1845. 

 EUis, W. Polyn. Research. 2:102. 1833. {Dracaena iermtTialis) 

 Seemann, B. Fl. Viti. 311. 1865-73. 

 * Ibid. 



'Mueller, P. Sel. Ph. 129. 1891. 

 ' Pluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 293. 1879. 

 ' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 142. 1879. 

 > Ibid. 



Dutt, U. C. Mat. Med. Hindus 175. 1877. 

 '0 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 142. 1889. 

 ^^ Nature 113. 1883. 

 " Pliny lib. 20, c. 82. 

 " Cato c. 157. 



'< Columella lib. 6, c. 33; lib. 10, c. 244; lib. 11, c. 3. 

 '' Palladius lib. 3, c. 24; lib. 4, c. 9, etc. 

 " Pluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 329. 1879. 

 " Josselyn, J. New Eng. Rar. 146. 1865. 

 " Bretschneider, E. So/. 5t. 78, 59, 85. 1882. 

 " Loureiro Fl. Cochin. 180. 1790. 

 Dutt, U. C. Mat. Med. Hindus 175. 1877. 



