STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 245 



Diplothemiiun maritimum Mart. Palmae. coast palm. 



A palm of Brazil. The fruit, an ovate or obovate drupe, is yellow and has a fibrous, 

 acid-sweet flesh, which is eaten by the Indians.' 



Diposis bulbocastanum DC. Umbelliferae. 

 Chile. The tubers are edible. ^ 



Dobera roxburghii Planch. Salvadoraceae. 



East Indies and South Africa. This is a large tree called in Yemen dober; ' the fruit 

 is eaten. 



Dolichandrone stipulata Benth. & Hook. f. Bignoniaceae. 



Burma. The flowers, according to Mason,^ are brought to market for food. 



Dolichos biflorus Linn. Leguminosae. horse grain. 



Old World tropics. This is the horse grain of the East Indies. The bean occurs 

 in white, brown and black. The seeds are boiled in India for the horses, and the liquor 

 that remains is used by the lower class of servants in their own food.* There are varieties 

 with gray and black seeds; the natives use the seeds in their curries.^ 



D. hastatus Loitr. 



East Africa. This plant is cultivated on the east coast of Africa and the seeds are 

 eaten by the natives.' 



D. lablab Linn, bonavista bean, hyacinth bean, lablab. 



Tropics of India and China. A number of varieties of this bean are ciiltivated in 

 Asiatic coimtries for the pulse and the tender pods. There is a great diversity in the 

 color of the flowers, size and shape of pod and color of seeds. Roxburgh * describes var. 

 rectum, pods straight, seeds reddish, flowers white, large; called pauch-seem: Yar. falcatum 

 minus, pods falcate, size of the little finger, flowers white, largish; called baghonuko-seem: 

 Var. falcatum majus, pods falcate, flowers purple; called dood-pituli-seem: Var. gladiatum 

 fiore albo, pods gladiate-clavate, length of the little finger, flowers white; called sada-jamai- 

 puli-seem: Var. gladiatum flore purpurea, called pituli-jamai-puli-seem: Var. macrocarpum, 

 the largest of all, pods six to eight inches long, seeds black with a white eye, flowers red; 

 called gychi-seem. 



A great number of synonyms which have been assigned to this species is indicative 

 of the variable character of the plant. In India, where it is much cultivated, four eatable 

 varieties which are offered for sale in the bazaars during the cold season, are thus described 



Seemann, B. Pop. Hist. Palms 190. 1856. 



* Mueller, P. Set. Pis. Z58. 1891. 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 390. 1879. {D. glabra) 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 112. 1879. {Bignonia stipulata) 

 Elliott, W. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 7:293. 1863. {D. uniflorus) 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 186. 1873. 

 'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 2:358. 1832. 



' Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 150. 1874. 



