STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 259 



E. aquea Biinn. f. 



A tree of India, called lal jumrool. The fruit is the size of a small apple, is of a waxy 

 appearance and of somewhat aromatic taste but is hardly eatable. There are two varie- 

 ties, a white and a pale rose-colored fruit.' 



E. amottiana Wight. 



East Indies. The fruit is eaten by the natives of India, though, owing to its 

 astringency, it is by no means palatable. ^ 



E. arrabidae Berg. 



Brazil. The berries are eaten.* 



E. brasiliensis Lam. brazil cherry. 



Brazil. This species furnishes an edible fruit.'' It is grown under the name of Brazil 

 cherry in the Public Gardens of Jamaica.* 



E. caryophyllata Thunb. clove. 



The clove tree is a handsome evergreen, native of the Moluccas. It was introduced 

 to the Mauritius in 1770, thence to Cayenne in 1773; to Zanzibar about the end of the 

 century ^ and to Jamaica in 1789.' The cloves of commerce are the unexpanded flower- 

 buds. Cloves were known to the ancient Greek and Roman writers. They were brought 

 from the far East to Ceylon in the days of Cosmas Indicopleustes, in the first half of the 

 sixth century, and were known in the Mediterranean countries to Paulus Aegineta, A. D. 

 634.' Clove stalks were an article of import into Eiu-ope during the Middle Ages. Clove 

 leaves were imported into Palestine in the twelfth century and were sold at Frankfort 

 in Germany about 1450. The stalks are still an object of trade from Zanzibar, where 

 they are called by the natives vikunia; they are tolerably aromatic, and are used for 

 adulterating ground cloves.* For many years, the Dutch exercised a strict monopoly in 

 the growth of this spice, by restricting its cultivation to the island of Amboina and even 

 extirpating all but a limited number of the trees, but they are now grown in the West 

 Indies and elsewhere. 



E. catinga Baill. 



Guiana. The fruit is eaten.'" 



E. cauliflora Berg. 



Brazil. The jacbuticaba grows wild in the woods of the south of Brazil and is also 

 cultivated in most of the gardens in the diamond and gold districts. The fruit is 



' Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 266. 1874. (Jambosa aquea) 

 Wight, R. Icon. Pis. 3 : PI. 999. No date. 

 ' Baillon, H. Hist. Pis. 6:347. 1880. 

 Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 349. 1859. 

 ' Morris Rpt. Pub. Card. Jam. 35. 1880. 

 ' Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 249. 1879. 

 ' Morris Rpt. Pub. Card. Jam. 35. 1880. 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 574. 1879. (Caryophyllus aromaticus) 

 ' Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 254, 255. 1879. 

 Baillon, H. Hist. Pis. 6:344. 1880. 



