282 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



lation of Dodoens' Herball, refers to it as growing wild in 1578 and first appearing in an 

 . improved variety in cultivation about 1660. A. De Candolle,' however, states that it 

 was cultivated in the mediaeval period. Gray ' says it is indigenous in the United States, 

 particularly northward. In Scandinavia, it ripens beyond 70.' Prince * enumerates 10 

 varieties of the Wood, and 1 5 varieties of the Alpine, under cultivation. In 1 766, Duchesne 

 says, " The King of England was understood to have received the first seed from Turin." 

 It was such a rarity that a pinch of seed sold for a guinea. 



F. virginiana Duchesne, scarlet strawberry. Virginia strawberry. 



Eastern North America. Called by the New England Indians wuitahimneash. The 

 Indians bruised this strawberry with meal in a mortar and made bread. This fruit was 

 mentioned by Edward Winslow^ in Massachusetts in 1621. The settlers on the ship 

 Arabella, at Salem, June 12, 1630, went ashore and regaled themselves with strawberries.* 

 Wood,' in his New England Prospects, say^ strawberries were in abimdance, " verie large 

 ones, some being two inches about." Roger Williams ' says " this berry is the wonder 

 of all the fruits growing naturally in these parts. It is of itself excellent; so that one of 

 the chiefest doctors of England was wont to say, that God could have made, but God 

 never did make, a better berry. In some parts where the Indians have planted, I have 

 many times seen as many as would fill a good ship, within few miles compass." This 

 fruit was first mentioned in England, by Parkinson, " 1629, but it was a himdred years 

 or more afterwards before attention began to be paid to improved seedlings. Hovey's 

 Seedling was originated in America in 1834. Prince, in 1861, gives a descriptive list of 

 87 varieties which he refers to this species. 



Frankenia portulacaefolia Spreng. Frankeniaceae. sea heath. 



St. Helena Islands. One of the few plants indigenous in the Island of St. Helena 

 but now, J. Smith '" says, believed to be extinct. Balfoiu" " says the leaves were used in 

 St. Helena as a substitute for tea. 



Fraxinus excelsior Linn. Oleaceae. ash. 



Temperate regions of the Old World. The keys of the ash were formerly pickled 

 by steeping in salt and vinegar and were eaten as a condiment, a use to which they are 

 still put in Siberia. The leaves are sometimes used to adulterate tea.^- 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 378. 1879. 



' Gray, A. Man. Bol. 480. 1908. 



' DuChaillu Land Midnight Sun 1:152. 1882. 



Prince U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 1861. 



' Young, A. Chron. Fj7gr. 234. 184 1. 



' Hutchinson Hist. Mass. 1:25. Ed. of 1795. 



'Wood, W. New Eng. Prosp. 15. 1865. 



* Williams, R. Key Narragansett Hist. Coll. 1:121. 1643. 



' Parkinson Par. Terr. 528. 1904. (Reprint of 1629). 

 "I Smith, J. Dom. Bot. 444. 1871. 

 " Balfour, J. H. Treas. Bot. 1:506. 1870. 

 " Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 17.^. 1862. 



