sturtevant's notes on edible plants 285 



spinach. It has recently received attention as a possible substitute for clover. In 

 France, it is an inmate of the flower garden. ^ 



Galium aparine Linn. Rubiaceae. bedstraw. bur-weed, catch-weed, cleavers. 



GOOSE GRASS. 



Northern climates. The seeds form one of the best of the substitutes for coffee, 

 according to Johnson,^ and are so used in Sweden. The dried plant is sometimes used 

 as a tea. 



G. verum Linn, cheese rennet, hundred-fold, yellow bedstraw. 



Europe; naturalized in eastern North America. Yellow bedstraw has been used in 

 some parts of England to curdle milk. In Gerarde's time, this plant was used to color 

 the best Cheshire cheese. According to Ray, the flowering tops, distilled with water, 

 yield an acid liquor which forms a pleasant simimer drink.' 



Garcinia cambogia Desr. Guttiferae. 



East Indies. In the East Indies, the fruit is eaten at meals as an appetizer. It is 

 about two inches in diameter, with a thin, smooth, yellowish rind and a yellow, succtilent, 

 sweet pulp.* The fruit is of an exceedingly sharp but pleasant acid and the aril, or pulp, 

 'is by far the most palatable part. 



G. cochinchinensis Choisy. 



China. The fruit is about the size of a plum, of a reddish color when ripe and has 

 a jtaicy, acid pulp. The leaves are used in Amboina as a condiment for fish.^ 



G. cornea Linn. 



East Indies. The fruit resembles that of the mangosteen but is sometimes larger.^ 



G. cowa Roxb. cowa. cowa-mangosteen 



East Indies. The fruit is eatable but not palatable. The cowa or cowa-mangosteen, 

 bears a ribbed and russet apricot-colored fruit of the size of an orange and, were it not 

 a trifling degree too acid, would be accounted most delicious. It makes, however, a 

 remarkably fine preserve. In Burma, the fruit is eaten." 



G. dulcis Kiu-z. 



Moluccas. The berry is the size of an apple, of a roundish-oval figure and bright 

 yellow hue when ripe. The seeds are enveloped in edible pulp of a darker color than 

 the skin and have a pleasant taste. 



G. indica Choisy. cocum. kokum. 



East Indies. This is a large tree of the coast region of western India known by the 



' Vilmorin Fl. PI. Ter. 1870. 3rd Ed. 



* Johnson, C. P. Useful. Pis. Gt. Brit. 137. 1862. 

 Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. it,(). 1862. 



Martyn Miller Gard. Did. 1807. {Cambogia gutta) 



' Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 1:621. 1831. {Stalagmitis cochinchinensis) 

 Don, G. Hist. DicM. Pis. 1:621. 1831. (Stalagmitis celebica) 

 ' Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 206. 1874. 



