302 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



H. sphondylium Linn, cow parsnip. 



Europe, northern Asia and western North America. The people of Ploonia and 

 Lithuania says Gerarde,* "use to make drinks with the decoction of this herb and leven 

 or some other thing made of meale, which is used instead of beere and other ordinaire 

 drinks." The young succulent stems, after being stripped of their envelope, are 

 occasionally eaten as a salad in the outer Hebrides. These stalks are much used, says 

 Johnson,' in some parts of Asiatic Russia. In Russia and Siberia, the leaf-stalks are 

 dried in the sun and tied up in close bundles, until they acquire a yellow color, when a 

 sweet substance resembling sugar forms upon them, which is eaten as a great delicacy. 

 In Lithimnia and Siberia, a spirit is distilled from the stalks, either alone or mixed with 

 bilberries; fermented, they form a kind of beer. The yoimg shoots and leaves may be_ 

 boiled and eaten as a green vegetable and, when just sprouting from the ground, resemble 

 asparagus in flavor. 



H. tuberosum Molina. ' 



Chile. The bvdbs are frequently six inches long and three broad; the color is yellow; 

 the taste is pleasant. The plant grows naturally in sandy places near hedges and produces 

 abundantly.' 



Herpestis monnieria H. B. & K. Scrophularineae. water hyssop. 

 Cosmopolitan tropics. The Indians eat this herb in their soups.* 



Hesperocallis undtxlata A. Gray. Liliaceae. 



Mexico. The bulb is eaten by the California Indians." 



Hibiscus cannabinus Linn. Malvaceae, bastard jute, deckaner hemp. Indian hemp. 

 Old World tropics. The stem yields a hemp-like fiber sometimes called Indian hemp, 

 Deckaner hemp, or bastard jute. It is as much cultivated, says Drury,^ for the sake of 

 its leaves as its fibers. The leaves serve as a sorrel spinach. 



H. digitatus Cav. 



Brazil and Guiana. The plant is used as a vegetable.' 



H. esculentus Linn. gobo. gombo. gumbo, ocra. okra. 



Tropical Africa. Okra has become distributed as a plant of cultivation from Khartum 

 and Sennar throughout Egypt to Palestine and elsewhere. Schweinfurth * found its seed 

 pods a favorite vegetable in Nubia and the plant perfectly wild on the White Nile. About 

 Constantinople, okra is largely cultivated and the leaves are used as a demulcent.' In 



'Gerarde, J. Herb. loog. 1633 or 1636. 



2 Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 118. 1862. 



> Molina Hist. Chili 1:96. 1808. 



<Titford, W. J. Hort. Bot. Amer. 35. 181 1. 



'Brewer and Watson Bot. Cal. 2: 158. 1880. 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 243. 1873. 



'Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpl. 359. 1859. 



'Schweinfurth, G. Heart Afr. 1:97. 1874. 



''Amer. Journ. Pharm. May i860. 



