324 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



C. Lactuca. Cam. Epit. 298. 1586. 



Lactuca capitata. Ger. 240. 1597. 



Lactuca crispa. Matth. 399. 1598. 



Batavians. Vilm. 1883. 

 D. Lattich. Roezl. 167. 1550. 



Green Fringed. 



The last identification is from the appearance of the young plant. The old plant is 

 remarkably different, forming a true rosette. 



IV. 

 Cutting and Miscellaneous. 



A. Lactuca crispa altera Ger. 240. 1597. 



Lactuca crispa et tenuiter dissecta. Bauh. J. 2:1000. 1651. 



Chabr. 314. 1677. 



Curled Cutting, ' 



B. Lactuca Joliis querci. Ray 219. 1686. 



Oak-leaved. 

 C. Capitatum cum plurihus capitibus. Bauh. J. 2:998. 1651. Chabr. 313. 1677. 



Egyptian Sprouting. 



The minor variations which are now separated into varieties did not receive the same 

 recognition in former times, the same variety name covering what now would be several 

 varieties; thus, Quintyne, 1693, calls perpignans both a green and a pale form. Green, 

 light green, dark green, red and spotted lettuces are named in the old botanies, hence 

 we cannot assert any new types have appeared in modem culture. 



Lagenaria vulgaris Ser. Cucurbiiaceae. bottle gourd, trumpet gourd. 



Tropics. This plant has been found growing wild with bitter fruit in India,' in the 

 moist forests around De5a-a Doon.^ It is also found wild in Malabar,' where it is cultivated 

 in gardens for the gotird which is eaten. This gourd is one of the commonest of the native 

 vegetables of India, says Firminger,'' the fruit being of moderate size and having the appear- 

 ance of two oval gourds united endwise, or, of an inflated bladder compressed by a cord 

 around it. Cut up in slices, it affords a palatable but rather insipid dish. About Con- 

 stantinople, it is called dolma and is cultivated, the gourd when young, being cut and 

 boiled with other foods.' In Europe, the variety called irompette is eaten.' In China, 

 its soft, downy herbage is sometimes eaten, and the fruit is also eaten but is apt to purge.' 



Lagerstromia parviflora Roxb. Lythrarieae. crape myrtle. 



East Indies. In India, a sweet gum exudes from wounds in the bark and is eaten.' 



' De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:898. 1855. 



Ibid. 



Ibid. 



< Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 126. 1874. 



Walsh, R. Trans. Hort. Soc. Lond. 6:56. 1826. 



' De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:898. 1855. 



'Smith, F. P. Contrib. Mat. Med. China 126. 1871. 



*Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 239. 1876. ~ 



