STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 35 1 



M. saccharina G. Don. sugar plum. 



Tropical Africa. The fruit is sold in great quantities in the market of Freetown.' 



M. setosa Spreng. 



West Indies. The fruit is edible.* 



M. urens Linn, cow-itch cherry. 



West Indies. The fruit, says Don.' is insipid and is eaten only by children and 

 negroes. % 



Malva rotundifolia Linn. Malvaceae, mallow. 



Etirope and neighboring Asia. In Egypt, especially upon the banks of the Nile, the 

 mallow is extensively ciiltivated and is used as a potherb by the natives. This plant 

 reached northeast America before 1669 and it is mentioned by Josselyn.'' It is now 

 naturahzed in waste places and in cultivated grounds. The mallow was formerly among 

 the culinary herbs ' but is used now only in infusion or decoction in medicine on account 

 of its mucilaginous properties. Unger says Pythagoras thought much of this plant as 

 a spinach and among the Greeks, as well as among the Romans, it was at one time much 

 esteemed. Mallow and Asphodell were raised at Delos for the temple of Apollo, as a 

 symbol of the first noitrishment of man. It was known to Camerarius,^ 1588, and was 

 known only to Dodonaeus,' 161 6, as a cultivated plant. At the present day, the young 

 shoots are used as a salad in southern France and Italy. 



M. sylvestris Linn, cheeses, high mallow, marsh mallow. 



Eiu-ope and temperate Asia. This mallow is sometimes cultivated in onr gardens ' 

 and, on accoimt of its mucilaginous properties, finds use as a demulcent in medicine. It is 

 a native of Europe and has become naturalized in this country. Johnson '" says the foliage, 

 when boiled, forms a very wholesome vegetable, and the flat seeds are eaten by country 

 people. 



M. verticillata Linn, curled Ihallow. 



Europe, Asia and northern Africa. This plant is used in China as a vegetable." 



Manunea americana Linn. Guttiferae. mammee apple, south American apricot. 



American tropics. This fine tree of the Antilles is cultivated for its fruit there, as 

 well as in some parts of tropical Africa and Asia. The fruit often attains the size of a 

 child's head and is of a yellow color. The outer rind and the pvilp which immediately 



'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 1:635. 1831. 

 'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 1:634. 1831. 

 Ibid. 



'Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 348. 1879. 

 *U. S. Disp.i5S2. 1865. 



Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 359. 1859. 

 ' Camerarius Hort. Med. 1588. 



Dodonaeus Pempt. 653. 1616. 

 t/. 5. Z)w/). 1552. 1865. 



" Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. $%. 1862. 

 " Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 359. 1859. 



