STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 355 



Mariscus dregeanus Kunth. Cyperaceae. 



Africa, Asia and Australia. The roots are boiled and eaten by the natives of India, 

 who say they are as good as yams.' 



Marlea vitiensis Benth. Cornaceae. 



Australia and islands of the Pacific. This tree in New South Wales and Queensland 

 bears edible fruits.^ 



Marlierea glomerata Berg. Myrtaceae. cambuca. 



Subtropical Brazil. The fruits attain the size of apricots and are much used 

 for food.' 



M. tomentosa Cambess. guaparanga. 



Brazil. The sweet berries of this tall shrub are of the size of cherries.'* 



Marrubium vulgare Linn. Labiatae. horehound. 



Europe, Asia and north Africa. This plant affords a popular domestic remedy and 

 seems in this coimtry to be an inmate of the medicinal herb-garden only. In Europe, the 

 leaves are sometimes employed as a condiment. Although a plant of the Old World, it 

 is now naturalized in the New World from Canada to Buenos Aires and Chile, excepting 

 within the tropics.' It is figured by Clusius,' 1601, and finds mention by many of the 

 botanists of that period. Pliny ' refers to Marrubium as among medicinal plants in high 

 esteem, and it finds mention by Columella.* Albertus Magnus,' in the thirteenth century, 

 also refers to its valuable remedial properties in coughs. We may hence believe that, as 

 an herb of domestic medicine, horehound has accompanied emigrants into all the cooler 

 portions of the globe. 



Marsilea nardu A. B. Marsileaceae. nardoo. nardu. 



Australia. The spores and spore cases of this plant are used by the aborigines for 

 food, pounded up and baked into bread and also made into a porridge. These preparations 

 furnish a nutritious food, by no means unwholesome, and one free from unpleasant taste 

 but affording sorry fare for civilized man. 



Martynia fragrans Lindl. Pedalineae. 



Mexico. The Apache Indians gather the half-mature seed-pods of this plant and 

 cook them. The pods when ripe are armed with two sharp, horn-like projections and, 

 being softened and split open, are used on braided work to ornament willow baskets." 



'Royle, J. F. lUustr. Bot. Himal. 1:414. 1839. 

 'MueUer, F. Sel. Pis. 125. 1876. 

 Mueller, F. Sel. Pis. 270. 1891. 

 * Ibid. 



De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:751. 1855. 

 Clusius /f/. 2:34. 1 60 1. 

 ' Pliny lib. 20, c. 89. 

 Columella, lib. 10, c. 356. 

 Albertus Magnus Veg. Jessen Ed. 539. 1867. 

 '"U. S. D. A. Rpt. 422. 1870. (AT. violacea) 



