366 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



M. sieberi A. DC. naseberry. 



North America and West Indies. The fruit is delicious and highly flavored.* 



Mitchella repens Linn. Rubiaceae. partridge-berry, squaw-vine.' 



North America and Japan. The insipid, red fruits are eaten by children. 



MoIIugo hirta Thunb. Ficoideae. 



Tropical and subtropical regions. This plant is a common potherb in upper India.* 



Momordica balsamina Linn. Cucurbitaceae. balsam apple. 



Borders of the tropics. The balsam apple has purgative qualities but is eaten by 

 the Chinese after careful washing in warm water and subsequent cooking.* 

 M. charantia Linn. 



Borders of the tropics. This vine is very commonly cultivated about Bombay. In 

 the wet season, the fruit is 12 or 15 inches long, notched and ridged like a crocodile's back 

 and requires to be steeped in salt water before being cooked.* Firminger ' says the fruit 

 is about the size and form of a hen's egg, pointed at the ends, and covered with little blimt 

 tubercles, of intensely bi.tter taste, but is much constuned by the natives and is agreeable 

 also to Europeans as an ingredient to flavor their curries by way of variety. In Patna, 

 there are two varieties : jethwya, a plant growing in the heat of spring and dying with the 

 first rains, and bara masiya, which lasts throughout the year. In France, it is grown in 

 the flower garden.' 



M. dioica Roxb. 



East Indies. This species is imder cultivation in India for food purposes; the root 

 is edible.^ There are several varieties, says Drury.* The yovuig, green fruits and tuberous 

 roots of the female plant are eaten by the natives, and, in Burma, according to Mason,' 

 the small, muricated fruit is occasionally eaten. At Bombay, this plant is cultivated for 

 the fruit, which is the size of a pigeon's egg and knobbed, says Graham.'" 



Monarda didyma Linn. Lahiatae. bee balm, oswego tea. 



From New England to Wisconsin northward, and southward in the AUeghanies. It 

 is mentioned by McMahon," 1806, in his list of aromatic pot and sweet herbs. It is called 

 Oswego tea from the use sometimes made of its leaves. In France, it is grown in the 

 flower gardens.'^ 



Vasey U. S. D. A. Rpt. 166. 1875. 



'Ainslie, W. Ma/. /n<i. 2:345. 1826. (Pharnaceum pentagoneum) 



'Smith, F. P. Contrib. Mat. Med. China 91. 1871. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 462. 1879. 



'Firminger, T. A. C. Card: Ind. 125. 1874. 



Vilmorin Fl. PI. Ter. 705. 1870. 3rd Ed. 



'Royle, J. F. lUustr. Bot. Himal. i:2ig. 1839. 



' Dntry, H. Useful. Pis. Ind. 296. 1873. 



' Pickering Chron. Hist. Pis. 843. 1879. 

 ' Ibid. 



" McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Col. 583. 1806. {M. punctata) 

 " Vilmorin F/. P/. rer. 708. 1870. 3rd Ed. 



