sturtevant's notes on edible plants 367 



Moneses grandiflora S. F. Gray. Ericaceae, mossberry. one-flowered pyrola. 



North and Arctic regions. The fruit is used as food by the Indians of Alaska. The 

 yield of berries is scant, however.' 



Monochoria vaginalis Presl. Pontederiaceae. 



Asia and African tropics. This species is esteemed as a medical plant in Japan, 

 Java and on the Coromandel Coast. Its young shoots are edible.^ 



Monodora mjrristica Dun. Anonaceae. Jamaica nutmeg. 



This tree of Jamaica is supposed to have been introduced from South America, but 

 is with more reason believed to have been taken by the negroes from the west coast of 

 Africa. It is cultivated in Jamaica for its fruits, which furnish Jamaica nutmeg. The 

 seeds contain a quantity of aromatic oil which imparts to them the odor and flavor of 

 nutmegs.' 



Monstera deliciosa Liebm. Aroideae. ceriman. 



American tropics. This fine plant has been somewhat cultivated in England for 

 its fruit and may now be seen in greenhouses in this country. The leaves are broad, per- 

 forated and dark, shining green. The fruit consists of the spadix, the eatable portion of 

 which is of fine texture and very rich, juicy and fragrant, with a flavor somewhat like that 

 of the pineapple and banana combined. The fruit is filled with a sort of spicule, which, 

 luiless the fruit be thoroughly ripe, interferes with the pleasure of its eating. In 1874, 

 specimens of the fruit were exhibited before the Massachusetts Horticultural vSociety and 

 again in 1881. Dobrizhoffer,^ in his Account of the Abipones of Paraguay, 1784, refers 

 to a fruit called guemhe which is " the more remarkable for its being so little known, even 

 by many who have grown old in Paraguay, for the northern woods of that country only 

 are its native soil. It is about a span long, almost cylindrical in shape, being thicker than 

 a man's fist in the middle but smaller at both extremities, and resembles a pigeon stripped 

 of its feathers, sometimes weighing as much as two pounds. It is entirely covered with 

 a soft, yellowish skin, marked with little knobs and a dark spot in the middle. Its liquid 

 pulp has a very sweet taste but is full of tender thorns, perceivable by the palate only, 

 not by the eye, on which account it must be slowly chewed but quickly swallowed. . . . 

 The stalk which occupies the middle, has something of wood in it and must be thrown 

 away. You cannot imagine how agreeable and wholesome this fruit is. . . . This pon- 

 derous fruit grows on a flexible shrub resembling a rope, which entwines itself aroimd 

 high trees." If this description applies to oiu" species, it is certainly remarkable that this 

 ancient missionary did not refer to the open spaces in the leaves. 



Moraea edulis Ker-Gawl. Irideae. 



South Africa. The bulbous root is eaten by the Hottentots. When cooked, it has 



>-U. S. D. A.Rpt. ^\^. 1870. (M.uniflora) 

 ' Case Bot. Index 25. 1879. 



Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:752. 1870. 



* DobrizhofiFer Acct. Abipones 1:380. 1784. 



