STURTEV ant's NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 38 1 



N. indicum DC. Indian cress. 



East Indies, China and Malay. This cress found its way into the gardens of France.' 



N. officinale R. Br. water cress. 



North temperate regions. The young shoots and leaves of water cress have been 

 used as a salad from time immemorial. Xenophon ^ strongly recommended its use to 

 the Persians, and the Romans recommended it to be eaten with vinegar as a remedy for 

 those whose minds were deranged; hence the Greek proverb, " Eat cress and learn more 

 wit." The first attempt to cultivate water cress by artificial means in Europe is said 

 by Booth ' to have been at Erfurt, about the middle of the sixteenth century. Gerarde 

 and Lord Bacon * wrote strongly in its favor, but, according to Don,' it has been cultivated 

 as a salad near London only since 1808. At the present time, it is cultivated in plantations 

 many acres in extent and the demand for this popular salad herb during the season can 

 scarcely be supplied. In America, it is mentioned among garden esculents by McMahon,' 

 1806, and by succeeding writers on gardening. In India, this herb is much prized and is 

 sought after by the Mohammedans.' 



N. palustre DC. marsh cress. 



A wild plant of Europe and northern America, common in wet ditches. It is sometimes 

 used as a cress. According to Dall,' this cress is eaten in Alaska. 



Nectandra cinnaniomoides Nees. Laurineae. American cinnamon. 



Pickering ^ says the American cinnamon is a tree of the eastern slope of the equatorial 

 Andes and is cultivated in the region about Quito. Its dried calices are brought also 

 from forests to the eastward and are used as a spice. 



N. rodioei Hook, greenheart. 



A tree of Guiana. The timber is much valued in ship building. The fruit, of the 

 size of a small apple, has a single seed about as large as a walnut. Though the fruit is very 

 bitter, its seeds yield a starch which the Indians mix with rotten wood and make into a 

 bitter, disagreeable kind of bread.'" 



Negundo aceroides Moench. Sapindaceae. ash-leaved maple, box elder. 



A tree of northern North America. This tree, says Hough," is tapped for sugar in 

 Canada and is now being planted in Illinois for sugar-making. Vasey * says experiments 



' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 356. 1859. 

 Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 169. 1855. 

 Bcxjth, W. B. Treas. Bot. 2:778. 1870. 

 Mcintosh, C. Book Card. 169. 1855. 

 'Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Ph. 1:155. 1831. 



McMahon, B. Amer. Card. Cat. 5S1. 1806. (Sisymbrium nasturtium) 

 ' Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. 1:95. 1826. 



Dall, W. H. U. S. D. A. Rpt. 187. 1868. 

 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 845. 1879. 



" Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:780. 1870. 

 " Hough, F. B. Elem. For. 240. 1882. 

 Vasey U. S. D. A. Rpt. 163. 1872. 



