382 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



in Illinois show the box elder to give more sap and a more saccharine sap than the sugar 

 -maple and that this sap makes a whiter sugar. Douglas says the Crow Indians make 

 sugar from its sap, and Richardson * says this is the tree* which yields most of the sugar in 

 Rupert's Land. 



Nelumbiiun luteum Willd. Nymphaeaceae. American water-lotus, water chin- 



QUEPIN. YELLOW NELUMBO. 



North America and West Indies. The seeds are very agreeable to eat and are eagerly 

 sought for by children and Indians.' The long and thick, creeping roots, says Rafinesque,* 

 are acrimonious when fresh but are easily deprived of their dangerous juice by washings 

 and are then an agreeable food to the Indians. 



N. speciosum Willd. lotus. 



Northern Africa and tropical Asia. The lotus is an eastern flower which seems from 

 time immemorial to have been, in native estimation, the type of the beautiful. It is held 

 sacred throughout the East, and the deities of the various sects in that quarter of the world 

 are almost invariably represented as either decorated with its flowers, seated or standing 

 on a lotus throne or pedestal, or holding a sceptre framed from its flowers. It is fabled 

 that the flowers obtained their red color by being dyed w th the blood of Siva when 

 Kamadeva wounded him with the love-shaft arrow. Lakeshmi is called the lotus-born, 

 from having ascended from the ocean on its flowers. The lotus is often referred to by the 

 Hindu poets. The lotus floating in the water is the emblem of the world. It is also sym- 

 bolic of the mountain Meru, the residence of the gods and the emblem of female beauty. 

 Both the roots and seeds are esculent, sapid and wholesome and are used as food by the 

 Egyptians. In China, some parts of India and in Ceylon, the black seeds of this plant, 

 not unlike little acorns in shape, are served at table. Tennent ^ found them of delicate 

 flavor and not unlike the pine cones of the Apennines. In the southern provinces of China, 

 large quantities are grown.* The seeds and slices of its hairy root are served at banquets 

 and the roots are pickled for winter use.' In Japan, the stems are eaten.' These stalks 

 are not dissimilar in taste to our broad beet with a somewhat sharp after-taste. The 

 seeds are also eaten like filberts. The roots furnish a starch, or arrowroot, in China, called 

 gaou fun.^ 



Nemopanthus fascicularis Rafin. Ilicineae. mountain holly. 



Northeast North America. The berries, according to Pickering,'" are eaten by the 

 Indians. 



Nuttall, T. No. Amer. Sylvai:i%. 1865. 



' Richardson, J. Arctic Explor. 2: 2%(>. 1851. 



Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 1:124.. 1831. 



' Rafinesque, C. S. Ft. La. 23. 1817. 



' Tennent, J. E. Ceylon i : 123. 1859. 



Fortune, R. Wand. China 307. 1847. 



' Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 1:123. 1831. 



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



Hanbury, D. Sci. Papers 240. 1876. 



"> Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 804. 1879. (.N. canadensis) 



