392 STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 



O. bataua Mart, batava palm. 



Brazil. This is the patawa of the Amazon and yields a colorless, sweet oil, used for 

 adulterating olive oil at Para and for cooking.' 



O. distichus Mart, bacaba wine palm. 



Brazil. Bates* says this is one of the palms called bacaba. The fruit is much 

 esteemed by the natives who manufacture a pleasant drink from it. 



Oenothera biennis Linn. Onagraceae. evening primrose. German rampion. 



Northeastern America. This plant was formerly cultivated in English gardens for 

 its edible roots, which, when boiled, are wholesome and nutritious.* In Germany the 

 roots are used as scorzonera and the young shoots in salads.'' The roots are sweet to the 

 taste, somewhat resembling parsnips. The roots may be used as scorzonera, but the plant 

 is cultivated in France only as a curiosity.* It is said by Loudon ' to be cultivated in 

 Germany, and, in Camiola, the roots are eaten in salad. It first reached Europe in 1614.^ 

 It is given by Burr * for American gardens in 1863, under the name German Rampion. 



Olax zeylanica Linn. Olacineae. malla. 



Ceylon. It is said the leaves are used as potherbs and as salads.' 



Olea europaea Linn. Oleaceae. olive. 



Mediterranean region. The olive has been in cultivation from the earliest periods 

 of history. It is found wild in Syria, Greece and Africa and even in Spain but whether 

 truly indigenous or escaped from cultivation is in doubt. The olive belongs to the fruits 

 which were promised to the Jews in Canaan. Homer mentions green olives in the garden 

 of Alcinous and Laertes, which were brought by Cecrops, the founder of Athens, to Greece. 

 The cultivated tree was distinguished from the wild tree by Dioscorides. This tree was 

 first brought to Italy, says Unger,i<'s7i B. C. and, at the time of Pliny, had been carried 

 over the Alps to Gaul and Spain. At the time of Cato, the Romans were acquainted with 

 only 9 kinds of olives, in the time of Pliny with 12 and at the present time with 20. Kum- 

 boldt " saj^ that, under the reign of Tarquin the Elder, this tree did not exist in Italy, 

 in Spain or in Africa. Under the Consulate of Appius Claudius, the olive was still very 

 rare in Rome, but, at the time of Pliny, the olive had already passed into France and 

 Spain. It is said by others, however, that the olive was brought to France by the 



' Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:804. 1870. 



' Bates, H. W. Nat. Amaz. Humboldt Libr. Set. 694. 1879-80. 



Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 104. 1862. 



* Loudon, J. C. Hort. 653. i860. 



' Vilmorin Les Pis. Potag. 202. 1883. 

 ' Loudon, J. C. Hort. 653. i860. 

 ' Linnaeus Sp. PL 492. 1763. 

 ' Burr, F. Field, Card. Veg. 35. 1863. 

 Wight, R. Illustr. Ind. Bot. ilioi. 1840. 

 "Unger, F. U S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 323. 1859. 

 " Humboldt, A. Essai sur Geog. Pis. 4:26. 1807. 



