STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 407 



P. somniferum Linn, opium poppy. 



Greece and the Orient. There are several varieties of the opium poppy, of which 

 the two most prominent are called white and black from the color of their seeds. ' The opium 

 poppy is a native of the Mediterranean region but is at present cultivated in India, Persia, 

 Asiatic Turkey and occasionally, by way of experiment, in the United States, for the ptirpose 

 of procuring opitun. It is grown in northern France and the south of Germany for its 

 seeds. This poppy is supposed to have been cultivated by the ancient Greeks and is 

 mentioned by Homer as a garden plant. Galen speaks of the seeds as good to season 

 bread and says the white are better than the black. The Persians sprinkle the seeds of 

 poppies over their rice, and the seeds are used in India as a food and a sweetmeat. The 

 seeds are also eaten, says Masters,' in Greece, Poland and elsewhere. In France, the 

 seeds are made to peld by expression a bland oil, which is used as a substitute for olive oil. 

 In Sikkim, Edgeworth ^ remarks, the seeds afford oil as well as an agreeable food, remarkably 

 refreshing during fatigue and abstinence. Carpenter* says the peasants of Languedoc 

 employ yotmg poppies as food. The Chinese drink, smoke or chew opium to produce 

 intoxication, and this depraved use has extended more or less to other countries.- 



Pappea capensis Eckl. & Zeyh. Sapindaceae. wild plum. 



South Africa. The fruit is edible. A vinous beverage and a vinegar are prepared 

 from it, and an edible, though slightly purgative, oil is expressed from its seeds.* Mueller * 

 says the fruit is the size of a cherry, savory and edible. 



Parietaria oflBicinalis Linn. Urticaceae. pellitory. 



Southern Europe and the Orient. This plant is mentioned by Theophrastus as cooked 

 and eaten.* 



Parinarium campestre Aubl. Rosaceae. 



French Gxiiana. The drupe is small, oval, yellow. The single seed is edible.'' 



P. excelsum Sabine, rough-skinned or gray plum. 



Tropical Africa. The fruit is greatly esteemed by the negroes and is plentifully 

 supplied in the markets. It is produced in the greatest abundance and is about the size 

 and shape of an Imperatrice pliun, with a coarse skin of a grayish color. The piolp is 

 dry, farinaceous, small in quantity and of an insipid taste.* 



P. macrophyllum Sabine, gingerbread plum. 



Tropical Africa. The fruit is oblong in form, twice the size of that of P. excelsum 

 but otherwise resembling it in flavor and appearance.' 



' Masters, M. T. Treas. Bot. 2:842. 1870. 



' Hooker, W. J. Journ. Bot. 2:269. 1840. 



'Carpenter, W. B. Veg. Phys. Bot. 203. 1844. 



< Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:844. 1870. 



'Mueller,?. Set. Pis. 323. 1891. 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Ph. 276. 1879. 



' Don, G. Hist. Dichl. Pis. 2:478. 1832. 



* Sabine, J. Trans. Hart. Soc. Land. 5:451. 1824. 



Ibid. 



