STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 413 



man. This species is cultivated in many varieties in India, where it is a native. Drury ' 

 says it is much cultivated in Coromandel, and that the grain is a very essential ari;icle of 

 diet among the natives of the northern Circars. The seeds, says Unger,^ constitute the 

 principal article of food for the negroes in various parts of Africa. Four varieties are 

 cultivated by the native farmers of Bengal who eat the grain and feed their cattle with 

 the straw.' 



Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth. Leguminosae. 



Tropical Africa. A tree, known in Gabun as owala and in the Eboo country as 

 opachalo. The seeds are eaten by the natives, who also extract a limpid oil from 

 them.* 



Pentadesma butyracea Sabine. Gutttferae. butter tree, tallow tree. 



Tropical Africa. The fruit is eaten.' The yellow, greasy juice, which flows from 

 the fruit when it is cut, is mixed by the inhabitants of Sierra Leone with their food but 

 is not used by Europeans on account of the strong, turpentine flavor.^ 



Pentatropis cjrnanchoides R. Br. Asdepiadeae. 



AbjTssinia, Persia and northwest India. Its follicles are eaten.'' 



Peplis portula Linn. Lythrarieae. water purslane. 



Europe and adjoining Asia. This plant is mentioned by Theophrastus as cultivated, 

 by Dioscorides as esculent; it is mentioned also by Pliny, Varro and Columella. About 

 Athens, it is eaten in salads.' 



PeresMa aculeata Mill. Cacteae. barbadoes gooseberry. 



West Indies. The fruit is yellow, edible, pleasant to the taste and is used in the 

 West Indies for preserving.' 



P. bleo DC. 



Mexico and New Granada. The leaves are eaten as a salad in Panama and are 

 called bleo by the natives.'" 



Pergularia edulis Thunb. Asdepiadeae. 



South Africa. The young leaves are eaten as a potherb in Japan. '' 



Drury, H. Useful Ph. Ind. 335. 1873. 



Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpl. 306, 307. 1859. (PenicUlaria spicata) 



* Roxburgh, W. Horl. Beng. 7. 1814. 



< Jackson, J. R. Treas. Bo/. 2:1327. 1876. 



5 Treas. Bot. 2:860. 1870. 



Don, G. Hisl. Dichl. Ph. 1:619. 1831. 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hht. Ph. ^90. 1879. (A sclepias spiralis) 



' Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Ph. 244. 1879. 



Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:863. 1870- 



Ibid. 



" Seemann, B. Treas. Bot. 2:863. 1870. 



