STURTEVANT S NOTES ON EDIBLE PLANTS 5I9 



Salicomia brachiata Roxb. Chenopodiaceae. 



East Indies. The shoots are pickled by the natives of India.' 



S. fruticosa Linn 



Europe and Africa. The plant is of a brackish taste but is eaten as a salad by the 

 soldiers and some few others at the Cape of Good Hope.* 



S. herbacea Linn, crab grass, marsh samphire, saltwort. 



Seashores of the Mediterranean and north Atlantic and interior salines throughout 

 North America and Asia. The tender shoots of this plant in England are used as a pickle 

 and are sometimes boiled for the table.' This species is fovmd about the salt springs in 

 Syracuse, New York, and is much used for pickling.^ 



Salix alba Linn. Salicineae. white willow. 



Europe, Asia and north Africa. The inner bark, though extremely bitter in the 

 fresh state, when dried and powdered, Johnson ' says, is used in northern countries in 

 times of scarcity for making bread. Dall * says the half-digested willow-tips in the stomach 

 of the adult deer are regarded as a delicacy by the Eskimos of the Yukon River, and the 

 mess is eaten as a salad. The bark of a species of willow is mixed with tobacco and smoked 

 by the Indians of Maine. In China, the leaves of this and other willows are often eaten 

 by poor people in times of want. Willow leaves have long been used to make " sweet- 

 tea," and about Shanghai the leaves of S. alba are used to adulterate tea.'' 



S. fragilis Linn, crack willow. 



Europe and Asia. In Persia, this willow yields a saccharine exudation, as stated 

 by Haussknecht.' 



Salvadora persica Linn. Salvador aceae. mustard tree, tooth-brush tree. 



Orient, East Indies and north Africa. The fniit is sweet and is eaten largely in the 

 Punjab; when dried it forms an article of trade and tastes somewhat like currants. The 

 fruit is globose, two and one-half lines in diameter, yellow when ripe, dark brown or red 

 when dry.' The shoot and leaves are pungent, says Brandis,'" and are eaten as salad 

 and are celebrated as antidotes against poison. This shrub or small tree has been identified 

 as the mustard tree of Scripttu-e. The small, red, edible berries, says Ainslie," have an 

 aromatic smell and taste not imlike the garden cress. According to Stewart,'^ these berries 



Drury, H. Useful Pis. India 377. 1873. 

 ' Thunberg, C. P. Trav. i:2<)2. 1795. 



' Lightfoot, J. Fl. Scot. i:6g. 1789. 



Vick Card. Monthly 250. 1878. 



' Johnson, C. P. Useful Pis. Gt. Brit. 2^17. 1862. 



DaU, W. H. Alaska 148. 1897. 



' Smith, F. P. Contrib. Mat. Med. China 214, 232. 1871. 



' Fluckiger and Hanbury Pharm. 373. 1879. 



Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 315. 1874. 

 "Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 316. 1874. 

 "Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. 2:266. 1826. 

 " Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 426. 1879. 



