556 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



. mangifera Willd. hog plum. 



Tropical Asia. The fruit, when largest, is of the size of a goose egg, of a rich olive- 

 green, mottled with yellow and black, with but a trifling degree of scent and none of the 

 quince-like odor of the other species. The inner part nearest the rind is rather acid ; that 

 being removed, the part nearest the stem is sweet and eatable, but withal it is not an agree- 

 able fruit.' Brandis* says the ripe fruit has an astringent acid and txupentine taste but 

 is eaten and pickled. 



S. purpurea Linn, hog plum. Spanish plum. 



Tropical America; cultivated in the northern regions of the tropical parts of Brazil.' 

 This fruit has very recently been introduced at Jacksonville, Florida, under the name of 

 Spanish plum. Lunan * says the fruits are yellow with sometimes a slight mixttire of 

 redness, sweet smelling, covered with a thin skin, the size of a pigeon's egg, having within 

 a little sweetish, acidulous pulp and a very large nut; eaten by some. The natives, says 

 Unger,' eat the sweetish, acid flesh, prepare a sauce and manufacture a drink from it. 



S. tuberosa Arruda. 



Brazil. The fniit is about twice the size of a large gooseberry, of an oblong shape 

 and of a yellowish color when ripe; beneath its coriaceous skin there is a juicy pulp of 

 a pleasant, sweetish-acid taste. The fruit is fit to eat only when it is so ripe as to fall to 

 the ground, when a large quantity may be eaten without inconvenience.* 



Stachys afSnis Fresen. Labiatae. Chinese artichoke, knot root. 



Egypt and Arabia. This plant was introduced into cultivation by Vilmorin-Andrieux 

 et Cie. in 1886.' The roots are thick and fleshy and are useful for pickles and may be 

 used fried. According to Bretschneider,' the roots were eaten as a vegetable in China 

 in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries and are described as a cultivated vegetable by 

 Chinese writings of 1640 and 1742. The species is a cultivated vegetable in Japan and is 

 called choro-gi, and is esteemed. 



S. heraclea All. 



Southern Europe. Archer says the leaves and stems, shown at the International 

 Exhibition of 1862 as a tea substitute, are used by the modem Greeks and are believed 

 to be the sideritis of the ancients. 



S. palustris Linn, all-heal, woundwort. 



Northern climates. Lightfoot ' ^Siys the roots have been eaten in times of necessity, 

 either boiled or dried and made into bread. Henfrey '" says the fleshy, subterranean 



' Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 235. 1874. 

 'Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 128. 1874. 

 Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 349. 1859. 

 Lunan, J. Hort. Jam. 2:186. 1814. 

 Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 349. 1859. 

 'Gardner, G. Trav.Braz.iy6. 1849. 

 ' Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie. Seed- Cat. 1886. 

 Bretschneider, E. Bot. Sin. 53, 59, 83, 85. 1882. 

 ' Lightfoot, J. Fl. Scot. 1:313. 1789. 

 "Henfrey, A. Bo/. 327. 1870. 



