574 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Williams ' says its cultivation is in running water and the nuts are collected in autumn 

 by people in piuits or tubs, who look for the ripe ones as they pull themselves through the 

 vines over the surface of the patch. The dried nuts are often ground into a sort of arrow- 

 root flour. The taste of the fresh boiled nuts is like that of new cheese. 



Treculia africana Decne. Urticaceae. breadfruit tree. 



A tropical African tree called okwa. The nuts contain an edible embryo and are 

 collected by the negroes and ground into meal.* 



Trianthema portulacastrum Linn. Ficoideae. 



Tropical Asia. Royle ' says this plant is used as a potherb in India. Wight * saj?s 

 the leaves are sometimes employed as a potherb. Ainslie ' says it is eaten by the natives; 

 Stewart,* that it is a common weed eaten in the Punjab in times of dearth but is apt to 

 produce diarrhea and paralysis. 



Tribtdus terrestris Linn. Zygophylleae. land caltrops. 



The tmexpanded capsules, reduced to powder and formed into cakes, served as food 

 during a famine in Rajputana, India.' 



Trichosanthes anguina Linn. Cucurbitaceae. club gourd, serpent cucumber, snake 

 gourd, viper's gourd. 

 India. The fruit of this plant is a large, greenish-white, club-shaped gourd of the 

 length of a man's arm and about four inches thick. The fruit is eaten sliced and dressed 

 in the manner of French beans.* The goiu-d is conmionly cultivated about Bombay 

 and is in very general demand for vegetable curries in Burma." The seed appears in some 

 of the Prussian seed catalogs xmder the name of melonengurkin. In Central America, it 

 is called serpent cucumber or viper's gourd from the remarkable, snake-like appearance 

 of its fniits, which are frequently six or more feet long, at first striped with different shades 

 of green but ultimately a bright, orange color." 



T. cucumerina Linn. 



Tropical India. Its seed appears for sale in the Erfurt seed catalogs. The unripe 

 fruit is very bitter but is eaten by the natives of India in their curries.** 



1 Williams, S. W. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 471. i860. 

 'Moore, J. Treas. Bot. 2:1^22. 1876. 

 Royle, J. F. Illustr. Bot. Himal. 1:221. 1839. 

 * Wight, R. Illustr. Jnd. Bot. 2:43. 1850. 

 Ainslie, W. Mat. Ind. 2:370. 1826. (T. monogyna) 

 Drury, H. Useful Pis. Ind. 431. 1873. 

 'King, G. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 10:198. 1870. (T. lanuginosus) 

 Firminger, T. A. C. Card. Ind. 129. 1874. 

 Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 723. 1879- 

 Ibid. 



"Smith, A. Treas. Bot. 2:1168. 1870. (T. colubrina) 

 ^Dmry Useful Pis. Ind. ^1. 1858. 



