620 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Zilla myagroides Forsk. Cruciferae. 



Egypt and Arabia. The leaves are boiled and eaten by the Arabs.' 



Zingiber mioga Rose. Scitamineae. wild ginger. 



Japan. This is a kind of wild ginger of Japan where the root is said to be utilized. 



Z. officinale Rose, ginger. 



Tropics. The rhizomes of this species fiurosh the well-known ginger. The plant is 

 largely cultivated both in the East and West Indies, as well as in Africa and China. It is 

 supposed that there are two varieties, one producing darker-colored rhizomes than the 

 other, this difference in color being independent of the mode of preparation. The yoimg 

 rhizomes, preserved in syrup, are imported for the delicious conserve known as preserved 

 ginger that imported from the West Indies being preferred to the Chinese kind.^ 



Z. zenimbet Rose, wild ginger. S 



Tropical Asia and the Malayan Archipelago. The leaves and shoots are used as 

 greens in Bengal. 



Zizania aquatica Linn. Gramineae. Indian rice, wild rice. 



North America and eastern Asia. Wild rice is found on the swampy borders of 

 streams and in shallow water, common in the United States, especially northwestward. 

 Gould ' has fovmd it nine feet tall at the foot of Lake Champlain and in places on the 

 Hudson and Delaware Rivers, where the tibe ebbs and flows, over twelve feet high. The 

 seeds have furnished food from early times to the Indians and the plant has been con- 

 sidered worthy of cultivation. In 1791, seeds from Canada were sent to England and 

 attempts were made at its culture.^ Father Hennepin,^ in 1680, in his voyage on the 

 upper Mississippi, ate the grain and pronoimced it better and more wholesome than rice. 

 In 1784, Jonathan Carver * speaks of wild rice as being the most valuable of all the spon- 

 taneous productions of the Northwest. Jefferys,^ 1760, says the people of Louisiana 

 gather the seeds and make them into a bread. Flint * says, but for this grain the Canadian 

 traders and hunters could hardly exist. Pinkerton ' says, " this plant seems to be designed 

 by nature to become the bread corn of the north." Almost every observer who has men- 

 tioned it has used terms of praise. Gould " says the plant seems especially adapted for 

 the soiling of cattle and that its use increases the yield and the richness of milk. In 

 Louisiana, its use is recommended for hay, and in Savannah, Georgia, says Elliott," imder 



'Don, G. Hist. Dkhl. Pis. 1:255. 1831- 

 ' Masters, M. T. Treoi. Bo/. 2:1250. 1870. 

 Gould, J. Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc. 22^. 1869. 

 Banks, Sir J. Trans. Hort. Soc. Land. 1:22. 1815. 

 ^ Amer. Antiq. Soc. (Arch. Amer.) 1:89. 1820. 

 Carver, J. Trav. No. Amer. 210. 1784. 

 ' JeflFerys, T. Nat. Hist. Amer. 1:157. 1760. 

 Flint, T. West. States i:&^. 1828. 

 'Gould, J. Trans. N. Y. Agr. Soc. 225. 1860. 

 ' Ibid. 

 " Elliott, S. Bot. So. Car., Ga. 2:586. 1821. 



