178 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



toms of madness, but are used by the Italians, 

 Spaniards, and French, in their sauces and 

 sweetmeats. In these countries, as well as 

 in Barbary, they are planted in the kitchen- 

 garden, and are often boiled with fat flesh, 

 to which they add scraped cheese ; and they 

 are preserved through the winter, either in 

 honey, vinegar, or salt pickle. When the 

 fruit is just ripe, they eat it dressed with 

 spices, &c. It is thought to be the Bdingel 

 of the Portuguese, the Tongu of Angola, and 

 the Macumba of Congo. This plant has 

 been supposed to induce a sopor and mad- 

 ness, whence it takes its name.* 



There are several varieties of them culti- 

 vated in the gardens of the West Indies, and 

 one kind, called Badinjan or Banjham, often 

 produces fruit in that climate weighing 

 from seven to ten pounds each. Lunan says, 

 in his Hortus Jamaicensis, " I planted, about 

 twenty years ago, half an acre of ground with 

 them, on which my slaves fed, and were well 

 pleased with the food ; they eat something 

 like a squash, but better than any of the 

 pumpkin kind." He adds, " they are boiled 

 or fried ; but the best way is to parboil them, 

 taking off their outer skin, which is somewhat 



# Hist. Plant, adscript. Boerhaave. 





