328 MISCELLANEOUS VEGETABLES. 



Use. The fruit has a juicy pulp, and, when first tasted, 

 a pleasant, strawberry-like flavor, with a certain degree of 

 sweetness and acidity intermixed. The after-taste i, how- 

 ever, much less agreeable, and is similar to that of the com- 

 mon Tomato. 



By many the fruit is much esteemed, and is served in its 

 natural state at the table as a dessert. With the addition of 

 lemon-juice, it is sometimes preserved in the manner of the 

 plum, as well as stewed and served like cranberries. 



If kept from the action of frost, the fruit retains its na- 

 tural freshness till March or April. 



Purple Alke- This species grows naturally and abun- 



D dantly in some of the Western States. The 

 ? fruit is roundish, somewhat depressed, about 



MATO. PUEPLB 



W PHT B 8AL1? E 8^ BT " an * nc h * Q diameter, of a deep-purple color, 

 and enclosed in the membranous covering 

 peculiar to the genus. 



Compared with the preceding species, the fruit is more 

 acid, less perfumed, and not so palatable in its crude state, 

 but by many considered superior for preserving. The plant 

 is less pubescent, but has much the same habit, and is culti- 

 vated in the same manner. 



MARTYNIA. 



Unicorn Plant. Gray. Martynia proboscidea. 



A hardy, annual plant, with a strong, branching stem, 

 two feet and a half or three feet high. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped, viscous, and of a peculiar musk-like odor 

 when bruised or roughly handled ; the flowers are large, 

 bell-shaped, somewhat two-lipped, dull white, tiuged or 

 spotted with yellow and purple, and produced in long, leaf- 

 less racemes, or clusters ; the seed-pods are green, very 

 downy or hairy, fleshy, oval, an inch and a half in their 



