Notes, Reviews and Comments. 153 



II. completes the polypetalae and adds forms recognised since 

 the first paper was published. The list affords a few additions 

 to those plants included in Prof Macoun's " Catalogue of 

 Canadian Plants " mostly from the collections of Moravian 

 missionaries in Northern Labrador. Dr. Eaton, of Yale, New 

 Haven and Prof. Fowler of Queen's Univ., Kingston, Ont, have 

 named most of the 1894 collections. Part II. occupies pp. 84— 

 100, of the Trans. Nova Scotian Inst, of Science, 1896. — H.M.A. 



Notes on Cypertcs Escttleiitus in Ontario. 



In the County of Elgin (Mount Salem) is grown a " nut " 

 — Chufa — said to have been introduced from South America. 



The nuts are the edible tubers of Cype7'us esculentus, a 

 native of the shores of the Mediterranean. The taste is a cross 

 between a cocoanut and a chestnut. It is planted in hills like 

 potatoes and is very prolific. Before planting it is soaked for a 

 fortnight in water. 



Mons. Vilmorin in his fine work the '• Vegetable Garden " 

 says of this plant : " Roots brownish, very numerous, tangled 

 and intermixed with underground shoots, which are swollen into 

 a kind of small scaly tubers of a brownish colour, and with 

 white floury, sweet flesh. The tubers or " nuts " are gathered 

 in October or November. They may easily be kept through 

 the winter if stored in a dry place, sheltered from the frost, and 

 in drying become sweeter and more agreeable to the taste than 

 when eaten newly gathered. The tubers are eaten raw or 

 parched." 



It seems questionable whether this " Cyperus esculentus, 

 Govan " of M. Vilmorin's book can be the same as C. esculentus, 

 Linn, of Macoun's Catalogue, one of our native sedges formerly 

 known as Cyperus phymatodes, Muhl. and growing in abundance 

 at the base of Parliament Hill. 



Chufa is a Spanish word applied to this plant and also to 

 the pea-nut. In German the two plants are called respectively, 

 Erdmandel or Erdkastanie and Erdnuss. — Otto J. Klotz. 



