186 



day. The Indians also pound it up into cakes, for use as a 

 food. It is not unlikely that the nutrition of the contained seeds 

 has much to do with this use. 



An even stranger fact is the use by the northern Indians of 

 cakes made by pounding up soap-berry (Sapindus). This fruit, 

 as large as a marble, consists of a thin, translucent, gummy, 

 wrinkled pericarp, of red or orange color, loosely enclosing a 

 single large hard seed. The pulp is not only acrid, soapy and un- 

 palatable, but contains considerable saponin, a distinctly poisonous 

 constituent, and one can but wonder at its use. Quite a number 



foods, but always after some leaching process for the removal 

 of this constituent. 



A fruit that reminds us much of the soap-berry in its appear- 



it is produced in prodigious quantity. Its properties are, how- 

 ever, very different. Although it leaves an acrid taste after free 

 eating, it is sugary and nutritious. It is used in large quantities 

 for fattening hogs and chickens, and it was formerly eaten to a 

 considerable extent by the natives. 



A northern visitor to our south Atlantic resorts "looks with 

 curiosity upon the use of the fruits of the passion-flower, known 

 as may-pops, but people fro 



r of r< 



s the Ier 



specie 



:s, some of a 

 This fruit i 



ickish s 



elliptic 



which, when 



tepped upon, e 

 . The interior 



i of t 



s large 



:eds. It 



pulp, clinging tenaciously to a large number 



Unfortunate is the modern lover of fruits who has not access 

 to a supply of our native eastern black mulberry {Morus rubra), 

 one of the most highly esteemed, and justly so, of aboriginal 

 fruits. This tree, when well grown in an open space, is widely 

 spreading and thickly clothed with large leaves, making it an 

 admirable shade tree. In early July it is loaded with deep 

 purple-black fruits nearly an inch in length and about as thick 



