Nandina-Negundo (Sturtevant, 1919)

← Muscari-Myrtus

Sturtevant, Notes on edible plants, 1919 Nandina-Negundo (Sturtevant, 1919)

Nelumbo-Nesodaphne →

Nandina domestica Thunb.

Berberideae. SACRED BAMBOO.

An evergreen shrub of China and Japan. This species is extensively cultivated for its fruits, which are red berries of the size of a pea.

Nannorrhops ritchieana H. Wendl.

Palmae.

Baluchistan and Afghanistan. The leaf-bud, or cabbage, and the young inflorescence, as well as the flesh of the fruit, is commonly eaten.

Napoleonaea imperialis Beauv.

Myrtaceae.

Western tropical Africa. Henfrey says this plant bears, a large fruit with an edible pulp and a rind containing much tannin.

Narcissus sp.?

Amaryllideae. NARCISSUS.

On the upper Nile, Grant n found a narcissus about eight inches high, with white flowers having a waxy, yellow corona and with leaves tasting of onions. The leaves, cooked with mashed ground-nuts, he says, make a delicious spinach.

Nasturtium amphibium R. Br.

Cruciferae. WATER CRESS.

North temperate regions. Merat says the "young leaves are eatable in the spring."

Nasturtium indicum DC.

INDIAN CRESS.

East Indies, China and Malay. This cress found its way into the gardens of France.

Nasturtium officinale R. Br.

WATER CRESS.

North temperate regions. The young shoots and leaves of water cress have been used as a salad from time immemorial. Xenophon strongly recommended its use to the Persians, and the Romans recommended it to be eaten with vinegar as a remedy for those whose minds were deranged; hence the Greek proverb, "Eat cress and learn more wit." The first attempt to cultivate water cress by artificial means in Europe is said by Booth to have been at Erfurt, about the middle of the sixteenth century. Gerarde and Lord Bacon wrote strongly in its favor, but, according to Don, it has been cultivated as a salad near London only since 1808. At the present time, it is cultivated in plantations many acres in extent and the demand for this popular salad herb during the season can scarcely be supplied. In America, it is mentioned among garden esculents by McMahon, 1806, and by succeeding writers on gardening. In India, this herb is much prized and is sought after by the Mohammedans.

Nasturtium palustre DC.

MARSH CRESS.

A wild plant of Europe and northern America, common in wet ditches. It is sometimes used as a cress. According to Dall, this cress is eaten in Alaska.

Nectandra cinnamomoides Nees.

Lauraceae. AMERICAN CINNAMON.

Pickering says the American cinnamon is a tree of the eastern slope of the equatorial Andes and is cultivated in the region about Quito. Its dried calices are brought also from forests to the eastward and are used as a spice.

Nectandra rodioei Hook.

GREENHEART.

A tree of Guiana. The timber is much valued in ship building. The fruit, of the size of a small apple, has a single seed about as large as a walnut. Though the fruit is very bitter, its seeds yield a starch which the Indians mix with rotten wood and make into a bitter, disagreeable kind of bread.

Negundo aceroides Moench.

Sapindaceae. ASH-LEAVED MAPLE. BOX ELDER.

A tree of northern North America. This tree, says Hough, is tapped for sugar in Canada and is now being planted in Illinois for sugar-making. Vasey says experiments in Illinois show the box elder to give more sap and a more saccharine sap than the sugar maple and that this sap makes a whiter sugar. Douglas says the Crow Indians make sugar from its sap, and Richardson says this is the tree which yields most of the sugar in Rupert's Land.