Edible Plant Species

Fagopyrum cymosum Meissn. Polygonaceae. PERENNIAL BUCKWHEAT.
Himalayas and China.
This is a common Himalayan plant which forms an excellent spinach and is called pullop-bi. It occurs also in China. The plant seeds badly and hence is not valued as a cereal.

F. esculentum Moench. BRANK. BUCKWHEAT. NOTCH-SEEDED BUCKWHEAT.
Europe and northern Asia.
Buckwheat seems to have been unknown to the Greeks and Romans. It grows wild in Nepal, China and Siberia and is supposed to have been brought to Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century from northern Asia. According to Buckman, it is mentioned in a German Bible printed in 1522. It is mentioned by Tragus, 1552, as cultivated in the Odenwald under the name of heydenkorn. Caesalpinus, 1583, describes it as cultivated, probably in Italy under the name of formentone aliis saresinum. Dodoenaeus, 1616, says it was much cultivated in Germany and Brabant. It must have secured early admittance to America, for samples of American growth were sent to Holland by the colony of Manhattan Island as early as 1626. It is at present cultivated in the United States as a field crop, as also in northern Europe, in China, Japan and elsewhere. Eraser found large fields of it at 11,405 feet elevation near the temple of Milun in the Himalayas. In northern India and Ceylon, it is of recent introduction and its cultivation is confined to narrow limits. Notchseeded buckwheat is a native of the mountainous districts of China and Nepal, where it is cultivated for its seeds.

F. tataricum Gaertn. TARTARIAN BUCKWHEAT.
Europe and northern Asia.
Tartarian buckwheat is of the same origin as buckwheat, though it is much less widely distributed and was introduced at a much later period into Europe. It has been cultivated from time immemorial in Nepal and on the confines of China.

Fagus ferruginea Ait. Cupuliferae (Fagaceae). AMERICAN BEECH.
North America.
The nuts are esteemed delicious and are found in season in the Boston markets. Porcher says the young leaves are used by the common people of the South as a potherb. In Maine, the buds are eaten by the Indians.

F. sylvatica Linn. EUROPEAN BEECH.
Europe.
In Hanover, the oil of the nut is used as a salad oil and as a substitute for butter. In France, the nuts are roasted and serve as a substitute for coffee. Sawdust of beech wood is boiled in water, baked and then mixed with flour to form the material for bread in Norway and Sweden.

Farsetia clypeata R. Br. Cruciferae.
Southern Europe and the Orient.
This plant has the same properties as the cresses.