Important: Safety Warning
This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
This page prescribes plants as medicine according to pre-modern medical theory. Several of the plants named are toxic, correct identification is difficult, and the doses given have no scientific basis. Do not ingest or apply any preparation described here.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Order Cxxiv
AMARANTHACEE.
Upon this order Dr. von Martius has the following remarks: Leaves, especially when young, of a lax soft texture, abounding in saccharine, mucilaginous, and fibrous particles, and therefore fit for food. The seeds are farinaceous, consisting chiefly of starch and mucus. Their virtues are nutritive, emollient, demulcent; the root of Gomphrena officinalis is tonic and stimulant. The species are either gregarious or solitary; mostly diffuse and villous, and existing in dry stony exposed places, or erect and reclining on other vegetables, with little pubescence, when found on the skirts of ancient forests; a few are found in saline coast places; finally, they are more common in low land, little elevated above the surface of the sea, than in mountainous regions. They are met with in both hemispheres; rarely under the equator, but increasing both northwards and southwards as we recede from them; they are confined to no countries in particular, but are found to affect all regions of the world. Among an abundance of weeds, we distinguish a few fine plants deserving cultivation, as the Globe Amaránthus, the Cockscombs, and a few species of Amaránthus, one of which, under the name of Love-lies-bleeding, is commonly reared for the sake of its long, tail-like, pendent masses of crimson flowers. Amaránthus oleráceus, and a few others, are occasionally cultivated as potherbs. 552 Achyranthes W. 553 Philoxérus R. Br. 554 Desmochæ'ta Dec. 556 Alternanthéra R. Br. 560 Ærúa Juss. 561 Lestibudésia R. Br. 563 Deeríngia R. Br. 565 Celósia R. Br. 566 Gomphréna R. Br. 918 Aphanánthe Lk. 1975 Amaránthus W. 2069 Irésine W.
ORDER CXXV.
ILLECEBREÆ.
Weeds distinguished from Amaranthaceæ by their places, for which they are better fitted than for a garden, unless as objects of curiosity. membranous stipules. They are found in dry barren 555 Illecébrum Juss. 557 Paronýchia Juss. 559 Anýchia Mich. 569 Móllia IW. 614 Herniária W. 82 Loéflingia W. 221 Polycárpon W. 226 Minuartia W. 227 Quéria W.
ORDER CXXVI.
CHENOPODEÆ.
The habit of this order is a better distinction from Amaranthaceæ, than any artificial character which it is easy to point out. While Amaranthaceæ have a dry perianthium with a dense inflorescence, Chenopodeæ on the contrary have a fleshy perianthum and a very effuse inflorescence. In the former, the stamens are usually NATURAL ARRANGEMENT. inserted under the ovarium; in the latter into the calyx, but this mark is not constant. None of them, unless Phytolacca is excepted, can be esteemed plants of ornament; on the contrary, they have a weedy uninviting appearance, which is not improved by the fetid smell of some of them. But, although their appearance is less attractive than that of the Amaranths, their use to man is far more considerable. Their qualities are very various; Camphorósma has the smell of camphor; Petivéria stinks like onions; Phytolacca roots, leaves, and berries, are violent purgatives and emetics; the latter are esteemed in North America nearly equal to Guaiacum, and are employed in chronic rheumatisms, and in rheumatic pains following venereal diseases; an extract of the berries has been employed in scrophula and cancerous ulcers; and the young shoots of the plant are eaten in the United States as asparagus. Some of the Chenopódiums, as Ambrosioídes, Bótrys, &c., possess antispasmodic and tonic properties; the leaves of Spinácia, and of many Chenopodiums, are eaten as spinach; as are those of Basella in China and India. Salsóla and Salicórnia are often employed as pickles. Beet roots are equally valuable as a culinary and agricultural production, and the leaves are an excellent vegetable when boiled. But the most remarkable feature in the properties of the order is the abundant production of soda, which is obtained from many of the species, as from all the Salsólas, Salicórnias, Anabasis, many species of A'triplex, several salt marsh Chenopodiums, and others. The seeds of Chenopodium anthelminticum are used as a vermifuge, those of A'triplex hortensis excite vomiting, frequently attended with acute pain; those of Chenopodium quinóa are said to be used as rice. To conclude this list of remarkable properties in one of the most vile of all assemblages of plants, the roots of beet yield an abundance of sugar. 21 Pollíchia W. 22 Salicórnia W. 92 Polycnémum W. 1943 Axýris W 1964 Diótis W. 2070 Spinácia 2138 A'triplex 608 Anabásis W. 254 Camphorósma W. 558 Chenólea W. 693 Basélla W. 613 Bósea W. 865 Petivéria W. 611 Chenopódium W. 28 Blítum W. 917 Galénia W. 26 Corispérmum W. 1071 Phytolacca W. 610 Kóchia Roth. 253 Rivína W. 1937 Ceratocarpus W. 2139 Rhagódia R. Br 2072 Acnída W. 612 Béta W.
ORDER CXXVII.
POLYGONEÆ. 609 Salsóla W.
Herbaceous or suffrutescent fleshy-leaved plants, chiefly natives of the northern hemisphere; a few Polygonums and Coccolóbas are found to the south, the former in barren places, the latter on sea shores. A great part of the order consists of worthless weeds. Some of the Polygonums, and all the Eriógonums, are handsome plants; the Rheums are famous in medicine. The root of Rheum is tonic and purgative; most of the Rúmexes and Polygonums are also tonics. The juice of the Coccolobas is very astringent. The young leaves and shoots of several species of Rúmex and Rhéum are eaten either raw or baked, under the name of sorrel, French sorrel, and tart rhubarb. For the sake of its seeds, Polygonum Fagopýrum is cultivated by farmers under the name of buck-wheat; the seeds of P. aviculáre are very emetic and purgative. The fleshy calyx of the Coccolóbas is colored; and, the fruit growing in clusters, the genus has received the name of the sea-side grape. 228 Kœnígia W. 838 Atrapháxis W. 856 Rúmex W. 857 Oxýria Dec. 921 Polýgonum W. 922 Coccolóba W. 937 Eriógonum Mi. 938 Rhéum W. 1106 Callígonum W 2090 Tríplaris W. 1052 Brunníchia W.
ORDER CXXVIII.
BEGONIACEE.
The acid qualities, sheathing stipules, and alternate leaves of these tropical herbs approximate them to Polygoneæ, notwithstanding the very different structure of their fructification. Most of the species are pretty, some very handsome; all requiring great heat and humidity to be grown in perfection. 1989 Begónia W.