Edible Plant Species

Fedia (Astrephia) comucopiae Gaertn. Valerianeae. HORN-OFPLENTY. VALERIAN.
Mediterranean region.
According to Robinson, this species is grown in France as a salad plant. It is also grown in flower gardens.

Feronia (Limonia) elephantum Correa. Rutaceae. ELEPHANT APPLE. WOOD APPLE.
East Indies.
The fruit is of the size of a large apple and is covered with a hard, gray, scabrous, woody rind. The pulp is universally eaten on the coast of Coromandel. The interior of the fruit, says Firminger, is filled with a brown, soft, mealy substance, rather acid and smelling of rancid butter. Brandis says a jelly is made of it in India, and Wight says that this very pleasant jelly resembles black-currant jelly. Dutt says it is cultivated in India for its fruit, the pulp of which is eaten and made into a ckatni.

Ferula assa-foetida Linn. Umbelliferae. ASAFETIDA. FOOD-OFTHE- GODS.
Persia and Afghanistan.
Asafetida is called food-of-the-gods by the Persians, who hold the juice in high esteem as a condiment, eat the leaves as greens and the root when roasted. Gerarde says it is reported to be eaten in Apulia. The young shoots and heads are considered by the Khirgis as a great delicacy. The fetid odor disappears on boiling.

F. longifolia Fisch.
South Russia.
The aromatic, long roots are esteemed as a vegetable.

F. narthex Boiss. ASAFETIDA.
Baltistan.
Kaempfer says that in Afghanistan and Khorassan there are two varieties, one called Kama-i-gawi, which is grazed by cattle and used as a potherb and the other called Kama-i-anguza, which affords the asafetida of commerce. Among the Mohammedan and Hindu population of India, the gum is generally used as a condiment and, in regions where the plant grows, the fresh leaves are cooked as an article of diet.