Edible Plant Species

Guazuma tomentosa H. B. & K. Sterculiaceae. BASTARD CEDAR.
West Indies; introduced into India.
The fruit is filled with mucilage, which is said by Drury to be very agreeable to the taste.

G. ulmifolia Lam. BASTARD CEDAR.
Tropical America.
The fruit, says St. Hilaire, is hard and woody but is filled with a mucilage of a sweet and agreeable taste, which can be sucked with pleasure. In Jamaica, says Lunan, the fruit is eaten by the negroes, either raw or boiled as a green.

Guizotia abyssinica Case. Compositae. RAMTIL.
Tropical Africa.
This plant is a native of Abyssinia, where it is cultivated, as well as in India, for the sake of its seeds, which yield an oil to pressure, bland like that of sesame and called ramtil. This oil is sweet and is used as a condiment and as a burning oil. It is much used for dressing food in Mysore.

Gundelia tournefortii Linn. Compositae.
Syria, Asia Minor and Persia.
This thistle is grown abundantly in Palestine and is similar to the artichoke. The young plant, especially the thick stem, with the young and still undeveloped flower-buds, is brought to the market of Jerusalem under the name cardi and is sought after as a vegetable.

Gunnera chilensis Lam. Halorageae (Gunneraceae).
Chile.
The acidulous leaf-stalks serve as a vegetable. The plant somewhat resembles rhubarb on a gigantic scale. The inhabitants, says Darwin, eat the stalks, which are subacid. The leaves are sometimes nearly eight feet in diameter, and the stalk is rather more than a yard high. It is called panke. In France, it is grown as an ornament.

Gustavia speciosa DC. Myrtaceae (Lecythidaceae).
New Granada.
The small fruits of this tree, according to Humboldt and Bonpland, cause the body of the eater to turn yellow, and, after it remains 24 or 48 hours, nothing can erase the color.