Myrica.

Myrica cordifolia Linn. Myricaceae. Myrica.

South Africa. The farmers use the wax from the berries for candles, but the Hottentots eat this wax either with or without meat.

Myrica faya Ait. Candleberry Myrtle.

Madeira, Azores and Canary Islands. This is a small tree whose drupaceous fruits are used for preserves.

Myrica gale Linn. Sweet Gale.

Of northern climates. The French in Canada call it laurier and put the leaves into broth to give it a pleasant taste. In England, the leaves are sometimes used to flavor beer as an agreeable substitute for hops. The berries are employed in France as a spice.

Myrica nagi Thunb.

Tropical Asia and subtropics. This is the yang-mae of China, the yamomomoki of Japan and is commonly cultivated in these countries, being held in esteem for its subacid fruits, which are eaten both raw and cooked. They are round, one-seeded drupes of deep red color, with a tuberculated or granulated surface resembling that of the fruit of the strawberry tree. Fortune refers to a species, probably this, called yang-mae in China. The wild variety san, is a fine Chinese fruit tree usually grafted upon M. sapida. It is called sophee in Silhet, where the fruit is eaten both raw and cooked. It has an agreeably-flavored fruit, though with too large a stone in proportion to the fleshy part; but this, says Royle, might probably be remedied by cultivation. This fruit tree would probably repay the trouble of culture. The fruit is eaten in India, says Brandis, and is sold in the bazaars of the hills.

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.