Note 494 — Chapter XXVII

The natives of India are supplied, by Nature, with an endless variety of condiments to season their food, many of them growing wild. In the different parts of India I noticed as many as twenty-five ingredients used in curries and porridges. The tender leaves and legumes of the agati (Agati grandiflora); oil from the elloopa fruit (Bassia longifolia); young unripe gourds of the Benincasa cerifera; the papaw fruit; cocoanut-oil; the leaves of Canthium parviflorum; capsicums; cinnamon; leaves of Cocculus villosus; turmeric; cardamoms; jhingo (Luffa acutangula); the fruit of Momordica charantia; green fruit of Morinda citrifolia; the legumes of the horse-radish-tree (Hyperanthera Moringa); the plantain; the tender shoots of the lotus; the pickled seeds of a Nymphæa; the leaves of Premna latifolia; berries of Solanum verbascifolium; legumes of Trigonella tetrapetala; the white centre of the leaf culms of lemon-grass; the Lablab cultratus; onions; the fruit of Sapota elingoides in the Neilgherries; the moong (Phaseolus mungo); and many other pulses.