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xii : PREFACE. 
and handsome foliage, must be highly ornamental : the 
wood, being excessively hard, is preferred by the natives 
to any other for making their arrows ; and as it does not 
spontaneously grow in their neighbourhood, they travel 
annually to a considerable distance South-west, to pro- 
eure it. About the village of the Osage Indians a few _ 
trees have been planted, from which one has been in- 
troduced into one of the gardens at St. Louis on the 
Mississippi. Perfect seeds from the last-mentioned tree 
were given by Mr. Lewis to Mr. M*Mahon, nursery and 
seedsman, at Philadelphia, who raised several fine plants 
from them, and in whose possession. they were when I 
left America. The other plant alluded to is called by 
Mr. Lewis “ A bulbous Rush, which serves the Indians 
for bread.” Of this: I have only seen the root, whieh is 
of a yellowish-brown colour, about the thickness of a fin- , 
ger, and jointed ; on each joint, which are about three 
inches asunder, several tubers of about an inch and a 
half long are produced, of an oblong ovate shape, ta- 
pering into a point towards the end; these tubers are 
filled with an exquisite white and fine farina, resembling 
starch ; these roots are used in the same manner as those 
of Dinala esculenta, vid. vol. ii. p.475. I. take this 
to be a larger species of tuberous Cyperus. | 3 
While I was thus engaged in describing id. i figuring 
those new acquisitions to the American Flora, another 
opportunity offered to augment my resources, Mr. 
Aloysius Enslen, who had been sent to America by 
Prince Lichtenstein of Austria, as a collector of new 
and i interesting subjects of natural history, returned to 
Philadelphia from his extensive travels through the 
Western Territories and Southern States... This gentle- 
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