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Indian Bread Root. 



An article recently appeared In the " Waterloo Observer/' 

 N. Y., which has some botanical interest, relating to a root which 

 the Seneca Indians called OokteJiaw a century ago, and from 

 which they made bread. The ground nut, Apios tuberosa, was 

 well known, and formed the totem of the potato clan of the 

 Senecas a hundred years earlier. This was the principal edible 



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root of the New York Indians. Mr. Horatio Hale properly con- 

 sidered the word generic, and thought that Ooktehaw bread was 

 made from roots in general. Mr. George H. Harris, of Roches- 



ter, N. Y., now thinks differently, and claims that the root in 

 question is a Western plant, which he terms Psoralca escidenta, 

 otherwise the Prairie Potato, or I5read Root. I suppose it to be 

 a plant which I have seen, but do not know it by tills name, nor 

 do I think any Psoralen has been reported in New York. As the 

 root w'as in common use it could not have escaped the notice of 

 botanists and others, whatever its name. Mr. Harris claims that 

 a similar root was used by the early settlers in the Genesee Val- 

 ley, and was called O-ki-tah-ak-gua, or Bread Root. There may 

 be a mistake both in tlie meaning of the word and the plant 



The ground nut is not now common, and I do not find it in 

 my list of Onondaga names, but Oke-ta-ha appears, applied to 

 the beet, and meaning simply a root. Ookta-ha-wa-ne is the 

 artichoke, and means Big root. The Cayugas called the turnip 

 Ok-te-ha, This will show the generic use of the word mention- 

 ed by a prisoner among the Senecas, and, as Mr. Hale supposed, 

 Ook-te-haw bread was that made of any edible root. Of those 

 in use here the ground nut was held in the highest estimation, 

 but it was not the only kind eaten In time of need. 



W, M. Beauchamp, 



Geographical Distribution of Phlox bifida- 



The marked increase in late years of local collectors in the 



4 



region east of the Mississippi River has tended to greatly increase 

 our knowledge of the geographical range of the native species ot 

 this region, especially those that have a tendency to be local in 

 their distribution. As a result, new stations for our rarer plants 

 are constantly coming to light; but yet, with our ever-incrcas- 



