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moist and marshy grounds, growing many together in ropes as 
_ though they were fastened with a string.’ Asa Gray said that 
had civilization started in America instead of Asia, “ our Ground- 
Nut would have been the first developed esculent tuber and would 
probably have held its place in the first rank along with potatoes. 
and sweet potatoes of later acquisition.” In this connection it 
should be said that native cultivation does not appear to have had 
any effect upon the size and quality of this tuber, and that experi- 
“ments by Vilmorin and others with a view to its improvement 
have not been successful, although hardly continued long enough 
to be conclusive. The tuber is of slow growth, requiring two or 
three years before reaching sufficient size to be useful, and its 
creeping, scattering habit renders the harvest laborious. 
Neiumbo lutea Pers., the Yellow Nelumbo or Water Chiquapin, 
is the finest of our water-lilies, occurring from the Great Lakes to 
the Gulf, and westward to Minnesota and Nebraska. In the 
northern Atlantic States it has only been found in the Delaware 
river below Philadelphia, in Swartswood Lake, N. J., and in the 
Connecticut valley, so far out of its range as to lead to the gen- 
eral supposition that the Indians brought and naturalized it in 
these local habitats. Although difficult of propagation the plant 
was certainly worthy of the effort. The spindle-shaped, often 
angled and furrowed tubers are 5 to 10 inches long and weigh 
from 2 to 8 ounces ; when baked they have, says Dr. G. Engel- 
mann, a pleasant, sweet and mealy taste much resembling that of 
the sweet potato, without anything reminding one of their growth 
in stagnant water. The boiled or baked seeds have the taste of 
chestnut and are highly nutritious, while the petioles and young 
leaves may be eaten“as~spinage. 
Orontium aquaticum L., or Golden Club, the « Tawkee” or 
“ Tawkin” of the Indians, is also an aquatic perennial with deep, 
bulbous rootstock and large pea-like seeds. Both roots and seeds 
were much prized by the Indians and, according to Peter Kalm, 
by some of the white colonists as well; the seeds specially being, 
after sufficient cooking, quite palatable. This plant grows in 
ponds along the coast from Massachusetts to Florida. It has also 
been found in isolated places further inland, near the site of Indian 
villages, where it is supposed to have been propagated by the 
natives; but this is a mere hypothesis. — 
