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undulata Sendtner, the Yaqui Tobacco grown by some of the 
natives of Arizona and California. The Tobacco cultivated by our 
Southern and Eastern Indians was the Mexican species VV. rustica 
L. now naturalized and occasionally found as a weed, while on the 
Missouri and farther west the native V. guadrivalvis Pursh was 
mostly used. The var. mu/tivalvis Gray of the latter, a form de- 
rived from cultivation, or perhaps a distinct species, has been used 
by the Pacific Indians from time immemorial and is said, by 
Douglas, to be the only vegetable which the natives of the Co- 
lumbia cultivated. 
I shall now proceed to enumerate the native plants which in 
their wild or uncultivated state furnish food to the Indians. 
Roots, TUBERS AND BuLss. 
Sagittaria latifolia Willd. (S. variabilis Eng.), the Common 
Arrow-head, is an extremely variable species, extending from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific and from British America to Mexico. It 
has tuberous oblong roots the size of a hen’s egg, but sometimes 
as large as a man’s fist, which either boiled or roasted were much 
consumed by the natives all over the land. It was the “ Katnis’” 
of the eastern tribes, the “ Wabesipinig” or Swan Potato of the 
Chippeways in Minnesota, and the “ Wappatoo” of the Columbia 
river Indians. It appears to have been, next to Camas, the most 
useful root of the Pacific slope natives; its name recurs almost on 
every page of certain chapters of Lewis and Clarke’s narrative from 
which I quote the following: “The most important spot is Wap- 
patoo Island, a large tract lying between the Multnomah and an 
arm of the Columbia. The chief wealth of this island is found in 
the numerous ponds of the interior which abound with the com- 
mon Arrow-head. The bulb, to which the Indians give the name 
of Wappatoo, is their great article of food and almost the staple 
article of commerce on the Columbia. It is never out of season, 
so that at all times of the year the valley is frequented by the 
neighboring Indians who come to gather it. It is collected 
by the women ; each takes a light canoe into a pond where the 
water is as high as the breast, and by means of her toes separates 
from the root the bulb which, on being freed from the mud, rises 
immediately to the surface of the water and is thrown into the 
