BOTANY. 339 



food, from time immemorial. This plant seems to have been created 

 to grow in a certain portion of South Florida. The everglades are an 

 immense basin, one hundred and fifty miles long, by about ninety 

 miles wide, and bounded on the south and east by a ridge or rim of 

 tertiary lime-stone ; on the west, this basin stretches along the Gulf 

 coast, from near Cape Sable to Carloosa Hatches river ; and on the 

 north, the Lake Okeechobee is the limit, although in high water, the 

 Kissimee valley is a continuation of the glades. The strip of land 

 outside the glades, and bounded by the Gulf and the Atlantic, is fif- 

 teen miles in average width, covered with stunted yellow pine, and 

 the soil thin and barren. The same barren uniformity characterizes 

 this strip of land, with occasional hummocks, from Indian River to 

 Cape Sable, and it is upon this barren strip that the Coontee grows in 

 the greatest abundance. Without this valuable plant, this region 

 would be entirely worthless ; but with it, no other equal portion of 

 land can be made more valuable the only expense being in digging 

 the roots and carrying them to the mill, as new plants shoot forth from 

 every small piece left in the ground. This " Florida Arrow Root " 

 has been made for sale in Florida, for the last ten years at first only 

 for medical purposes, but recently for manufacturing and household 

 purposes. By facilitating the process of grinding and washing, its 

 production would be greatly cheapened and improved. 



Florida Paint Root. This root grows in great abundance in the 

 flat woods, near the streams, and in the savannahs of the counties of 

 Levy, Marion, and South Florida. It has a top similar to the flag, and 

 a root about the size of a man's thumb, of various lengths, running 

 horizontal, not far below the surface. It is very juicy, and of a deep 

 red color. Hogs are exceedingly fond of it, and fatten on it rapidly, 

 if they are black, or have black hoofs. It is said by the old settlers 

 that ho^s with white hoofs seem to founder, and their hoofs come off, 



c 1 ' * 



which causes them to perish unless fed well till they recover. Even 

 when the animal has only one white hoof, and the others black, the 

 white hoof comes off. The root colors the flesh, bones, and marrow, 

 of hogs that feed upon it, and the urine becomes of the color of blood. 

 There is no doubt this root may be substituted for madder, and be- 

 come a source of no inconsiderable traffic to the people of Florida. 

 Like the arrow root or compta it grows spontaneously in great abun- 

 dance and may be cultivated, if thought advantageous. Ocala (Flu..} 

 Mirror. 



f 



ORIGIN OF THE WHEAT PLANT. 



Some curious botanical facts have recently been laid before the 

 French Academy relative to the transformation of two grasses, JEgi- 

 lops Ooala and the ^Egilops triaria'ata. A gardener, M. Esprit Fabre, 

 of Adge, in France, lias, without the aid of books and by simple ex- 

 periment, brought forward a capital fact showing the mutability of 

 vegetable forms. By experiments, which occupied seven years' time, 

 he proved that the above grasses were capable of being the source of 



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