PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. xiii 
would perhaps be going too far to say, at this period of my informa- 
tion on the subject, that I had ascertained the plant to which these 
names refer ; though I am certainly warranted in saying, that the facts 
I am possessed of render it extremely probable, that the Shawnee or 
Indian sallad of the state of Kentucky, is the Hydrophyllum appendi- 
culatum.* 
But these are merely a few instances of the desiderata on this 
point. From an investigation of so rich a subject, much novel and in- 
teresting information must necessarily be acquired. 
* Some time since, Dr. Short, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, sent a specimen of a plant 
to a friend in this city, with the following note: «I send you a plant, vulgarly known 
in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, by the name of Woollen-breeches. The young 
shoots are eaten in the spring, as a sallad, and highly praised by all who eat them. 
I could wish to know the name of this plant, which I understand Mr. Correa was 
very anxious to see, when in this part of the world.”’ The plant in question proves 
on examination, to be Hydrophyllum appendiculatum. I subsequently received a better 
specimen from Dr. Eberle, of Lancaster, who obtained it, I believe, from the late Dr. 
Muhlenberg, or who found it in one of the books purchased from the reverend doctor’s 
library. From this specimen, aided in the colour of the flowers, by a sketch sent on the 
blank page of the letter, by Dr. Short, I have made a drawing. I have already said, 
I do not assert that this plant yields the Shawnee sallad, or Indian sallad so called; 
but as it certainly is an Indian sallad, and inhabits the districts of country in which 
the Shawnee sallad is said to grow, it is by no means unlikely that it may be the plant 
intended by those appellations; and from what has been said concerning it, is un- 
doubtedly worthy of cultivation. The roots of a species of the same genus, Hydro- 
phyllum Canadensis, we learn, were eaten by the Indians in times of scarcity. 
