MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 73 



swamps This is the Arum virgvnicum or 'Virginia wake- 

 robin.' " And again, "Tawkee is another plant, so-called by 

 the Indians who ate it. Some of them called it Tawkin and 

 others Tackoim. This was the Orontium aquaticum (Golden 

 Club)." Rafinesqne, in his "Medical Flora, published in 

 1830, states that "all esculent roots were called tuckahoe, such 

 as Apios and potatoes." Numerous other authorities might be 

 cited but it seems clear that the fungus which we now call 

 tuckahoe or Indian bread could not have been one of the chief 

 articles of sustenance for the Indians. As we shall see later, 

 Pachyma cocos has little or no nutritive value, and the Indian 

 name tuckahoe, while it may possibly have included fungous 

 masses which are now designated exclusively by this term, 

 originally referred to any edible root. 



The first careful chemical examination of the fungus tuck- 

 ahoe was made by Professor John Torrey in 1819. He con- 

 cluded that no starch was present but that instead a hitherto 

 undescribed substance, named by him ' ' sclerotin, " was found. 

 Five years later Bracconnot published on the jelly-forming 

 constituents of fruits and tubers, grouping them under the 

 general term "pectous substances." In 1827 Torrey repub- 

 lished his original article and stated that the substance he 

 had named sclerotin was identical with the pectic acid of 

 Bracconnot. Various analyses have been made since, and re- 

 peated attention has been called to the fact that nothing yet 

 analysed has been reported to contain so large a proportion of 

 pectin-like substance, often running as high as 75 per cent, as 

 P. cocos. Unless the nutritive value of pectin bodies is much 

 greater than ordinarily supposed, Pachyma cocos could not 

 alone be regarded as sufficient to sustain life, although it might 

 prove a valuable adjunct to other highly nutritious foods. 



Various medicinal properties have been ascribed to Pachyma 

 cocos, such as an antidote to mineral poisons, poultices on the 

 ulcers that follow yellow fever, cancers, and in Ilobbs' "Botan- 

 ical Handbook" it is listed as an aphrodisiac. It is easy to 

 understand that with the name tuckahoe being applied now 

 only to Pachyma cocos, whereas originally it was a representa- 

 tive name for all round or tuberous esculent roots, it should 

 retain the traditional virtues of the large part of the Indian 

 materia medica. There seems to be no foundation for the 

 belief that Pachyma cocos possesses any practical value, al- 

 though it will probably continue to be so regarded for an 

 indefinite period. As previously stated, however, it is of the 

 utmost interest from a botanical standpoint, since in spite of 



