380 



Inland Water Culture 



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Fig. 227, A flower-cluster of wild rice, fertile 

 above, staminate below. Little brown syrphus 

 flies of the genus Platypeza cling to the stam- 

 inate blossoms. 



(fig. 227), is ob- 

 tainable in our 

 own markets in 

 very limited 

 quantity and at 

 fancy prices : it 

 grows as a wild 

 plant still. The 

 Indian ate both 

 the nut-like seeds 

 and the stocks of 

 the wild lotus ; 

 also the tubers of 

 the arrowhead, 

 the stocks of the 

 arrow- arum, the 

 enormous rhizo- 

 mes of the spat- 

 terdock, the suc- 

 culent shoots of 

 the cat-tail, and 

 other rather 

 coarse and watery 

 wild plant pro- 

 ducts, that we 

 esteem better 

 food for muskrats 

 than for men. 

 The starch-filled 

 tubers of the sago 

 pondweed (fig. 

 228) are choice 

 food for water- 

 fowl, and if ob- 

 tainable in suffi- 

 cient quantity 

 would probably 



