FOOD AND FIBER PLANTS OF THE INDIANS. 39 



grows abundantly, but only as a bush. In such cases, however, the 

 roots are of large size, of jjeculiarly dense texture, and furnish an ex- 

 cellent fuel. The fruit of the mesquite is a yellow, bean-like pod, 

 six to eight inches in length, by one half an inch wide. In this there 

 are numerous hard, dark seeds, and between them a considerable quan- 

 tity of a yellow, farinaceous substance, sweet and agreeable to the 

 taste. Where the tree abounds these pods are eaten by all herbivorous 

 animals, and in certain localities they serve as subsistence for human 

 beings. In the Mohave Valley, on the Colorado River, we found In- 

 dians making considerable use of the fruit of the mesquite for food. 

 The pods were pounded, together in a kind of rude mortar, the seeds 

 and husks imperfectly separated, and the farinaceous substance made 

 into a kind of cake. This closely resembled a preparation of yellow 

 corn-meal, and tasted a little like it. 



Nelumhium lutemn (water-chinquapin). This beautiful plant is 

 found in comparatively few localities, and it therefore can not be re- 

 garded as an important source of food-supjjly ; but the filbert-like 

 nuts which are contained in its discoid receptacles, and which have 

 given it its common name, are eatable, and have always been valued 

 by the Indians. The Nelumhium is most abundant in the western 

 part of Lake Erie, especially about the mouth of the Maumee River. 

 It also grows on the islands in that lake, in Lake Winnebago, in the 

 Ohio at North Bend, Sodus Bay, New Yoi-k, Seldon's Cove on the Con- 

 necticut, and in the Delaware. In many of these localities it is sup- 

 posed to have been planted by the Indians. This is the finest of our 

 North American water-lilies, and it may be at once recognized by its 

 large peltate leaves, and its flowers, six inches in diameter, greenish- 

 yellow in color, often with a flush of red. 



Our plant is closely allied to N. speciositm, which grows spontane- 

 ously in India, and, like the papyrus, was formerly cultivated on the 

 Nile, but is not now found in Egypt. This is sometimes called the 

 lotus, but the true lotus was a Nymphcea {N. lotus), a species very 

 much like our white water-lily (N. odorota)* 



Wild rice {Zizania aquatica). This plant, though very widely 



* Both the white water-lily, the true lotus, and a blue one (Nymphcea ccerulea) ffcow 

 abundantly in the delta of the Nile, and were highly esteemed by the flower-loving 

 Egyptians. They were used by them to decorate the tables in their feasts, and as crowns 

 and garlands for the guests. They also formed a conspicuous feature in their offerings 

 to the gods, and at funeral ceremonies. 



There is considerable difference of opinion among scholars as to the identity of the 

 plant which bore the fruit said by Homer in the " Odyssey " to have been offered to 

 Ulysses in North Africa, and reputed to have the peculiar property of making those who 

 ate of it forget home and country. It certainly was not the Indian nor the Egyptian 

 water-lily, for Herodotus has described them both ; but it was probably the fruit of Zizi- 

 phus lotus, a small tree which grows in Barbary. This is something like a date or plum 

 in appearance, has a delicious flavor, and the Arabian poets ascribe to it a lethal influ- 

 ence similar to that felt by Homer's lolophagoi. 



