PARADISE KEY SAPPORD. 433 



Another coontie starch was obtained by the Florida Indians from 

 the roots of certain species of smilax, commonly called China brier, 

 but not specifically identical with the species described by Linnaeus 

 under the name &milax pseudo-china. Three species were in all prob- 

 ability used for this purpose : Smilax laurifolia., growing in swampy 

 places; the very similar Smilaxc lanceolata., growing in drier situa- 

 tions, and Smilax huHculata (pi. 6-1), growing in hammocks and on 

 coastal sand dunes. William Bartram has given the following de- 

 scription of the preparation of red koonti from the roots of smilax : 



They chop the roots in pieces, which are afterwards well pounded in a 

 wooden mortar, then, being mixed with clean water in a tray or trough, they 

 strain it througli baskets; the sediment, which settles to the bottom of the 

 second vessel, is afterwards dried in the open air, and is then a very fine, 

 reddish flour or meal ; a small quantity of this mixed with warm water and 

 sv/eetened with honey, when cool, becomes a beautiful, delicious jelly, very 

 nourishing and wholesome ; they also mix it with fine corn flour, which being 

 fried in fresh bear's oil makes very good hot cakes or fritters.^ 



Dr. John E. Swanton, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 has called attention to the fact that the name •' koonti," "' coonti," 

 or " conte," is etomologically identical with " kanta " of the Ala- 

 bama Indians now residing in Texas. His account follows : 



In the course of my investigations among the Alabama (Alibamu) of Texas, 

 I heard much of this plant, called by them A«,' nta, and obtained a specimen 

 of it, which Mr. Paul Standley of the National Museum has identified as 

 Smilax laiiceolata. It is evidently identical with a smilax that had been pre- 

 viously described to me as coonti by an old Creek Indian born in Alabama 

 before the removal of the Creeks, " a brier that climbed up on trees like a 

 vine." 



After repeating Bartram's account of the preparation of smilax 

 coontie as quoted above, he continues : 



Hawkins also says tlie China brier " is called coonte," and he describes the 

 way in which flour was extracted from it. It is therefore evident that at least 

 two species of smilax were known as coonti by the ancient Creeks, and since 

 the cycadaceous plant which now bears that name among the Florida Seminole 

 is confined to southern Florida, it is evident that it could have been used only 

 after the Seminole reached that country from the north. Originally it is 

 evident that the term must have been applied to several species of smilax 

 having large reddish roots.'' 



The roots of three species of smilax were tested for starch, at the 

 writer's request, by Dr. Henry Hasselbring, of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry: Smilax laurifolia^ S. lanceolata^ and S. auriculata. The 

 first showed no vestiges of starch, though this may have been because 

 the rootstocks were old and woody. The second contained starch, but 



^ Bartram, William, Travels through North and South Carolina, Geor^a, East and 

 West Florida, etc., p. 241. 1791. 

 2 American Anthropologist, vol. 15, pp. 141, 142. 1913. 



