112 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. [ Dec. 8, 
and dried, and then being pounded into flour, will make good bread ; 
or else while they are green they are to be pared, cut in pieces and 
stamped ; loaves of the same to be laid near or over the fire until sour, 
and then being well pounded again, bread or spoon-meat, very good in 
taste and very wholesome, may be made thereof.” 
Captain John Smith’s Virginia, 1606, says :—“‘ The chief root they 
(the Indians) have for food is called loc-ka-whough. It grows in the 
marshes * * and is much of the greatness and taste of potatoes. 
* * Raw, it is no better than poison, and being roasted, except it be 
tender and the heat abated, mixed with sorrel or meal, it will prick 
and torment the throat extremely ; yet in summer they use this ordi- 
narily for bread.” Carver’s Travels in North America, 1766, says: 
“Wake Robin is an herb that grows in swampy lands, its root resembles 
a small turnip and, if tasted, will greatly inflame the tongue, and imme- 
diately convert it from its natural shape into a round hard substance ; 
but when dried it looses its astringent quality and becomes beneficial 
to mankind.” 
“Taw-ho and taw-him,” wrote Kalm, “is the Indian name of a 
plant the root of which they eat. * * Some call it tuc-kah. The 
roots are reckoned poison in a fresh state, * * but when prepared 
(by roasting) taste like potatoes. * * This taw-ho is the Arum 
Virginicum, or Virginian wake-robin, and seems to be the same plant 
the Indians in Carolina call tuc-ka-hoo. * * A stranger from 
Carolina gave Mr. John Bartram the following description of tuc-ka- 
hoo :—‘It grows in swamps, marshes and woods, and the Indians in 
Carolina, in their rambles, gather the roots, dry them in the sunshine, 
grind and bake bread of them. While the root is fresh it is harsh and 
acrid, but being dried it loses its acrimony.’ To judge by these qual- 
ities the tuc-ka-hoo may very likely be the Arum Virginicum. * * 
The Indians are very fond of turnips and call them sometimes hop-nis, 
sometimes kat-nis. * * Throughout the summer before the Swedes 
came, their hopnis or the roots of Glycine apious, their katnis or roots 
of Sagtttarta sagittifolia, their tawho or roots of Arum Virginicum, 
‘ 
their tawkee or Ovrontium aguaticum, and whortleberries, were their 
chief food.” 
The above accounts of the old writers are conclusive, that the 
aboriginal inhabitants of Virginia and Pennsylvania used Arum Virgi- 
nicum as a material for bread. The variation of 4. Virginicum and 
A. triphyllum, is so trifling that some authorities class them as one. 
The great aboriginal water communication between Lake Ontario and 
the Atlantic was through the Seneca country to the Susquehanna river ; 
