FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 428 
Palmetio, (Sabal.)\—The Indians remaining in the Southern States, and 
the negroes, use as an article of food the embryo leaves of the palmetto, 
mec are cut out of the top of the young plant, and boiled like a cab- 
age. 
Sorrei, (Rwmex.)—The leaf stalks of a species of rumex, or wild rhu- 
barb, are much eaten by the Indians of Alaska. ~ 
Dandelion, (Taraxacum dens-leonis.)—The leaves of this plant are eaten 
raw or cooked by the Diggers of California and the Apaches of Arizona, 
who travel over a wide scope of country to find sufficient food to ap- 
pease their appetite. So great is their love for this plant, that the quan- 
tity consumed by one person exceeds belief. 
Clover, (Trifolium.\—This is eaten, cooked or raw, by the Diggers of 
California and Apaches of Arizona. The former tribe cook it by heat- 
ing large stones and placing a layer of clover, well moistened, between 
. the layers of stones. This attempt to adapt the food of ruminating ani- 
mals to human wants involves the necessity of consuming it in very 
great quantities. Sometimes young onions and common grass are thus 
cooked with clover. The Apaches boil clover, young grass, dandelions, 
and pigweed together in a water-tight basket, heated rocks being put in 
and removed as they become cooled, until the mass is cooked. Where 
this vlover is found growing wild, the Indians practice a sort of semi- 
cultivation by irrigating it and harvesting. 
Stramonium or Jamestown weed, (Datura metel, D. siramonium.)—The 
first-named species grows abundantly on the Colorado River, in Arizona. 
The Mohaves g gather the leaves and roots, bruise and mix them with 
water, and after being allowed to stand several hours the liquid is drawn 
off. It is a highly narcotic drink, producing a stupefying effect which 
it is not very easy to remove. The Mohaves will often drink this nause- 
ous liquid, as they are fond of any kind of intoxication. . 
Honey.—The Winnebago and other tribes of the Indian Territory, 
near the borders of Texas, gather large supplies of wild honey, which 
is very abundant and much ‘esteemed. 
Bent grass, (Arundo phragmites.)—This species of reed, which grows 
abundantly around St. Thomas, in Southern Utah, during the summer 
months, produces a kind of white, sweet gum. The Utah Indians cut 
down the reeds and lay them in piles on blankets or hides, and let them 
remain for a short time to wilt, when the bundles are beaten with rods 
to release the gum. The small particles so detached. are pressed into 
balls, to be eaten at pleasure. It is a sweet, manna-like substance. 
Tuckahoe or Indian head, (Lycoperdon solidum.)—Two specimens of 
this fungus are in the collection of the Department of Agriculture—one 
from Nottoway County, Virginia, (Fig. 1, Plate 10,)-and the other from 
Leroy, Kansas, (Fig. 2, Plate 10.) These singular fungous growths are 
- Subterranean and parasitic on roots of large “trees. A piece of root is 
often inclosed in the mass. The form is ir regularly globose, about the 
sizeof a man’s head. It is very rugous, and filled with cracks; the color 
externally is ashy black; in the interior, white, or nearly so, of a starchy 
appearance, very firm, and breaks into irregular masses. The Kansas 
specimen is rounded i in shape, with a black, “rough exterior, and a white 
and compact interior. When broken it had the appearance of a mass 
of dried dough, full of fissures and very granular. Booth and Morfit’s 
Cyclopedia of Chemistry gives the following under the article of Pic- 
quotaine: “A highly nutritious plant, nsed as food by Indians. It re- 
sults from a disease of the Psoralea esculenta. its composition is as fol- 
lows: Nitrogenous matter, 4.09; mineral substances, 1.61; starch, $1.80; 
