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Remarks upon East Florida. ~~ 59 
the symmetry of a boy’s top. The leaves are large and fern-like, © 
forming, when the seed-bud is in its fullness, a handsome plant. 
Both of these roots are grated or bruised by the Indians, and 
the starch separated, by frequent changes of water, from the 
fibrous or woody parts, as also, in the white coonta, from a poison- 
ous quality which is-combined with it in its natural state. The 
flour of the latter has the look and feel of arrow-root, and is 
equally nutritious and well suited to weak stomachs. The flour 
of the China-briar is of a reddish hue, and more easily obtained 
than the white coonta. 
These two important articles of food are found in abundance, 
the one or the other, in most parts of southern Florida; the 
China-briar in nearly all the hammocks, and the Zamia in most 
of the barrens along the coast lagoons. 'Thousands could subsist 
upon them, with only the labor necessary to gather the roots and 
prepare the flour. Previous to the war, one or two persons 
were established near Cape Florida, who manufactured the white 
coonta in large quantities for shipment. Medical men ae pre- 
fer it, for hospital purposes, to the arrow-root. 
The palmetto is often called the’ cabbage-tree, from i its contain- 
_ ing anil substance within its top, which somewhat resembles 
bage—more in look, however, than in taste, which is not 
e that of araw chestnut. Where the fan-shaped leaves of 
us. beautiful tree put out at the top, is found infolded a pith, 
ing about one third the diameter of the trunk, and about 
or fifteen inches long, which is of an eatable quality, par- 
pres when boiled, or preserved as a pickle. It is true, a 
tree some half-century old might be sacrificed to the attainment 
of a single meal; but these trees are abundant, and no doubt 
have often afforded one to a roving dnliony: who sat down hungry 
beneath their shade. 
But the- necessities of the war now going on, ave opetied a 
new resource to the Indians, or which, at least, does not appear 
to have been used by them in more sbrissiceest times. This is 
found in the root of the saw-palmetto, a singular species of most 
common vegetation in Florida, which overspreads nearly every 
pine-barren, covering it like a vast reticulated carpet. In passin 
over these barrens, the palmetto leaf is seen shooting up from. 
ground in great luxuriance, forming, as is found on close inspec- 
tion, the termination of a recumbent cabbage-tree, several feet 
