382 Inland Water Culture 



without it. Wild rice is but another cereal grain, tho 

 an excellent one. We already have garden roots in 

 great variety of sorts that we prize more highly than 

 we do these wild aquatics. The white water lily will 

 be cultivated in the future for its beautiful flowers 

 rather than for its edible tubers. 



FIG. 229. The white water lily, Castalia odorata. 



The animal products of the water are more important. 

 Aquatic molluscs, crustaceans, and vertebrates have 

 ever furnished staple foods. Tho fresh water molluscs 

 are no longer eaten, immense accumulations of their 

 shells along some of our inland waterways bear silent 

 testimony to the extent to which they were once con- 

 sumed by the aborigines. Their shells also served 

 other primeval uses, as cups and as scrapers. In our 

 own day a new and important use has been found for 

 them in the manufacture of pearl buttons and orna- 



