USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



up. If placed in fresh water, they would soon re- 

 vive. 



When they wanted to, Indians knew quite well 

 where to go for material for fishing lines and nets 



their knowledge of 

 wild plants packed 

 with useful fiber being 

 rather extensive. 

 One of the most 

 widely distributed of 

 these native fiber 

 plants is the so-called 

 Indian hemp (Apocy- 

 num cannabinum, L.), 

 an herbaceous peren- 

 nial with a smooth, 

 milky-juiced, woody 



INDIAN HEMP stem two to f our f eet 



(Apocynum cannabinum) ftgfr, and HlCOnSpicU- 



ous, greenish-white flowers producing very slender 

 seed-pods about four inches long. It is found in 

 thickets and dampish ground from Canada to 

 Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The 

 usual preliminary preparation as in the case of all 

 the wild fiber-plants, I believe was to rot the stems 

 by soaking them in water. After that the outer 



212 



