62 



XATl'RAL HISTORY oF THE FARM 



Fig. 16.6); its chaniu'il ])r()iluct, "calamus root." Dried it is 

 often nibbled by school children, and it is candied by their 

 mothers, es]M'(iall\- in Xcw Eni^land. and ser\'ed as a condi- 

 ment. 



There area number of other native "roots" of semi-aquatic 

 plants tliat were eaten by the aborigines. The bij^'gest ' 'root" 



of all was the rhizome of the 

 spatter-dock — several feet long 

 and often six inches thick, 

 coarse and spongy, and full 

 of starch. The rootstocks of 

 the lotus and of several other 

 members of the water-lily fam- 

 ily are edible; also, the sub- 

 terranean offsets of the cat- 

 tail. These were and are fa- 

 vorite foods of the muslvrat, 

 too. The red man ate also 

 the rootstocks of the arrow- 

 head and the underground stems of the false Solomon's 

 seal. Then if we count the exotic, cultivated peanut in its 

 pod a root crop, we shall have to count the native hog 

 peanut (Amphicarpcea moiwica, Fig. 36), with its more 

 fleshy and root-like subterranean pod, also as one. 



It is a most interesting plant. It grows as a slender t\vining 

 vine on low bushes in the edges of thickets. It produces pale 

 blue flowers in racemes along the upper ]3art of the stem, 

 followed by small, beanlike pods. It de- 

 velops also scattered, colorless, self-fertil- 

 zing flowers on short branches at the sur- 

 face of the soil. These are very fertile. 

 They push into the soil and ])roduce there 

 mosth' one-seeded, roundish, fleshy pods 

 about half an inch in diameter. These 

 are the hog i)eanuts. 



Fig. 3.">. A portion of a vine of the 

 hog peanut, bearing both flowers and 

 seed pods. 



Fig. 3G. The root 

 and the under- 

 ground "nuts"' of 

 the hog peanut. 



