106 WILD RICE. 



by other botanists, z. clavtJBa — I shall prefer the 

 first name as most characreristic. It has been 

 well described by Mr. Lambert, as 



Zizania panicula inferiie racemosa superne spi- 

 cata. Pursh represents it as a perennial plant ; 

 Nuttall and Micliaux are silent on this point, and 

 Eaton says it is an annual, in which opinion I 

 concur. 



Mr. Lambert, in a communication in the 7th 

 volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean Soci- 

 ety of London, has given a figure of this plant, as 

 growing at Spring Grove, the seat of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, in England. It appears that Sir Joseph 

 received some of the seed, gathered in a lake, in 

 Canada, and put up in jars of water. It was 

 sown in a pond at Spring grove, where he has a 

 great quantity of the plant, growing annually, 

 ripening its seeds extremely well in autumn, and 

 sowing itself round the edges. 



By what I can learn, this same plant grows in 

 Lake George, and Lake Champiain, and in all 

 the Western Lakes. It produces seed in some 

 places in September, and in others in October. 

 It grows in shallow water, and sometimes to the 

 heighth of eight feet. Some of the western 

 Indians derive their principal support from it. 

 The grain it bears is superior to the common 

 ricCj and if cut before ripe, it makes excellent 



