aiLMOBE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 95 



various tribes in eastern North America, and not a few Europeans 

 had recourse to it also for food. 

 Le Jeune says : 



They eat, besides, roots, sucli as bulbs of the red lily ; a root which lias a 

 taste of licorice; another that our Frem-h people call " Uosary," because it is 

 distinguished by tuliers in the form of bends: and some others.' 



The Swedish botanist, Peter Kahn, in his journal, says: 



Hopniss, or Hapniss. was the Indian name of a wild plant which they ate. . . . 

 The Swedes in New .Jersey and Pennsylvania still call it by that name, and 

 it grows in the meadows in a good soil. The roots resemble potatoes, and 

 were boiled by the Indian.s. . . . Mr. Bartram told me tliat tlie Indians who 

 live farther in the country do not only eut these roots, which are equal in good- 

 ne.ss to potatoes, lint likewise take the peas which lie in the pods of this plant 

 and prepare them like conmion peas.' 



Falcata COMOSA (L.) Kuntze. Ground Bean. (PI. 18.) 



Maka ta omnicha., or o^mnichn (Dakota), "jrround beans" (ninl-a^ 

 ground; •o^mnicha., beans; ta^ genitive sign). 



Hv'hthl-dbe ( Omaha -Ponca), "beans"; hi"hthi-hi, bean-vines. 



Uoni^h-'hm'je (Winnebago) . 



Ati-huraru (Pawnee), "ground beans" {at'd^ beans; uraru, earth, 

 ground; ki(, genitive sign). 



Falcata grows in dense masses of vines over shrubbery and otiier 

 vegetation in some places, especially along banks and the edge of 

 timber. It forms two kinds of branches, bearing two forms of 

 flower, producing two different fruits. Leafy branches climb over 

 siirubbery, but under these, in the sliade, prostrate on the eartii, start- 

 ing out from tlie base of the main stem, are leafless, colorless brandies, 

 forming a network on the surface of the ground. On the.se colorless, 

 leafless branches cleistogamous flowers form, which pu.sh into the 

 earth and there produce each a single bean closely invested by a 

 membranaceous jjod. Each of these beans is fi'om 10 mm. to 17 mm. 

 in long diameter, inclined to be flat, and from 5 mm. to 10 mm. 

 thick. The pods produced from the petaliferous flowers on tlie 

 upper leafy branches of the vine are 15 mm. to 20 nun. long and 

 contain four or five dark, mottled^ diminutive beans alx)ut the size 

 of lentils. No attention is paid to these small aerial beans, but the 

 large subterranean beans were eagerly sought as an article of food 

 on account of their agreeable taste and nutritive value. From these 

 qualities they contributed a considerable item in tiie dietary of the 

 tribes. 



Voles dig them and garner them into hoards of a pint or more in 

 a place, and the women would appropriate part of the voles' stores 



1 Le Jeune's " Relation," In Jemit Relations, vol. vi, p. 273. 



= Peter Kalm, Travels into North America, vol. i, pp. 385-386. 



