A MEADOW MUD-HOLE. I5I 



Gray gives as the range of the American spe- 

 cies the " waters of the Western and Southern 

 States ; rare in the Middle States ; introduced 

 into the Delaware below Philadelphia." Intro- 

 duced by whom ? The Indians are said to have 

 carried it to the Connecticut Valley, where it still 

 flourishes in circumscribed localities, and this I 

 find is the impression in southern New Jersey 

 and in the neighborhood of a little lake in the 

 northern part of the State, where also the native 

 lotus is found growing, but I have not yet found 

 a positive statement to that effect. Rafmesque 

 in 1830 remarked, "As it is scarce in the At- 

 lantic States, it is said to have been planted in 

 some ponds by the Indians." 



The fact that the Southern and Western Indi- 

 ans valued the plant is significant. Nuttall re- 

 cords that " the Osages and other Western na- 

 tives employ the roots of this plant, which is of 

 common occurrence, for food, preparing them by 

 boiling. When fully ripe, after a considerable 

 boiling they become as farinaceous, agreeable, 

 and wholesome as the potato. This same spe- 

 cies ... is everywhere made use of by the na- 

 tives, who collect both the nuts and the roots." 



Early in the century it was growing in the 



meadows of the Delaware below Philadelphia, 



and Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton considered it 



indigenous. He says also that " efforts at cul- 



ii 



