468 [Assembly 



Mr. Lamare Picquot, of Bayeux, already honorably known as a dis- 

 tinguished naturalist collector, during his travels in 1846 he met 

 with a tribe of Indians, by whom he was at first well received. He 

 found that these savages had in use for their winter hunting, a kind of 

 root on which they chiefly subsisted ; this root is pulled up and eaten 

 without any preparation whatever. Mr. Picquot began to collect these 

 roots and the seeds of the plants. On his return to Paris he asked for 

 a committee to examine these tubers and seeds. The minister invited 

 the central society of agriculture to take up the question. The soci- 

 ety appointed Messrs. x\dam Brongniart, Gasparin and Payen members 

 also of the academy of sciences. The great caution observed by Mr. 

 Picquot in concealing this discovery excited some prejudices against 

 him. The country which produces them is situated in the same lati- 

 tude as parts of France. Mons. Brongniart declares that this Ameri- 

 can'plant is altogether unknown in Europe, and the chemical analysis 

 rigidly made by Mons. Payen demonstrates its composition to be • 



Bark and woody fibre, 28 . 32 



Fibred and woody centre, 4 .47 



Alimentary farinaceous matter, 67.21. 



Wheat when ground yields 77 per cent. 



Potato hardly gives 33 per cent ; not half as much as this root 

 Tyread of the savages. 



Mr. Picquot calls this root Artorize, from the Greek words artos^ 

 bread, and riza, root. The tubers are about the size of ordinary hen's 

 eggs. The stems and leaves grow about as high and large as Lucerncj 

 the flowers are papilionaceus, (butterfly like,) and the seed is of a 

 pearly color. It ought to be sown in drills about four inches apart. 



January 1850. 

 La Korniandie Agricoh^ 1848. — This periodical, which merits dis- 

 tinction for tlie accuracy of its statements, is one of those given to the 

 Institute by Alexandre Vattemare. 



On the subject of railch cows, the following appears in the pam 

 pblet. 



