9] 8 report— 1884. 



4. Recent Excavations in Pen Pits, Somersetshire. 

 By the Rev. H. H. Winwood. 



The author described the position of these pits, of which there are a large 

 number, and which cover some 700 acres. Some are oval, some round, and some 

 long, and their depths are various. The question to be decided was whether these 

 pits were ancient dwellings, or merely quarries, and the author described the 

 process of exploration in detail, and brought forward evidence to show that the 

 pits were sunk for the purpose of obtaining stone for building, and for grindstones, 

 a large number of which have from time to time been dug up, and are now to be 

 seen in the neighbourhood. 



5. On some doubtful or intermediate Articulations. By Horatio Hall. 



6- On Food Plants used by the North American Indians. 

 By Professor Geoege Lawson, Ph.D., LL.D., F.I.O., F.B.8.0. 



A knowledge of the distribution of the spontaneous plants capable of supplying 

 the wants of the aborigines is not unimportant in connection with anthropological 

 research, especially in regard to the range of tribes, whether stationary or migra- 

 tory, whilst the possession by some of the tribes of cultivated plants foreign to the 

 countries they inhabit affords evidence that may be made available in tracing their 

 origin and migrations, or ascertaining their past relations to other tribes. What 

 little we do know of their primitive modes of cultivation excites a desire to ascer- 

 tain more of a phase of agriculture which leads us back to its very beginnings. 

 The prevalence of wild fruits over the more or less wooded portions of North 

 America, of which numerous examples were cited, would afford even the improvi- 

 dent tribes a copious supply of healthy summer and autumn food to supplement 

 their fish and flesh diet ; their constant recurrence to such sources of supply would 

 lead them to a knowledge of the poisonous properties and powerful physiological 

 action of many native plants. 



In the Old World, the Leguminosce are known as economical plants, chiefly on 

 account of their seeds; in America the roots of several are edible. Psoralen 

 esculenta is the pomme blanche and pomme de prairie of the western voyageurs, 

 who derived their knowledge of its qualities from the Indians. Amphicarpcpa 

 monoica forms subterranean pods containing a single large seed. Apios tuberosa 

 is the wild potato, ' Sgabun ' of the Micmac Indians, the root of which is graphi- 

 cally described by an early writer as like a series of hens' eggs on a string. It 

 appears to have been one of the most important food plants of the Micmacs before 

 the advent of Europeans, and gave its name to the place in Nova Scotia called 

 Shubenacadie (sgabun acadie) ; 1 but, although at one time abundant, it is not 

 known there now, nor is there any tradition of its ever having been cidtivated by 

 the aborigines. One other leguminous plant is well known to have been not only used 

 but also cultivated by the Indians, but chiefly in the south, the kidney bean 

 (Pkasceolus), of which Columbus found planted fields in Cuba ; also ' many things 

 of the country, and calabazas, a glorious sight ! ' These beans were also found 

 cultivated by the Indians in Florida in 1528, and about the regions now known 

 as New Mexico and Sonora, in 1535. De Soto found fields of maize, beans, and 

 pumpkins near Tampa Bay ; and at Caligoa (west of the Mississippi) ' beans and 

 pumpkins were in great plenty.' Cartier (1534) found in the north — Bay of 

 Gaspe — abundance of maize and beans, which must have been carried from the far 

 south and west. Father Sagard (1625) also mentions the cultivation of beans 

 (fezolles) by the Indians in the Huron country; the Hurons used a third or 

 quarter part of these in their ' succotash.' Lescarbot describes the planting of the 

 corn (maize) by the Indians of Maine in hills, ' and between the kernels of corn 

 they plant beans with various colours, which are very delicate; these, because 

 they are not so high as the corn, grow very well among it.' Lawson, in his voyage 

 to Carolina (1700-1708), says the kidney beans were here before the English came, 



1 Sgabun = potato. Acadie = plenty here. 



