96 Selections from the Correspondence of 



besides its agreeing in all its parts of the flower with the charac- 

 ters of that class, it agrees likewise in taste, having nearly the 

 same with that of the Nasturtium. The Mohawk Indians told 

 me that when they were quite faint with travel and fasting, if 

 they can come at the roots of this plant to eat, they are refreshed, 

 and their spirits restored wonderfully. Add to the character I 

 gave what follows : Radix longa, teres, repens, prominentiis plu- 

 rimis angulosis.* 



What I wrote to you of the species of the Zea semine nudo, I 

 believe is entirely a mistake ; for having some of these seeds, the 

 plants which came from them produced seeds covered with a hard 

 skin, as the other sorts are. I suspect some artifice was used to 

 deceive me. Whatever Tournefort may say, I cannot doubt of 

 these being distinct species of the Maize, notwithstanding that 

 they cannot be distinguished either by the leaf or flower. But 

 we that are well acquainted with the seed can distinguish the 

 species, though it be very difficult to convey that distinction by 

 words only to others. Sow the several species in the same soil 

 and at the same time, they will come to ripeness at very different 

 seasons in the year ; and this property they never change, unless 

 when sown together so that they bastardize. 



This brings to my mind a thought which I have entertained, 

 viz. that we have in America very few if any species of plants 

 or animals entirely the same with those in Europe, except such 

 as have been brought from thence : although some species are 

 so nearly alike that it is difficult to describe the difference by 

 words ; though it be manifest to a curious observer. 



If I, who understand so little of botany, were permitted to ad- 

 vise, I should propose the plants to be collected into their natural 

 order or classes without regard to any system ; after which I 

 would make a system by which the same plants should be dis- 

 posed according to the rules of that system, with the view only 

 to assist learners or the ignorant to discover the proper name or 

 place of each plant. And in this I would have no regard to the 

 natural system, but even divide and separate the species of the 

 same genus into different classes, if the rules of my system re- 

 quired it ; for I would have this system to be looked on as noth- 

 ing else but as an index to discover the plant one desires to find 



* The plant is doubtless the Dentaria diphyUa. — A. G. 



