50 
of this shrub, including specimens of F. Fortunei, F. viridissima, 
and the hybrid, F. intermedia. The accompanying illustration 
depicts a part of this group. Here the three kinds ma 
studied, and a comparison made of their ae a 
differences. : 
GEoRGE V. Nas 
VEGETABLE FOODS OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS* 
The name “American Indians” is a collective term applied 
since the time of the discovery of America to the various native 
tribes inhabiting North and South America and to their de- 
scendants. 
A Saas at a map of the world reminds us that the area 
inhabited by the Indian was extensive. In some regions the 
population was sparse, in others it was dense. The population 
numbered at the time of the discovery about 25,000,000 
The vegetable foods of these people taken collectively were as 
diverse in respect to the particular plants used as is the flora of 
the two continents. In the northern parts of North America, 
food plants are rare and the Esquimo was compelled to subsist 
largely on animal food. We may say that the food of the Indians 
inhabiting the northern half of North America was three quarters 
animal. On the other hand, the food of the Indians of southern 
United States was three quarters vegetable 
Through the tropics aae specially in the uplands of Mexico 
and Peru the food was principally from vegetable sources. Food 
products were obtained from cultivated plants and from wild 
cultivation of plants for food reached the highest 
stage of development in the highlands of Peru and Mexico and 
the principal cultivated plants native of the New World origi- 
ted in thes 
oe most aes! cultivated plant was maize. The Span- 
iards found the various tribes in the uplands of Mexico and South 
America cultivating this plant on a considerable scale. The 
* Abstract of a lecture delivered at the New York Botanical Garden on Novem- 
ber I, 1913. 
