60 
improper feeding in infancy, the consumption of food not pro- 
perly cooked, a misuse of inferior baking powders and an excessive 
use of coffee and alcoholic liquors. 
The various plants mentioned in this rather brief survey of the 
vegetable foods of American Indians indicate the kinds of plants 
useful to the Indians as food. Necessity compelled the Indian 
to utilize every plant that could supply food. Yet the Indian 
was making progress in the art of agriculture, in fact in the high- 
lands of Mexico and South America the art was rather definite 
and specialized. In the domestication of various plants, espe- 
cially corn, agave, and beans, the Indian has perhaps contributed 
o the civilization of the world than he has thus far received 
from it. 
A. B. Stout 
REPORT ON A COLLECTING TRIP TO GEORGIA AND 
FLORIDA* 
The visit to the south was undertaken in part for the purpose of 
attending the annual meetings of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science and the Botanical Society of 
America, which were held in Atlanta, Georgia, December 29, 
1913, to January 1, 1914. After the close of these meetings I 
remained in the south for two weeks for a little botanical exploring 
in Georgia and Florida, going first to Gainesville, Georgia, which 
is about fifty miles northeast of Atlanta, and thence to Jefferson, 
Athens, and Augusta, in Georgia, and finally to Cedar Keys, in 
Florida. Since undertaking to write an account of the Ricciaceae 
for the ‘“‘North American Flora,” the region between Jefferson 
and Gainesville has had peculiar attractions as the type locality 
. Riccia Beyrichiana, a species collected in August, 1833, by a 
man botanical traveler, Heinrich Karl Beyrich, between 
ae and Gainesv: oe “North America.” The species was 
published in 1838 by Lehmann and Lindenberg, who adopted 
manuscript name of renee s, and since that time the species 
ted } £, fth 4 5 f +t 
New York Botanical 
* Pp. 
Garden, February 4, 1914. 
