February co, 1909 [ 5 



Upon the return of the expedition, the botanical specimens 

 together with the notes concerning them, were turned over to 

 Frederick Pursh, one of the foremost botanists of that time, who 

 described many of them as new in his Flora Americac Septen- 

 trionalis, published in 1K14, and among them the new genus and 

 species Lewisia rediviva, published in volume 2, page 368. 



In Lewis' notes it is stated that "the Indians eat the roots 

 of this." The following interesting note occurs in Torrey and 

 Gray, Fl. N. A. 1: 678: 



"The plant is called Spatulum or Spaefilum by the natives, 

 who gather the roots and employ them largely as an article of 

 food. The bark being stripped off, the white inner portion is 

 boiled in water, when it forms a substance similar to Salep or 

 boiled Arrow-root. The dead root, according to Nuttall, almost 

 dissolves into starch by maceration in cold water. The roots 

 are so tenacious of life, that specimens in Lewis's herbarium, as 

 Pursh records, showing some signs of vegetation, were planted 

 in a garden at Philadelphia, where they grew for a year; and 

 Douglas's specimens, treated in the same way, vegetated for a 

 short time in the garden of the London Horticultural Society." 



In Zoe \\\ 109, F. D. Kelsey writes as follows concerning 

 it as he found it on the main range of the Rocky mountains, 

 fifteen miles from Helena, Montana: 



"•Lewisia rediviva„ locally called l Bitter-root,' was bloom- 

 ing profusely. It is a portulaca, with linear fleshy leaves lying 

 flit on the ground in a perfect circle of 2 )■', to 3 I _> inches in di- 

 ameter. These leaves usually have disappeared by the time the 

 bloom appears, so that the flowers seem to lift their rosy colored 

 heads out of the bare, sandy plain. The bloom is wondrously 

 cheerv on a bright sunny morning. The roots are thick, cov- 

 ered with a deep red epidermis, and have a slightly bitter taste. 

 When dried and pounded into a meal they make a very nutri- 

 tious and acceptable diet, formerly much used by our Indians." 



One description, that in the Synoptical Flora, says "with a 

 thick and perpendicular fleshy" root. Other descriptions merely 

 state that they are thick and fleshv, which is better, judging 



