62 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



Fig. i6,fc); its charmed product, "calamus root." Dried it is 

 often nibbled by school children, and it is candied by their 

 mothers, especially in New England, and served as a condi- 

 ment. 



There areanumber of other native "roots" of semi-aquatic 

 plants that were eaten by the aborigines. The biggest ' 'root' ' 



of all was the rhizome of the 

 spatter-dock — several feet long 

 and often six inches thick, 

 coarse and spongy, and full 

 of starch. The rootstocks of 

 the lotus and of several other 

 members of the water-lily fam- 

 ily are edible; also, the sub- 

 terranean offsets of the cat- 

 tail. These were and are fa- 

 vorite foods of the muskrat, 

 too. The red man ate also 

 the rootstocks of the arrow- 

 head and the underground stems of the false Solomon's 

 seal. Then if we count the exotic, cultivated peanut in its 

 pod a root crop, we shall have to count the native hog 

 peanut (Amphicarpcea monoica, Fig. 36), with its more 

 fleshy and root-like subterranean pod, also as one. 



It is a most interesting plant. It grows as a slender twining 

 vine oh low bushes in the edges of thickets. It produces pale 

 blue flowers in racemes along the upper part of the stem, 

 followed by small, beanlike pods. It de- 

 velops also scattered, colorless, self-fertil- 

 zing flowers on short branches at the sur- 

 face of the soil. These are very fertile. 

 They push into the soil and produce there 

 mostly one-seeded, roundish, fleshy pods 

 about half an inch in diameter. These 

 are the hog peanuts. 



Pig. 35. A portion of a vine of the 

 hog peanut, bearing both flowers and 

 seed pods. 



Fig. 36. The root 

 and the under- 

 ground "nuts" of 

 the hog peanut. 



