MISCELLANEOUS NUTS. 267 



than six to eight inches high. Wlien the scattered seed 

 sprout in spring, they send down a long, slender, thread- 

 like rootstock, to a depth of from four to six inches, and 

 at the bottom of this the small tuber is produced. It 

 has a somewhat pungent taste, but this only whets the 

 appetite of a boy when on a hunt for ground nuts. 



Geoundnut. — The tubers of one of the most widely 

 distributed climbing plants of the Eastern States, and 

 ■common in low, wet grounds almost eyerywhere, from 

 Canada to Florida, and westward to the Mississippi.. 

 This plant is described in most of the botanical works 

 of the present day under the name of Apios tuierosa, 

 and it belongs to the Pulse family {Leguminosm), and 

 is closely related to the common and well-known wista- 

 rias, although much smaller and of a more slender habit. 

 It is a smooth, perennial, twining vine, with pmnate 

 leaves, and dense racemes or clusters of small brownish- 

 purple pea-shaped flowers. The subterranean rootstocks 

 bear long strings of edible tubers, from one to two inches 

 long, and from an inch to an inch and a half in diam- 

 eter, somewhat variable in shape, dark brown on the 

 outside, but white within. When boiled or roasted 

 these tubers have a rich, farinaceous, nutty flavor. 

 This tuber or groundnut is the one described by Mr. 

 Thomas Herriot, the historiographer of Sir Walter 

 Ealeigh's expedition to Virginia in 1585, under the In- 

 dian name of "Openawk." He says: "These roots 

 are round, some as large as walnuts, others much larger ; 

 they grow in damp soil, many hanging together, as fixed 

 on ropes ; they are good food, either boiled or roasted. " 

 These tubers are to be found in the swamps and damp 

 soils of Virginia at this day, just as they were at the 

 time of Her riot's visit, but many modern historians have 

 tried to make out that Ealeigh's colonists found our 

 common potato among the Indians at that time, although 

 I have never been able to find a scrap of trustwortliy his- 



