400 Mr. Cutler's Account of indigenous Vegetables, 



These natives were, likewise, possessed of the art of dyeing 

 deep and most permanent black, red and yellow colours. These 

 colours were given to bone, horn, porcupine quills and other 

 hard substances, which still appear, unimpaired, on some of their 

 ornaments and utensils. The Spaniards are said to have procur- 

 ed from the Californian Indians, the art of dyeing the best black 

 ever yet known. The plant they employ in this dye is called 

 the cascalote, a small shrub, which abounds in that country, 

 and may probably be found within the limits of the United 

 States. 



However desirable the knowledge of our vegetable produc- 

 tions may be, our progress must be slow, until men, versed in 

 this science, can devote their time to the investigation of them. 

 Some advances may be made by individuals collecting the pro- 

 ductions of their own neighbourhood, and transmitting accounts 

 of them, from time to time, to the Academy. How much a 

 correspondence of this kind has done, in perfecting the history 

 of the British plants, will appear from the numerous botanical 

 papers published in the transactions of the Royal Society. 



As there has never been a description given of the indigenous 

 plants in this part of the country, and it being one of the ends 

 of the institution of this Academy to promote the knowledge 

 of natural history, I take the liberty of communicating an ac- 

 count of some of those which have fallen under my observation. 

 They are arranged according to the Linncean system ; and the 

 generic characters, where they were found to correspond; are re- 

 ferred to Linncsus's description in the fifth edition of his Genera 

 Plantarum: The characters of the species, where there was an 

 agreement, are taken from the tenth edition of the Systema 

 Naturce. A few synonyms from other authors are given, and 



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