
          The tubers start out a  [?] quantity of [?]
 fibres which form a sort of archwork beneath the 
 water in the deep mud. They are easily propagated,
 and have been established in several counties
 adjacent to Philadelphia as Chester, Bucks, & c.
 and in New Jersey, where they thrive well.
 Mr Townsend [Sharplies?], merchant of Philadelphia
 first called my attention to this really
 significant and stately plant and flower. It is
 found in the creeks and pools below the city,
 upon the estate owned by Lord Ashburton. It is
 not indigenous, but I have been unable to account
 for its first growth there in a wholly satisfactory
 manner. Some assert that Bartram more than
 sixty years since, brought it from Florida and
 planted here both the roots and the seeds.
 Again others assert traditional knowledge quite different,
 attempting to convince the eager inquirer that it
 originated in ballast thrown out from a vessel
 which arrived at an equally remote period from 
 Calcutta. Others again declare that a vessel from
 the Nile bore the seeds and cast them with other
 refuse at chance upon the shores of the Delaware
 near it present habitat.


 I have set [?] to hasten time upon clearing of
 this [?] [?] which I think capable of 
 elucidation through [?] inquiry.

        