VEGETABLE PRODUCTS USED BY NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 91 
are much less subject to starvation and the uncertain privations of a savage 
hfe, and some of them excel in the cultivation of the plant, their potatoes bring¬ 
ing from the whites a higher price than any other. On Queen Charlotte’s Is¬ 
lands is held a sort of regular “ potato fair” every year, when tribes from all 
parts come to buy in exchange for the products of their countries and industries. 
Some of them have strange notions of the best method of cultivation. I once 
lived in an Indian village for some days, where, regularly every morning, as the 
squaws were lighting the lodge fires, and preparing the morning meal, the old 
chief would solemnly stalk through the village shouting in a stentorian voice, 
“ Eat the little potatoes, keep the big ones for seed! Eat the little potatoes, keep 
the big ones for seed !” The bulbs or roots of Lilium Canadense , L., Brodiea gran- 
dijlora , Sm., and Endosmia Gardneri, Hook. (S’hah-gok of the Nisqually Indians), 
are all eaten in the parts of the country where they are found. The roots of Eulo- 
plnis ambiguus , Nutt., are pulverized and baked into bread. Every where among, 
the aborigines in Vancouver Island and the neighbouring country, the roots of 
the ordinary Pteris aquilina , L. (Slee-ukof the Tsongeisth), is boiled and eaten as 
food; they look upon them as a great luxury. This food is no doubt nourishing, as 
the roots contain a considerable amount of starch. The writer of these memo¬ 
randa well remembers when starving in a great north-western forest, and expect¬ 
ing every sun to be his last, how anxiously lie and his companions sought, but 
sought in vain, for the bracken roots! The root of Peucedanum foeniculaceum , 
Nutt.', is also eaten, and by some the roots of Aquilegia Canadensis , L.,* * * § Ery- 
thronium grandiflorum , Pursh,f Fritillaria lanceolata, Pursh, Allium (Cana - 
dense , L., and A. reticulata , Nutt.) mixed with other food, etc. Douglas 
says that the root of Lupinus littoralis , Dougl., are eaten by the Indians near 
the mouth of the Columbia river (Chenooks). I have never known them do so, 
but I have seen the natives at the same place eat the roots of -Abronia arenaria , 
Mennz., which he might have mistaken for the former plant.J Some of the 
miserable tribes in California, eat the roots of the tide§ ( Scirpus lacustris , L.),. 
which chokes up the lakes and swampy lands of some portions of Southern Oregon 
and California. Among the plants eaten by the Kootanie, Colville, and other 
tribes in that part of British Columbia and Washington territory, is the beau¬ 
tiful Lewisia rediviva, Pursh. The roots are gathered in great quantities, and 
boiled and eaten like sale]) or arrowroot. In this state they are not unpleasant 
to the taste, slightly bitter, but are highly valued by the Indians as a nutritive 
food for carrying on long journeys, two or three ounces a day being sufficient 
for a man even under great fatigue (Hooker, FI. Bor. Amer. i. p. 223). These 
Indians call it Ptleem-asd-ilse-ne-mare, and look upon it as one of the great 
gifts from the Supreme Master of Life. The roots of Phaca aboriginorum (Rich.),, 
Hook.,—a plant of the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, which, however, 
probably extends to the west, of the range,—are gathered by the Cree and Stone 
Indians, in the spring, as an article of food. The root and young stems of He - 
racleum lanatum , Michx., are eaten by some of the coast tribes, and it is also 
used by the Crees of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains as a pot-herb. 
The seeds of many plants are used as cereals. Thus the seeds of various species 
of Pinus (P. flexilis, Torr., P. Sabineana , Dougl., and P. Lambertiana , Dough), 
are all eaten in the parts of the country where they prevail, and is accordingly 
the “nut-pine ” of that part of the country, though the name is often thought to 
* Var .formosa, Fischer. 
-j~ This splendid Prythronium is figured and described by Dr. Hooker in the June number 
of the ‘ Magazine of Botany and Kew Miscellany/ from specimens introduced by me into* 
England. It is there called P. giganteum , Dougl. 
£ Vide also Cooper, Nat. Hist. W. T. Bot. p. 55. 
§ Tide, tula, tulare, as variously pronounced ; derived from the Mexican— tulitl. 
