
          The Creoles value it as a remedy, assigning it the 
important qualities of “rafraîshissant [rafraîchissant] et calmant.”
The calycine leaves pass by gradation into petals & it 
seems to me impossible to determine the numbers;
the 3 outer ones seem to adhere more strongly to the
stem. It grows in fresh or brackish water about
3 feet deep. The species of potamogeton, with whorled
flowers in interrupted spikes is from the same locality.
The Bayou through which we found our way to the
bay is completely mantled over with aquatics,
Heteranthera, Limnas,  Jussieuia, a large polygonum, 
Nectris, Pistia, &c. The last curious plant when eaten
leaves on the faeces the most penetrating & permanent 
pungency I have ever experienced, yet it is so devoured
while growing by insects I have never been able
to get a decent specimen. Along the margin of
the bayou I noticed several species of convolvulus.
Sagittaria obtusa & rigida, Typha, &c. The only
tree in such places is the Cypress hung with Tillansia [Tillandsia].
Shell-banks occur here and there through the marshes
covered with live oak. It is a singular but
well attested fact that in digging these shell-banks
to bring the shells to the city, the labourers find on
several feet depth, the remains of fires, pieces
of charred wood pottery &c. I have part of a skeleton
excavated from a bank on which a live oak 4 ft
in diameter was growing! The shells are a species
of venus  about 2 inches in diameter, but the quantity
in calculable. If according to popular opinion they 
were collected for food there must have been enough
to have fed all the inhabitants of our globe
for all the time they have lived.

        