288 
SCOUTING FOR GIRLS 
have always been an important article of food among the 
wild things. 
Many Indian tribes used to' feed during famine times 
on the inner bark of cedar and white birch, as well as on 
the inner bark of the slippery elm and basswood, but these 
cannot be got without injury to the tree, so omit them. 
When the snow is off the ground the plants respond 
quickly, and it is safe to assume that all the earliest 
flowers come up from big, fat roots. 
A plant can spring up quickly in summer, gathering the 
material of growth from the air and soil, but a plant 
coming up in the early spring is doing business at a time 
when it cannot get support from its surroundings, and 
cannot keep on unless it has stored up capital from the 
summer before. This is the logic of the storehouse in 
the ground for these early comers. 
Wapato. One of the earliest is wapato, or duck potato, 
also called common Arrowleaf, or Sagittaria. It is found 
in low, swampy flats, especially those that are under water 
for part of the year. Its root is about as big as a walnut 
and is good food, cooked, or raw. These roots are not 
at the point where the leaves come out but at the ends 
of the long roots. 
Bog Potato . On the drier banks, usually where the 
sedge begins near a swamp, we find the bog potato, or 
Indian potato. The plant is a slender vine with three, 
five, or seven leaflets in a group. On its roots in spring 
are from one to a dozen potatoes, varying from an inch 
to three inches in diameter. They taste like a cross be- 
tween a peanut and a raw potato, and are very good 
cooked or raw. 
Indian Cucumber. In the dry woods one is sure to 
see the pretty umbrella of the Indian cucumber. Its root 
is white and crisp and tastes somewhat like a cucumber, 
is one to four inches long, and good food raw or boiled. 
