FLOWERS.
Heart’s Ease, Lilies red and yellow, Pond Lilies, Cowslips, May Flowers, Jessamine, Honeysuckles, Rock Honeysuckles, Roses red and white, Wild Hollyhock, Wild Pinks, Golden Rod.
I shall not enter into a minute description of the flowers above recited, but only just observe, that they much resemble those of the same name which grow in Europe, and are as beautiful in colour, and as perfect in odour, as they can be supposed to be in their wild uncultivated state.
FARINACEOUS and LEGUMINOUS ROOTS, &c.
Maize or Indian Corn, Wild Rice, Beans, the Squash, &c.
MAIZE or INDIAN CORN grows from six to ten feet high, on a stalk full of joints, which is stiff and solid, and when green, abounding with a sweet juice. The leaves are like those of the reed, about two feet in length, and three or four inches broad. The flowers, which are produced at some distance from the fruit on the same plant, grow like the ears of oats, and are sometimes white, yellow, or of a purple colour. The seeds are as large as peas, and like them quite naked and smooth, but of a roundish surface, rather compressed. One spike generally consists of about six hundred grains, which are placed closely together in rows to the number of eight or ten, and sometimes twelve. This corn is very wholesome, easy of digestion, and yields as good nourishment as any other sort. After the Indians have reduced it into meal by pounding it, they make cakes of it and bake them before the fire. I have already mentioned that some nations eat it in cakes before it is ripe, in which state it is very agreeable to the palate and extremely nutritive.
The Tobacco Plant
Published Nov. 1st. 1779
WILD RICE. This grain, which grows in the greatest plenty throughout the interior parts of North America, is the most valuable of all the spontaneous productions of that country. Exclusive of its utility, as a supply of food for those of the human species who inhabit this part of the continent, and obtained without any other trouble than that of gathering it in, the sweetness and nutritious quality of it attracts an infinite number of wild fowl of every kind, which flock from distant climes to enjoy this rare repast; and by it become inexpressibly fat and delicious. In future periods it will be of great service to the infant colonies, as it will afford them a present support, until in the course of cultivation other supplies may be produced; whereas in those realms which are not furnished with this bounteous gift of nature, even if the climate is temperate and the soil good, the first settlers are often exposed to great hardships from the want of an immediate resource for necessary food. This useful grain grows in the water where it is about two feet deep, and where it finds a rich muddy soil. The stalks of it, and the branches or ears that bear the seed, resemble oats both in their appearance and manner of growing. The stalks are full of joints, and rise more than eight feet above the water. The natives gather the grain in the following manner: nearly about the time that it begins to turn from its milky state and to ripen, they run their canoes into the midst of it, and tying bunches of it together just below the ears with bark, leave it in this situation three or four weeks longer, till it is perfectly ripe. About the latter end of September they return to the river, when each family having its separate allotment, and being able to distinguish their own property by the manner of fastening the sheaves, gather in the portion that belongs to them. This they do by placing their canoes close to the bunches of rice, in such position as to receive the grain when it falls, and then beat it out, with pieces of wood formed for that purpose. Having done this, they dry it with smoke, and afterwards tread or rub off the outside husk; when it is fit for use they put it into the skins of fawns or young buffalos taken off nearly whole for this purpose and sewed into a sort of sack, wherein they preserve it till the return of their harvest. It has been the subject of much speculation why this spontaneous grain is not found in any other regions of America, or in those countries situated in the same parallels of latitude, where the waters are as apparently adapted for its growth as in the climates I treat of. As for instance, none of the countries that lie to the south and east of the great lakes, even from the provinces north of the Carolinas to the extremities of Labradore, produce any of this grain. It is true I found great quantities of it in the watered lands near Detroit, between Lake Huron and Lake Erié, but on enquiry I learned that it never arrived nearer to maturity than just to blossom; after which it appeared blighted, and died away. This convinces me that the north-west wind, as I have before hinted, is much more powerful in these than in the interior parts; and that it is more inimical to the fruits of the earth, after it has passed over the lakes and become united with the wind which joins it from the frozen regions of the north, than it is farther to the westward.
BEANS. These are nearly of the same shape as the European beans, but are not much larger than the smallest size of them. They are boiled by the Indians and eaten chiefly with bear’s flesh.
The SQUASH. They have also several species of the MELON or PUMPKIN, which by some are called Squashes, and which serve many nations partly as a substitute for bread. Of these there is the round, the crane-neck, the small flat, and the large oblong squash. The smaller sorts being boiled, are eaten during the summer as vegetables; and are all of a pleasing flavour. The crane-neck, which greatly excells all the others, are usually hung up for a winter’s store, and in this manner might be preserved for several months.
[1]. For an account of Tobacco, see a treatise I have published on the culture of that plant.