History of the Expedition Under the Command of Lewis and Clark (Volume 3); To the Sources of the Missouri River, Thence Across the Rocky Mountains and ... the Years 1804-5-6, by Order of the Gover - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1893. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXV. BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY.1 [/. Botany.*} MONO the vegetable productions of the country, which furnish a large proportion of the food of the Indians, are the roots of a species of thistle, the fern, the rush, the liquorice, and a small cylindric root resembling in flavor and consistency the sweet potato. I. The thistle,5 called by the natives shanatanque, is a plant which grows in a deep, rich, dry loam, with a considerable mixture of sand. The stem is simple, ascending, cylindric and hispid, rising to the height of three or four feet. The cauline life [leaf], which, as well as the stem of the last season, is dead, is simple, crenate, and oblong; rather more obtuse at its apex than at its insertion, which is decurrent; its position is declining; its margin is armed with prickles, and its disk is hairy. The flower is dry and mutilated, but 1 The notices of plants and animals relate more particularly to the region where the explorers then were, and to the course of the Columbia river; but also refer to various species found in the mountains between the Columbia and the Missouri, and on the upper portions of the latter river. 9 The botany of this chapter begins with Clark P 89, at date of Jan. aoth, 1806. 1 The edible thistle is Cnicus edulis of Gray, a large and well-known plant of the order Comparita. "The root of the thistle called by the natives chan ne takqtu" etc., Clark P 87, where the printed description follows, in substance; also shawnatihque, Clark I 37; shanatoequa, I 66; shannatahque, I 77; shawnatakwe, I 99. The name is usually printed shanataque. The statement in the text that the cauline life (leaf), etc., is dead, means simply that it had died down at the date of the entry, Jan. 2Oth. So with the " dry and mutilated" flower ; and for "pericar...