| Notes |
Hariot; p.17 “ a kind of roote which the Spaniards . . . call Cassauy” Grows in muddy pools and wet ground, properly prepared it makes good bread and spoonmeat, juice is poison, must first slice and dry the roots, then pounded to a meal; or while still green can be pared, cut to pieces and stamped. Loaves laid near or over fire until sour [fermenting] and then pounded again.; {H&D} Propose Peltandra or Orontium for this plant.; Medsger; p. 197 “Golden Club, or Taw-kee (Indian), Orontium aquaticum . . . In swamps, generally along (east) coast, bulbous rootstocks are edible when cooked. The dried seeds, which resemble peas, were eaten by both Indian and white colonists. This was after repeated boiling.”; Green Arrow Arum, or Virginia Tuckahoe, Peltandra virginica. . . . grows in swamps . . . bulbous root to 3 or 4 pounds . . . starchy with biting qualities . . . cites Cpt. John Smith as reporting Indians of Virginia, roasted (it) in pits for a day or two. After cooking the roots were ground into a meal . . . Indians ate boiled spadix (leaf-like sheath of inflorescence) and berries as a luxury.; Ewan; p. 263 Tockawaugh, frequently eaten. Listed by Ogilby (1671) p. 196; Strachey (1612) p. 122. Tockawoughe [origin of term Tuckahoe – see Ewan below] . . . grows like a Flag in low muddy Freshes . . . these rootes are much of the greatnes and tast of Potatos, they use to rake up a great number of them in old leaves and ferne, and then Cover all with earth and sand in the manner of a Coalpitt, on each side they continue a great fier, a day and a night befor they dare eate yt, raw it is no better than poisin, and being roasted (except yt be tender, and the heat abated, or sliced and dryed in the Sun mixed with Sorrell and meale or such like) yt will prickle and torment the throat extreamely, and yet in Sommer they use this ordinarily for bread.” Beverly, Book III, Chap. IV, sec. 15 (ed. Wright, p. 181), calls it ‘Tuckahoe.” “of very hot and virulent quality.” And refers to its use like that of Calocasia = Peltandra virginica (L.) Kunth; p.371 “Ecushaw” may have been the copyist’s handling of an illegible word: Beverly also transcribed “Ecushaw.” “Cocushaw,”. Hariot (1588) is listed under “Radices” and is a root “Cassaui” or Cassava, poisonous until cooked. Hariet says: “Cocushaw, some of our company took to bee a kind of roote which the Spanish in the West Indies called Cassauj [Cassava].” Banister in “Of The Natives” ues “Cushaw” for the winter Crookneck squash. Kingsbury (1905) 3:639-643 records an early attempt to introduce Cassava and other tropical plants for cultivation: “A small ship coming in December last [1621] from the Summer-Islands [Bermudas], to Virginia, brought thither these Plantes, viz. Vines of all sorts, Orange and Lemon trees, Sugr canes, Cassado roots (that make bread), Pines [pineapples], Plantains, Potatos [here Dioscorea?], and sundry other [West] Indian fruites and plants, not formerly seen in Virginia, which now begin to prosper very well.” ; [NB VJB – Could Calocasia, here used as a synonym for P. virginica, be the same as Cassauy referred to by Hariot for the same plant?]; Radford 1968 p.257 Peltandra virginica (L.) Kunth.; |
