Aboriginal America Part 3

Rice,

Several species of rice were found indigenous to America. Rice is the most productive food-bearing plant, for the use both of men and animals, that is known. It grows wild in the water in low and swampy lands along the borders of the rivers in tropical countries. Countless millions of birds gather over all the region where it grows in the season of its ripening, and mult.i.tudes of other animals, such as gain access to the ground when the water subsides, live upon it.

The Indians used to gather it by sailing in through the midst of it in their canoes, where bending down the heads of the rice, they would beat off the grains into the boat by means of a sort of threshing stick made for the purpose.

Maize

The most important and valuable plant, however, for the American Indians, especially for those who lived beyond the limits of the rice country, was the maize, or Indian corn. A great many of the tribes cultivated this plant in fields which they cleared for this purpose, by digging around the roots of trees and burning them off. Such fields were very numerous in the northern parts of the country when it was first discovered by white men., Indeed, this plant seems to have been their chief reliance for vegetable food. they considered it as the special gift of the great Spirit, and it figures very conspicuously in all their traditionary legends in respect to the creation of the world, and the early history of the human race.

An Indian Tradition

One of these legends is as follows:-- The first men who were created, says the tradition, proved to be bad men, and the great Spirit, finding them to be incorrigible, destroyed them all by drowning them in a great lake.

This story of the destruction of the first race of men by water is supposed to by some to have originated in a tradition of the general deluge described in the Sacred Scriptures.

After having thus destroyed one generation, the Great Spirit created another man, and finding, after he had lived alone for some time, that his condition was too solitary, he made him a sister. The brother and sister lived together quite happily for a while, when at last one morning the brother said that he had had a dream.

Five young men he saw in his dream, he said, coming one after another to see his sister, desiring her in marriage. She rejected the first four and accepted the fifth. This was a token, he thought, that if such young men should come she was to refuse the four first and accept the last. His sister said that she would do so.

In a short time the young men began to come. The first was named Tobacco. This was, however, before any such plant as tobacco was known. The young lady refused his suit, and he immediately fell backward and died. We use here the English names of the plants referred to. Of course in the original legend the Indian names are given.

Next came a young man named Bean. He, too, was refused, and fell back and died like the other.

The next one was named Pumpkin, and the next Melon. Thy both met with the same fate as their predecessors. All fell backward when they found themselves rejected, and died.

Finally the fifth young man came. His name was Maize. The girl smiled upon him, and gave him her hand. They were married, and from them proceeded all the subsequent generations of the human family.

From the ground where the bodies of the others lay buried there sprang up the several plants bearing these persons' names, the tobacco, the pumpkin, the melon, and the bean.

The narration of this legend here answers the double purpose of showing how important a place in the estimation of the Indians the maize plant occupied as an article of food for them, and also of giving an example of the traditionary tales which have come down from former generations in respect to the origin of the human family.

The Distinction of Exogenous and Endogenous

The maize plant brings to our view one of the greatest and most important distinctions that appear in the vegetable world, that of exogenous and endogenous plants, or, as they are sometimes termed, EXOGENS and ENDOGENS.

The word exogenous means outgrowing. An exogenous plant is one that grows by successive layers deposited at intervals beneath the bark upon the outside of the stem, as is the case with early all trees and shrubs that grow in cold or temperate climates. They all have a pith in the center and a bark upon the outside, and the wood of the stem between is formed by layers deposited in succession immediately beneath the bark.

An endogenous plant, on the other hand, grows by a uniform expansion of the whole substance of the stem within. It has no pith and no bark. The external surface is hard, however, and smooth. It is sometimes even glossy. The maize is perhaps the largest specimen of an endogenous plant which grows in northern lat.i.tudes. Very large specimens grow in tropical regions. The date, the bamboo, the rattan, the sugar cane, and various other canes, such as those used for fishing poles, are all endogenous. Indeed, this is the prevailing type of tropical vegetation, and the fact that maize is of this character seems to indicate that it is of tropical origin.

It is a very curious circ.u.mstance that the seeds of all exogenous plants have two lobes, while those of endogenous plants have only one. The lobes of a seed are by the botanists called cotyledons. Hence the cla.s.s of endogens are sometimes called monocotyledonous plants, while that of exogens are called dicotyledonous. What connection there should be between the single cotyledon of the seed and the peculiar character and growth of the endogenous plant, its hard and shining outside surface, with no bark and no successive layers of wood, and on the other hand between a two-lobed const.i.tution of the seed, and a bark, a pith, and a growth by successive outside layers, is a profound mystery. That there is some latent connection, however, is sure, for the two distinctions correspond with each other throughout the whole domain of the vegetable world.

In some plants, as in the bean, for example, the two cotyledons of the seed come out of the ground when the seed germinates, and appear above the surface in the form of two thick oval leaves. The division exists, though it is not so apparent in the seeds of all bark bearing trees, shrubs, and herbs of every kind.

The Tobacco Plant

Perhaps the most extraordinary of all the native American plants, considered in respect to the influence which it has exerted, and the effects which it has produced in the world since the discovery of America, is the tobacco plant. The attention of the Europeans was called to it almost from the outset. Columbus, when he first landed, sent some messengers into the interior on an exploring tour, and on their return, among other things that they reported, they said they found the natives smoking little rolls formed of the leaf of some sort of plant. One end of these rolls, they said, the people put into their mouths, and thus drew the smoke in from the other end which was lighted.

The plant was afterward found to be a narcotic, that is, to have the power of producing a sleepy and dreamy sensation when taken into the system. There are a great many plants produced in other parts of the world, the effects of which upon the system are narcotic, but those of the tobacco plant are peculiar. They are far more agreeable, and perhaps less injurious--so they say at least that use it--than those of any other narcotic plant.

It was, however, sixty or seventy years after the time that the attention of Columbus was first called to the plant before it was known in Europe. During all this time, though its existence and its effects were known to travelers visiting America, the use of it was regarded as a repulsive habit of savages, not to be imitated by civilized men. At length, in the year 1560, a small quant.i.ty of it was sent across the Atlantic to a certain Flemish merchant, and he sent a portion as a curiosity to the French minister at the court of Portugal, at Lisbon. The name of this minister was Nicot.

Nicot presented some specimens of the tobacco to the king of Portugal and to other distinguished personages, and they made trial of its effects. They were all so much pleased with the dreamy exhilaration which it produced upon them that they sent for more, and in this way it was soon introduced into Europe, where its fame spread with great rapidity. A very strenuous opposition arose to the use of it at the same time, and kings and governments, both civil and ecclesiastical, made earnest efforts to suppress it, but all in vain; and it has since, as is well known, become one of the most widely extended articles of consumption, and the most important in its effects, either for good or for evil, that the vegetable kingdom produces for man.

The Habit of Using Tobacco

This is not the place to discuss the character of these effects. All that I shall say is, that those who escape forming the habit of using tobacco in their youth, always, I believe, rejoice, through all the subsequent years of their lives, in their exemption from what is at best an inconvenience and a peril; while those who form the habit often spend their lives in fruitless and vexatious efforts to escape from the thralldom of it, and seldom or never recommend to others to follow their example in acquiring it.

Botanical Name

The botanists, when they came to procure specimens of the different species of the plant, and to add it to their catalogues, gave to the genus the name Nicotiana, from the name of the French minister, who was the first to bring it into notice in Europe. There is a substance, too, which is extracted from the plant, which has a name of the same derivation, Nicotine. Nicotine is very abundant in the leaves of the plant, and is one of the most virulent poisons known.

The potato

The potato is another very remarkable plant which was introduced into Europe from America, and which has exerted a vast influence--though in this case the influence is a wholly salutary one--upon the condition of mankind. It is supposed that by providing a cheap and abundant sustenance for the lower cla.s.ses of people, it has actually added many millions to the population of Europe.

It came in the first instance from South America, and it is said that originally the tubers of the plant were very small, and far less nutritious than they are now. The change has been produced by cultivation. It is always found that when man selects any plant growing in a state of nature, and takes it under his care, with a view of using it for food, nature comes forward to meet him, as it were, and aid him in his effort, by giving the plant so chosen a new and fuller development in respect to the qualities which fit it for his purposes. Thus the apple, which was small, hard, and sour in its native woods, becomes large, tender, sweet and juicy when man chooses it for his food, and transfers it to his gardens. Similar changes take place in the grape, the peach, the pear, the potato, and in almost all other plants that produce food for man.

When, therefore, a new plant is discovered in some remote and partially explored country, it is not always easy at first to decide upon its value, for it is not known what effect cultivation will have upon it. There is a very important society in France, called the Society of Acclamation, the object of which is to bring new plants and animals from remote regions of the earth to Paris, with the view of ascertaining by experiment what the effect of a new climate and artificial culture will have upon them. Several important discoveries have already been made by this society, and it is prosecuting its researches with increased vigor, and on a more and more extended scale every year.

The potato met with almost as much opposition at its first introduction into Europe as tobacco. The opposition in this case, however, was found to be a prejudice, arising simply from the fact that the plant itself and the use of it for food were something new. The poor people especially would have nothing to do with it. It was a food fit only for beasts, they said, and they were determined that it should not be forced upon them. These prejudices have long since disappeared, and the once despised tuber is now a universal favorite all over the civilized world.

The Magnolia

When the European discoverers first landed upon the American sh.o.r.es, the grandeur and beauty of the native forests seem to have impressed them more than anything else that they beheld. Among the trees which chiefly contributed to this magnificence was the magnolia, which was found growing very profusely in all the southern regions of what now form the United States. Some species of this splendid cla.s.s of plants grow in the Middle and even in the Northern States, but in this latter locality they are rare.

The magnolia grandiflora, so called, when in perfection, is one of the most magnificent trees in the world. It grows, it is said, sometimes to the height of seventy feet. It leaves are evergreen, and are polished on the surface, and at the proper season of the year the whole tree is covered with a profusion of immense white flowers, which bloom so conspicuously in the midst of the ma.s.ses of verdure which surround them as to strike the eye of the stranger with wonder and delight.

There are a great many different species of the magnolia in America, which vary much in minor particulars, such as in the size of the plant itself and in the magnitude and fragrance of the flowers. There is one species which bears leaves two or three feet long, with flowers the cups of which are sometimes nearly a foot in diameter. The flowers of most of he species are very fragrant, some of them so much so that a tree, it is said, will scent the air for a distance of three miles. In some of the species the plants are small and shrub-like in form, but still producing flowers of extreme fragrance and beauty. There is one which is called the weaver laurel, which bears leaves and flowers of extreme elegance, and diffuses a fragrance so strong that it perfumes the atmosphere for a great distance around.

Since the discovery of America various species of the magnolia have been transplanted to Europe, and cultivated there in botanical gardens and in private pleasure grounds, where they are regarded as great curiosities. None of them were known in Europe until they were carried thither from America, but since that time it has been found that some species of the plant occur in China and j.a.pan, though they are not identical with any of those found in the new world.

The Mahogany Tree

Next to the potato, which has so largely increased the means of sustenance for the ma.s.ses of the population in Europe, and the cotton plant, which supplies so many millions with clothing, perhaps the most useful of the native productions of the American soil, in respect to the welfare and enjoyment of mankind at large, is the mahogany tree. This is a very large forest tree, which grows in vast numbers in the West India Islands and in certain parts of Central America. It is characterized by a certain combination of qualities which render it superior as a material for making furniture, and for cabinet work in general, to any other wood in the world. These qualities are its beautiful color, its hardness, making it susceptible of a fine polish, and the stability of its fibers, that is, its freedom from all tendency to warp, shrink, or split. It grows moreover in very ma.s.sive trees, from which planks of almost any size may be sawed, and logs of it, containing vast quant.i.ties of the wood, can be cut and transported with great facility. Wood has thus sometimes been procured from a single tree to the value of four or five thousand dollars.

It was more than two hundred years after America was discovered before mahogany began to be introduced into Europe as an article of consumption, but now it is universally employed there, and the demand for it is so large that the British maintain extensive settlements in Honduras, solely for the purpose of cutting and shipping it.

The work of cutting the trees and floating them down the rivers to the sea is performed by the natives of the country, acting under the superintendence of Europeans. These natives work in gangs of thirty or forty together. When a tree has been selected to be felled, they build a staging against the side of it, ten or twelve feet from the ground--the part of the stem below that point not being valuable. The tree is then cut through just above the staging, and when it has fallen the branches are lopped off, and the stem is divided into suitable lengths for convenient transportation. The logs are floated down the little streams on the banks of which they grew to the larger rivers, and are there made up into rafts, which, guided by skilled raftsmen, are carried down by the currents to the ports whence they are to be shipped to foreign countries. Some of the logs thus transported are of immense size and of great value.

Such are a few of the most characteristic and celebrated American plants that were brought to the notice of mankind after this continent was discovered. In the next chapter we shall consider some of the most remarkable animals.

Remarkable Animals

The Beaver One of the most remarkable of the animals found in America is the beaver. Species nearly resembling the American beaver formerly existed in the old world, but they have long been nearly or quite extinct. The cla.s.s of animals to which the beaver belongs is common all over the world, namely, the cla.s.s of Rodentia, which means gnawing animals. The beaver is the greatest gnawer of them all.

The Beaver's Teeth

His cutting teeth are broad and flat, and are brought to so sharp and hard an edge that the Indians were accustomed to set them in handles and use them for cutting instruments before they obtained iron and steel from the Europeans. It is said that by means of these teeth the beavers can cut off a stem in the woods as big as a walking stick at a single bite. By more continued efforts they can fell trees of very considerable size, not greater, however, than eight or ten inches in diameter, though one trapper in the service of a fur company says he has seen trunks eighteen inches in diameter cut through by them.