To these crops may be added peas, beans and many herbs and esculent roots.
The fruits are esculent, but the involucres are the part chiefly used, for making necklaces and other ornaments.
He further tells us that by the natives Virginieae insulae the plant was called "openauk," and that it is now known in European gardens, but he makes no mention of its use as an esculent vegetable, and, indeed, includes it among "plantae malignae et venenatae."
The mild climate assists the growth of esculent plants and roots; and a considerable trade is carried on with New York, principally in onions, early potatoes, tomatoes, and beetroot, together with lily bulbs, cut flowers and some arrowroot.
But the most singular esculent lichen of all is the " manna lichen," which in times of drought and famine has served as food for large numbers of men and cattle in the arid steppes of various countries stretching from Algiers to Tartary.