Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/125

 vegetables from foreign countries, the potato from the West Indies and the watermelon from Europe.

Far more notable plants than those named were tobacco and maize, which were destined to exercise such a controlling influence upon the fortunes of the Colony and Commonwealth. In addition to maize, there was the grain known in the Indian tongue as mattoum; it bore a resemblance to rye and was probably the species of wild oats still so common in all the rivers of Tidewater Virginia. The water flag was remarkable for its long and fine skin, which could be stripped from it when the plant had been boiled, and was found to be excellent material for the manufacture of cordage and linen. The sumac leaf and the puccoon and snake roots were but a few of the natural productions of the new country that were useful for dyeing and medicinal purposes. A rarer and more interesting plant was the famous Jamestown weed, resembling, it was thought, the thorny apple of Peru and possessing some remarkable qualities. It is related that a number of the English soldiers sent over to put down the insurrection of 1676 partook of it in the form of a salad, and that it converted them into idiots, who amused themselves with blowing feathers into the air, or sat and made mouths at each other, remaining in this condition for nearly a fortnight, and when they finally recovered their reason they were unaware of the insane tricks which they had been playing. The woods were found to contain numerous varieties of parsley and sorrel, as harmless when eaten as the