But to turn to the subject-matter of the book. First we have a careful list of plants which the author found and which were common in England also, and--what is quite delightful--notes on the uses made of these plants by the Red Indians. For instance, they used white hellebore to cure their wounds, and John Josselyn tells us exactly how. They first rubbed racoon's grease or wild cat's grease on the wounds and then strewed the dried and powdered root on to it. They also applied the powdered root for toothache. Under the yellow-flowered water-lily we find a note to the effect that the Indians used the roots for food, and Josselyn seems to have tried them himself, for he says that they taste of sheep's liver. "The Moose Deer," he says, "feed much on them and the Indians choose this time when their heads are under water to kill them." From acorns the Indians made the oil with which they rubbed themselves. This was prepared by burning rotten maple wood to ashes and then boiling acorns with these ashes till the oil floated on the top. Of American walnuts and violets he had apparently a poor opinion, for he describes the walnuts as being not much bigger than a nutmeg and "but thinly replenished with kernels," and the violets as inferior to the English "Blew Violet." The most interesting of the recipes is that for the beer which he used to brew for Indians who came to him when they had bad colds. New Englanders who still possess treasured old housewives' books will probably find they have recipes for the same kind of beer; for it is typical of that commonly made in England in the seventeenth century and is strangely flavoured with elecampane, liquorice, sassafras, aniseed, and fennel seed. Then follows a list of plants peculiar to New England, with a long description of "Indian wheat," of which "the Flower [flour] makes excellent Puddens." Another plant described at length is the hollow-leaved lavender, but it is difficult to identify it from the illustration. The most interesting part of this list is that consisting of plants to which no English names had yet been given.