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| American Indians used 2874...species as medicines, 186 as foods, 230 as dyes, and 492...for weaving, basketmaking, building materials, and so on. Source:Moerhman, 1998:11.
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From Source:Byrd, 1841
- We marched about two miles and a half beyond this river, as far as Cane creek, so called from a prodigious quantity of tall canes thai fringed the banks of it. On the west side of this creek we marked out our quarters, and were glad to find our horses fond of the canes, though they scoured them smartly at first, and discoloured their dung. This beautiful vegetable grows commonly from twelve to sixteen feet high, and some of them as thick as a man's wrist. Though these appeared large to us, yet they are no more than spires of grass, if compared to those which some curious travellers tell us grow in the East Indies, one joint of which will make a brace of canoes, if sawed in two in the middle. Ours continue green through all the seasons during the space of six years, and the seventh shed their seed, wither away and die. The spring following they begin to shoot again, and reach their former stature the second or third year after. They grow so thick, and their roots lace together so firmly, that they are the best guard that can be of the river bank, which would otherwise be washed away by the frequent inundations that happen in this part of the world. They would also serve excellently well to plant on the borders of fish-ponds and canals, to secure their sides from falling in; though I fear they would not grow kindly in a cold country, being seldom seen here so northerly as thirty-eight degrees of latitude.
From Source:Stoddart, 1883:112
Cane (Arundinaria).—The large cane, which abounds in deep river swamps, forms a remarkable feature in the vegetation of the Southern States. Wide areas covered with this grass occur on the rich alluvial soil of the Santee swamp, forming thickets so dense as to be impenetrable bv man or beast, and growing to the height of 20 to 30 feet, tbe stalks having a diameter of 2 inches or more at the base. A small variety of the above grows in swamps and low grounds. Both are evergreen, and grazing animals feed greedily upon the leaves in winter, and find protection from the driving rains and piercing winds under the dense roof of the canebrake or thicket
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