Miscellaneous Seeds

Several of the seed types present at the Wall, Mitchum, and Fredricks sites probably were not used as food. They may have become included in the deposits fortuitously because they grew on the site, or may have had non-food uses. Bedstraw (Galium sp.) seeds can be used to make a beverage, but it is more likely that the vegetative part of the plant was used as bedding. Morning glory (Ipomoea sp.), spurge (Euphorbia maculata L.), and bearsfoot (Polymnia vedalia L.) were probably garden weeds. Dogwood (Cornus sp.) and the Pink family (Caryophyllaceae) may have been incidental inclusions. Unidentified Type A is fairly distinctive, but has not yet been identified using standard reference works (Martin and Barkley 1961; Montgomery 1977; USDA 1974), and thus is classed as miscellaneous.