104 PLANTS USED BY THE KLAMATH INDIANS. 



(about 1] inches) in length. The name, from ohls, dove, iim, plant, and 



bon-wiis, drink, commemorates the legend, current among the Indian 



children, who pluck the flowers and suck tlie nectar, that in the old 



days "when the beasts and birds lived together and understood each 



other's language the wild dove's drink was the nectar of this flower, 



and nothing else. 



NEPETACEAE. 



Mentha canadensis I.. 



Miich-m'-siim. — The native true mint, frequent in the borders of 

 marshes. A tea is made from its herbage. 



SCROPHULARIACEAE, 



Nicotiana atteimata Wats. 



Kiich'-liul. — The native wild tobacco of the region, commonly appear- 

 ing as a weed in cultivated iields. My informant stated that the 

 Indians never cultivated it, and that it makes an exceedingly strong 

 smoking mixture. 



VIBURNACEAE. 

 Lonicera conjugialis Kell. 



O'-tiim. — One of the bush honeysuckles, locally but incorrectly known 

 as "cranberry," a common plant in moist, open forests of lodgepole pine, 

 Pinus murrayana. It occurred in considerable abundance at several 

 points between the agency and Fort Klamath post-office. 



The red or purplish berries, which have a mild, sweet flavor, are 

 eaten fresh, but not to a great extent. They are never dried. 



Sambucus glauca Nutt. 



Slo'-liis. — The common elder of the region, which bears large clusters 

 of pale-blue berries, densely covered with bloom or glaucousness. 

 The berries, slo'-lo-sam, are an article of food. 



One curious use of the plant, now rarely resorted to, but formerly 

 common among the Snake Indians, consists in punching out the pith 

 from sections of the stem, ramming them full of largo crickets, Anahrus 

 simplex Hald., and plugging the ends. The contents of the stems "were 

 used for food in the winter. 



VALERIANACEAE. 



Valeriana edulis Nutt. 



K-oV. — A perennial with a thick, deep root, deeply linear lobed basal 

 leaves, and a nearly leafless stem, bearing at the summit a close cyme 

 of white flowers, these becoming long stalked in age aud ripening into 

 small feathered nutlets, ft grows along streams and in natural mead- 

 ows; for example, along Wood River, between the agency and the old 



