998 PLANTS USED BY INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. 
home gardens for human consumption. Some of the latter would 
undoubtedly be regarded as delicacies. A comparison of their mode 
of preparation of acorn bread with the Italian and Spanish methods 
and the comparative value of the two products would be a very 
interesting study. Their method of catching fish by means of soap 
root (Chlorogalum pomeridianun), turkey mullein (Croton setigerius), 
and other poisonous herbs, and the real food value of the fish, together 
with the effect of the poison, also present interesting problems. 
Ina similar way medicine has vet much to learn from these Indians, 
Much of their practice is based, to be sure, upon incantations and the 
use of sweat baths as taken in their temescals,! but it was most prob- 
ably through the agency of the Mendocino County Indians that the 
use of cascara sagrada (Rhannius purshiana) was introduced, not only 
throughout the State, but throughout the United States, where it isan 
official remedy, and everywhere abroad as a most valuable cathartic. 
Other plants, not recognized in general practice, are widely used by 
the natives, and others, such as Ceanothus, which are not vet exten- 
sively used, have decided properties, and should be investigated. 
Among the most important of these are Croton, Kriogonum, and 
Limodorum. 
Most of the information here given was obtained directly from the 
Indians. The notes published in) various parts of Stephen Powers’s 
treatise on the tribes of California were kept in mind and verified 
whenever possible. Considerable assistance was obtained at Round 
Valley from the various Government employees, especially the prin- 
cipal of the Round Valley School, Mr. George W. Patrick, and two 
of the teachers, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Nolan; from Rev. Colin Ander- 
son, who has served for several years as the spiritual adviser to the 
several tribes, and from Mr. Frank Youree, of Covelo, an intelligent 
white man, who has lived with the Wailaki Indians for many years. 
At Ukiah much assistance was obtained from Dr. J. W. Hudson, 
who, together with Mrs. Hudson, has made an extended study of the 
Pomo Indians from the medical and artistic standpoints; and from 
Mr. Carl Purdy, who is extensively acquainted with the flora of the 
district, and who employs many Indians to gather wild bulbs for him. 
The direct stimulus for the work was obtained from two visits made 
to these various tribes by the writer in L892 for the purpose of vor 
lecting anthropological and ethnological data for the World’s Fair : 
Chicago in 1893, and from a study of Mr. F. V. Coville’s Notes on the 
Plants used by the Klamath Indians of Oregon, as also his Directions 
for Collecting Specimens and Information Illustrative of the Aborig- 
inal Uses of Plants, both of which were published by the U. S. National 
Museum. For assistance in the identification of the plants thanks are 
due to Prof. EK. L. Greene, of the Catholic University, and to others 
"See pp. 309, 351, 393. 
