316 PLANTS USED BY INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. 
chewed until the bark is free and well separated from the wood, and 
then, being still held in the mouth, while the other end is grasped and 
held taut by the first and second toes, the bark is carefully scraped 
away, leaving a remarkably tough white or tan-colored strand about 
one-half the original thickness. These are arranged in small coils and 
varried by the women to camp. 
Scirpus sp. 
Tsii-ish’ (Pomo).—An unidentified species of bulrush which I have 
seen only under cultivation, living specimens having been procured 
by Mr. Carl Purdy at Clear Lake and sent to the Department. The 
plant died without flowering, but had sent up a long, leafy stem, 
and showed a strong tendency to develop new plants from its running 
rootstocks. The leaves are alternate, channeled, and quite grass-like, 
except that they are rigid and the older ones have sharp, knife-like 
edges. As the plant is considered four times more valuable for its 
rootstock fiber than any other species of sedge, and as there has been 
considerable doubt as to the character of the fiber, the roots were 
‘arefully examined before planting. At the base of the main stalk 
there was an almost ligneous tuber, proceeding from which there were 
small fibrous roots and several rootstocks, about one-fourth of an inch 
in diameter, which consisted of three very distinct tissues. The outer 
part or skin was brown and like parchment. ‘The middle one consisted 
of a yellowish brown, friable coating, while the heart had an exceed- 
ingly tough, woody structure. The outer surface of this woody tissue, 
which, judging from an inspection of the baskets in the Hudson col- 
lection, makes up the great bulk of the black fiber of the finest Pomo 
baskets, has a faintly ribbed structure, and varies from light brown to 
nearly jet black. The interior portion is more or less white. There 
has been some question whether the strands from these rootstocks are 
artificially blackened or not, but it is certain that some of them are 
used just as they are, while others are blackened with the juice of 
poison oak, or by burying them with charcoal, ashes, and earth for 
about eighty hours. Whether the more brownish strands only are so 
treated, or whether all are occasionally subjected to the same process 
for the purpose of obtaining a darker shade than can be found in 
nature, I have been unable to determine. 
The plant is very rare, if found at all, near Ukiah, the chief supply 
being purchased at 1 cent a root from plants collected by Indians 
at Clear Lake and in certain parts of Sonoma County or along the 
seacoast. 
SEDGE-ROOT BASKETS. 
In practice the process of making these root baskets (Pl. XIV) is a 
very tedious one, one which requires such an infinite amount of patience 
as an Indian squaw alone is able to command. The rootstocks, so care- 
