8392 PLANTS USED BY INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. 
preferred in the latter case to the well-known brands of painkiller. 
The bulbs are generally cooked, mashed, and bound as a poultice to 
the affected parts for about twelve hours. Tf the pain has not then 
entirely abated a fresh application is made. 
For the cure of rheumatism the fresh bulb is mashed and rubbed 
on the affected joints twice a day for a period of about a month, that 
length of time being necessary for a complete cure. The plant is 
known as /s/” by several tribes of the Pomo stock; the Wailakis call 
it he’-gus. 
LILIACEAE. Lily Family. 
Nowhere in the world is there a more characteristic abundance and 
rariety of bulbous-rooted liliaceous plants than in California, a pro- 
vision of nature by which the primitive inhabitants have long been 
benefited. The bulbs (PL XVI) of all of the species here noted, 
with the exception of the soap root, are edible. All are highly nutri- 
tious when cooked, and many, especially the species of Calochortus, 
have a very agreeable nut-like flavor when raw. 
Clover is eaten in early spring, pinole in late summer, and acorns 
in winter. These bulbs assure them of a plentiful larder for late 
spring and early summer, It is on account of this extended use that 
All of these plants have 
s 
the Indians have been called ** Diggers.’ 
distinctive Indian names, to which in the case of some tribes the word 
**b6” is appended to denote the bulb, The same name is given to the 
ordinary potato, and is used to designate the corm, tuber, or bulb of 
any plant used for food, and even a few, such as the soap root, which 
are not so used. In speaking of these plants to me the Indians almost 
invariably called them ** Indian potatoes.” [speak of them collee- 
tively as bulbs, although they are mostly corms. Figures 3 to 5 
represent some of the fleshy-rooted plants most commonly eaten. 
Many are uncommonly handsome, and, indeed, a great many species 
are collected and cultivated as garden plants. Indians are employed 
to collect the bulbs at. the proper season, but it is often only with 
great difficulty that they are restrained from eating some of the 
“nutty” kinds as fast as they are gathered. Some are eaten raw, as 
stated, but most of them are steamed in pits, as described below under 
** Quamasia,” 
Allium bolanderi Wats. 
Shép (Yuki).—The same Yuki and the same Pomo name is applied 
to this diminutive rose-flowered species and to the following. This 
grows in considerable abundance in loose rich soil along the banks of 
streams. Its spherical corms are only from 4 to 4 of an inch in diam- 
eter, but they are very easily gathered and therefore used to some 
extent for food. 
