VETCH FAMILY. 3859 
description and his name I was enabled to collect and fully identify 
the plant at Ukiah a few weeks later. The Yokia Indians told me of 
its former use for thread and of its manipulation with a certain bone 
of the common gray tree squirrel as a substitute for a needle, but the 
Pomo Indians near by seemed to know nothing of the plant. The 
root fiber is now very little used, but it was formerly considered 
superior to the fiber from dogbane on account of its pleasing perfume 
and white color. The large roots have to be pounded most vigor- 
ously before the fibers separate and become flexible. ‘The best-known 
Indian name for the plant is ma?¢’-Aa, the Yokia name. 
Robinia pseudacacia L. 
The ordinary Eastern locust has been cultivated in the Indian reser- 
vation for ornament and shade. The Wailaki chief informed me 
that chickens are fond of the seed and I have noticed horses eating 
sparingly of the leaves. 
Trifolium spp. 
So (Pomo).—This Pomo name is very nearly the equivalent of the 
word clover, but inasmuch as it is applied to a few other plants, such 
as pepper grass (Lepidium), which belong to entirely different groups 
and orders, it is to be regarded as a broader term, which in general 
signifies any plant the leaves of which are eaten green and in the 
uncooked state. Each different kind—sweet, acid, mountain, and 
tree clover—is designated by a special syllable, used generally as ¢ 
prefix but occasionally as a suffix. The Yukis do not appear to have 
one special generic name, but s7/ and pots are frequent as suffixes in 
their names. 
Many kinds of clover grow in great profusion in the limy soils of 
the West, and as a class they are considered excellent forage for all 
kinds of animals. In other parts of the world some of them have 
been occasionally eaten for food by man. In Ireland, for example, 
the dried flowers and seed heads of the common white or Dutch clover 
have in times of famine been ground into flour and converted into 
bread, and in the Eastern and Southern States the poorer negro fami- 
lies occasionally eat one or two species with vinegar as a salad. With 
the Indians of Mendocino County, and especially of Round Valley, 
however, clover enters into their diet as an essential element even 
at the present time. The fresh green foliage taken before flower- 
ing is the part most generally eaten, but the flowers of three or four 
species and the seeds of one or two are also used. After flowering 
the leaves are apt to be tough and bitter. From the beginning of 
April along into July it is no uncommon sight to see small groups 
of Indians wallowing in the clover and cating it by handfuls, or to see 
an Indian squaw emerging from a patch of clover and carrying a 
