FIGWORT FAMILY. 387 
are from 4 to 6 inches long, are considerably prized for smoking and 
to some extent for chewing by all of the Indians of the county. The 
Round Valley Indians gather them in large quantity during the sum- 
mer when they are engaged in hop picking near Ukiah and in the 
Sacramento Valley. The leaves are light green, and brittle when dry. 
The pipe used in smoking this tobacco is that described under /raxinus 
oregana.* 
Solanum nigrum L. 
Mon'-uk) (Numlaki).—The common black nightshade (fig. 78), 
which occurs somewhat plentifully as a garden weed throughout the 
district. The berries are used for 
food, but only when fully ripe. The 
green fruit is looked upon as poison- 
ous, one case being cited by Mr. 
C. M. Brown, of Covelo, where in 
1893 a white child was seriously but 
not fatally poisoned by eating the 
berries, some of which were sup- 
posed to have been unripe. The 
prominent symptoms were vomiting 
and spasms. 
SCHROPHULARIACEAE. Figwort 
Family. 
Mimulus guttatus DC. 
Wa-chd@ (the accented a being 
prolonged) (Wailaki).—A succulent, 
very showy yellow-flowered plant, 
which grows abundantly in water 
courses and especially on level land 
near springs. The plant is used to 
some extent as a substitute for let- 
tuce, both by the Indians and the 
white settlers. On two separate 
occasions I was informed that a long 
time ago the ash from the leaves was 
used by the Round Valley Indians as 
one of the sources of salt. For notes on another plant, the leaves of 
which were used in the same way, see /etasites palmata. 
Fic. 78.—Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), 
one-third natural size, 
Orthocarpus lithospermoides Benth. 
Je-tsa'-chit (Wailaki).—A herbaceous yellow or pink flowered plant 
about a foot high, the upper flowering half of which is a simple, dense, 
cylindrical spike, like a painter’s brush. The name ‘* paint brush” 
1 Above, p. 378. Below, p. 395, 
