CHIA. 
BY EDWARD PALMER. 
The family of Labiates furnishes few food plants to mankind. 
Some few, like sage, thyme, sweet marjoram, etc., are used for flavor- 
ing, and several others as aromatic teas with more or less reputed 
medicinal virtues, but I believe among civilized people, only the 
Mexicans use them to any extent as regular articles of diet. 
Chia, a name associated both with food and drink, occurs in the 
early histories of Mexico, but no clue is there given to the plants 
which furnish it. I have given some time in my botanical travels in 
Mexico to the investigation of the matter and find that several 
species of the genus Salvia are commonly used, both by Indians 
and Mexicans, in the preparation of various forms of food and drink. 
That the use of Chia is of much antiquity is proved by finding 
large quantities of it with ancient Indian remains; the custom of 
burying food with the dead evidently prevailing as it does to-day. 
Among the aborigines it is known by names in their own tongue— 
the Pimo Indians call Salvia Columbarie “ Dak ’’—but in inter- 
course with Mexicans or Americans, only the Spanish ‘‘ Chia ”’ is 
heard. 
As a food both nutritious and palatable it deserves to be better 
known. The white races are, perhaps, too apt to look with con- 
tempt upon the contents of the Indian granary, and though Chia is 
never likely to take rank as one of the great staples, it may come 
to be as universally esteemed among civilized as it is among the 
aborigines of the region where it grows. 
In preparing Chia for use the seeds are roasted and ground, and. 
the addition of water makes a mucilaginous mass several times the 
original bulk, Sugar to the taste is added, and the result is the 
much prized semi-fluid “‘pinole” of Indians and others—to me 
one of the best relished and most nutritive foods while traveling 
over the deserts; the ground meal mixed with sugar being very — 
_ portable and fasy to prepare while journeying. The taste and ap- ; 
pearance is somewhat that of flaxseed meal. One readily acquires 
_a liking for it, and learns to eat it rather as a luxury than on account _ 
of its exceedingly nutritious properties. - ae 
Salvia Columbarie, a very common plant both in California and o 
Mexico, grows so abundantly in some localities that it can be cut, 
