1911.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 31 



One of the most highly prized of all food plants among the Gosiutes 

 was Carum gairdneri, yamp or yam'-pa, which occurs in abundance in 

 favorable places in the higher mountains. It grows to a height of 

 four feet and bears rather few pinnately compound leaves. The roots 

 are swollen and tuberous. It is these that are eaten. They are sweet 

 and pleasant to the taste and are nutritious from the presence of an 

 abundance of starchy material. The Indians were very fond of it 

 and still frequently gather it. The usual method of cooking the roots 

 was to roast them in pits lined with hot stones in which they were 

 commonly covered and left overnight. Sometimes they were boiled. 

 These roots were cached in large quantities for winter use. 



An industry of the Gosiutes and related tribes very frequently 

 noticed by early travellers was the gathering of the seeds of grasses 

 and of various other plants, a source of food of fundamental importance. 

 While many kinds of plants furnished seeds that were used, by far the 

 greater proportion came from the grasses and members of the Cheno- 

 podiacese. Few grasses occurring at all abundantly did not furnish 

 them seeds, as those mentioned in due order in the later lists will 

 indicate. 



Various chenopods previously mentioned as forming such a pre- 

 dominant and characteristic element of the flora over the valleys and 

 flats furnished a great quantity of nutritious seeds; and in some 

 localities species of Atriplex and Chenopodium in particular, and in wet 

 places Salicornia, appear to have been the chief source of supply. 

 Plants of these genera are so often seen growing thickly over wide 

 areas that they would seem in places to have furnished a food supply 

 limited only by the capacity and inclination of the Indians to harvest 

 it. Especially Atriplex confertijolia, sun, is abundant in the alkaline 

 valleys throughout the region, occurring in enormous profusion in the 

 more favorable places so as to have been much depended upon. An- 

 other species also furnishing seeds is Atriplex truncata, a'-po. The 

 brittlewort or samphire {Salicornia hebracea), o'-ka or pa'-o-ka, pre- 

 viously mentioned, is a low, leafless, herbaceous plant with fleshy 

 jointed stems. It has been compared in appearance to branching- 

 coral, to living groves of which the resemblance is accentuated by its 

 presenting colors in many shades of p nk, red and yellow. The plant 

 occurs over extensive areas in marshy ground about the shores of the 

 Great Salt Lake and elsewhere throughout the region, often thickly 

 covering the ground for miles where no other plant is found. The 

 seeds of this plant when made into a meal and cooked are said to have 

 furnished an article tasting like sweet bread, and one of which the 

 Indians were very fond. 



