FRUITS AND SHRUBS OF PRIEST RIVER VALLEY. 243 



Many were the sidelong looks and grasps as we passed through 

 them. After lunch was eaten, we would supplement it with several 

 times its bulk of this most luscious of wild fruits, nor would 

 supply give out, or desire grow less. 



The bearberry {Arctostaphylos iii'a-ursi) , growing from 3 

 inches to one foot in height, is the most common shrub in the 

 valley. It often completely carpets the more open hills and slopes, 

 with a thick mat of its recumbent stems, rich, green leaflets, and 

 a profusion of its round, purplish-red berries. The leaves are ^ 

 to one inch in length, oval, glabrous and fleshy, wath smooth 

 margin. They form the tobacco of the red man. He constructs 

 a small stone kiln, places over it a piece of matting made from 

 willow and alder sticks, woven together with osier or buckskin 

 after the fashion of a slat fence. Upon this he puts the gathered 

 leaves of the kinnikennik, by which cognomen the bearberry is 

 universally styled in that country. When dry to a certain degree, 

 he sacks it up, and smokes it. The flavor is very mild in com- 

 parison to our commercial weed, }'et the smoking members of our 

 party would often prolong their waning supply by drying and 

 mixing kinnikennik with their Bull Durham, Duke's Mixture, et 

 cetera. The fruit is ^-j/^ inch in diameter. The rind reminds 

 one of the crab-apple in taste. The flesh is mealy, acid-acrid, sour 

 to bitter, but not unpleasant. It contains from 4-6 seeds, of size 

 and shape of those of the rose. It has a persistent, 5-parted calyx 

 at the base. 



Pachystima myrsinitcs is a very abundant and characteristic 

 shrub of the woods of medium density. Having no common 

 name of its own, it is probably included with the bearberry. It at- 

 tains a height of 6 inches to 2 feet. Its sessile, evergreen leaflets 

 greatly resemble those of the bearberry, except that they are 

 sharply toothed, serrate around the upper two-thirds. 



The buffalo-berry (Lepargyrea canadensis) is a fine shrub of 

 about 3 feet height, one that would be an ornament to any lawn. 

 It is somewhat rare. Its foliage is not unlike that of some wil- 

 lows, and presents a silvery appearance. The fruit is from yi-}i 

 inch in diameter, of bright, crimson color, thin, shining skin and 

 juicv pulp. The first taste is pleasant acid, the after-taste bitter 



