460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
is sometimes chewed, being similar in flavor and consistency to 
spruce gum. e 
Several plants native to New Mexico have roots that serve useful 
purposes. Two kinds of wild potatoes grow in the State, one of 
which (Solanum jamesi) is a common weed in cultivated lands in the 
pinyon belt, while the other (Solanum fendiert) is not rare in the 
higher mountains on shaded banks along with pine and spruce trees. 
The latter is not distantly related to the cultivated potato (Solanum 
tuberosum) and has been referred to that plant as a subspecies. It 
has small tubers about half an inch in diameter which are sometimes 
eaten. Wild onions, as well as the roots of certain umbellifers and 
of wild liquorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota) were used for food by the 
earlier inhabitants of the region. A member of the Senna family, 
Hofimanseggia densiflora, found on the lower alkaline land in the 
western part of the State, is known as camote de raton or rat’s sweet 
potato. It develops along its roots many spherical tubers an inch or 
less in diameter, which the Indians dig and cook like the common 
potato. 
A near relative of the yellow dock, known as cafiaigre (Rumex 
hymenosepalus) is another plant whose root is economically impor- 
tant. This is often the first plant to bloom in the spring on the sandy 
mesas of southern New Mexico. The flowers appear as early as Feb- 
ruary in the lower Rio Grande Valley, and by the time most. other 
plants are blooming this has completed its growing season and its 
fruit stalk and leaves have disappeared. For the rest of the year 
the plant consists of a large mass of fascicled roots similar in appear- 
ance to those of the dahlia and about as large. They are rich in 
tannin and are employed throughout the Southwest in tanning 
hides. Most of the cattle, sheep, and goat skins cured within the 
region are treated with cafiaigre roots. Utilization of the plant for 
commercial purposes has been attempted. Experiments toward this 
end were successful in demonstrating the efficacy of the roots in 
tanning. 
The problem of fuel in New Mexico has solved itself In much the 
same way as elsewhere. With the advent of the railroads coal mines 
were opened and coal is largely used in localities where it is accessible, 
but wood is still the principal fuel. In the mountains, with the 
forests of pine, fir, spruce, and other trees to draw upon, firewood is 
obtained at no great expenditure of labor. Where available oak is 
preferred to the wood of coniferous trees because of the less amount 
of soot formed by its combustion. In the foothills of the northwest- 
ern and western parts of the State pinyon and cedar are the woods — 
depended upon. The pungent odor of cedar smoke which greets one 
whenever he approaches a human habitation must always be asso- 
ciated in memory with Indian camps to one who has traveled in the 
less frequented parts of the Southwest. 
