460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



is sometimes chewed, being similar in flavor and consistency to 

 spruce gum. 



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 jamesii) is a common weed in cultivated lands in the 

 pinyon belt, while the other (Solanum fendleri) 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 (Glycyrrliiza lepidota) were used for food by the 

 earlier inhabitants of the region. A member of the Senna family, 

 Hojpmanseggia 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 canaigre (Rumex 

 Jiymenosepalus) 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 canaigre 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. 



