472 FOREST CULTURE AND 
coast sand. ©. prostratus, Benth., likes to form natu- 
ral mats on slopes formed by roads and slides, which 
it gradually covers, and with its pretty blue flowers 
soon decorates. (Professor Bolander. ) 
Cercocarpus ledifolius, Nuttall.—California. Rises 
in favorable spots to a tree 40 feet high, with a stem 
diameter of 23 feet. The wood is the hardest known 
in California. C. parvifolius is of lesser dimensions. 
Cherophyllum bulbosum, Linné. — Europe and 
Middle Asia. The root forms a kitchen vegetable. 
Several other species yield edible roots. 
Chenopodium blitum, F. v. Mueller. (Blitum vir- 
gatum, Linné.)—From South Europe to India. An 
annual herb, extensively in use there as a cultivated 
spinach plant. The fruits furnish a red dye. The 
genus Blitum was reduced to chenopodium by the 
writer in Caruel’s Giornale Botanico some years ago. 
C. capitatum (Blitum capitatum, L.) may not be really 
a distinct species. C. Quinoa, Willd., from Chile, 
deserves hardly recommendation for culture, though 
a nutritious spinach, it being apt to stray as a weed 
into cultivated fields. Some of these sorts of plants 
are useful to anglers, as attracting fish, when thrown 
into rivers or lakes. 
Chlorogalum pomeridianum, Kunth. — California, 
frequent on the mountains. This lily-like plant at- 
tains a height of 8 feet. The heavy bulb is covered 
with many coatings, consisting of fibers, which are 
used for cushions, mattresses, etc.; large contracts 
are entered into for the supply of this material on a 
very extensive scale. (Professor Bolander.) The in- 
ner part of the bulb serves as a substitute for soap, 
and it might be tried whether it can be utilized for 
vechnoldgical purposes like the root of saponaria. 
