IN CALIFORNIA 145 



ing are given a remarkably green, beautiful and 

 cultivated look. The gray stems, curiously banded 

 in black, are sometimes resorted to for fire wood by 

 campers, in default of other material, and give off 

 an offensive smell suggesting creosote, as do the 

 small varnished leaves. Old Manuelito calls the 

 bush in his Coahuilla-Spanish patois, hedeondia 

 (stink-bush) ; but not disrespectfully, for his peo- 

 ple believe they have found the proverbial heart of 

 good in this thing of evil, and make of the foliage a 

 famous bitter tea. A little sipped before breakfast, 

 Manuelito tells me, acts as a tonic; a little more in- 

 duces vomiting, but this is a relief to a man some- 

 times. Applied exteriorly as a liniment, it is heal- 

 ing for sores and wounds. It also has virtue as a 

 remedy for colds in fact, is another instance of 

 good "por todo." 



Down in Manuelito 's sandy melon patch crouches 

 a plant with leaves of a sullen, poisonous shade of 

 green, from out of which rise wonderful trumpets 

 of bloom, purest white with now and then a blush 

 of purple. It looks and smells exceedingly like the 

 Jimson weed of Atlantic dumps and vacant city 

 lots, and is indeed its far west cousin, Datura 

 meteloides. Manuelito knows it well as does every 

 Indian from Texas to the Pacific. All the South- 

 west calls it toluache, and it is virulently narcotic. 



