150 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



ticular canon that they know twenty miles distant. 

 There a grass grows which they use for making the 

 coils of their bateas or basin-like baskets. It must 

 be this specific kind of grass, which the Indians dis- 

 tinguish from others that look like it quite as cor- 

 rectly as the trained botanist does. The latter calls 

 it Epicampes rig&ns, and it has to be gathered at 

 a certain stage of its ripeness, neither too green nor 

 over-ripe. There are also certain plants (Sueda 

 suffrutescens, for instance) which properly treated 

 produce the dye for the coloring of the wrapping 

 of the coil that makes the design. This wrapping, 

 again, is a matter of especial choice. It is made of 

 one of two plants used for the purpose. One is a 

 species of sumac (Rhus trilobata), abundant 

 throughout California, and so well known for its 

 use in this way as to be popularly called "squaw- 

 bush"; and the other is a particular species of rush 

 (Juncus robustus), whose tall slender stem pos- 

 sesses the unique quality of providing three or four 

 colors in the same piece. These materials must all 

 be brought home, and in the case of the sumac, the 

 bark must be peeled off and the stem itself split into 

 thin strips. That portion of the material which is 

 to be dyed is especially treated buried in mud, per- 

 haps by a process occupying sometimes many days 

 or weeks, which need not here be gone into as I am 



