118 AS CALIFORNIA FLOWERS GROW 



CHAPTER VII. 



SOME PLANTS WITH HEALING QUALITIES. 



If there be one life more than another that ren- 

 ders a man independent of a physician, it is camping 

 out. The open air, the simple food, the recupera- 

 tive slumber restore tired nerves and stimulate all 

 parts of the body to normal activity. Yet, even in 

 these ideal conditions, sickness sometimes intrudes, 

 and an acquaintance with Nature's remedies may 

 save an outing trip from an abrupt ending. Mother 

 Earth seems to have intended the rovers of the 

 Western woods to be their own doctors, for at every 

 hand, whether at sea sands or in Sierran stretches, 

 she offers him a cure for every ill. 



Many people who camp in the lower altitudes of 

 California have their vacation spoiled by the ubi- 

 quitous poison-oak, even though hitherto they had 

 never succumbed to its attacks. Now, near this 

 same insidious poison, wherever it grows in the 

 State, Nature has planted an antidote. 



The best is Rhamnus calif ornica, known as "cof- 

 fee-berry," "pigeon-berry," or "yellow-root," in 

 different localities. It is a shrub from four to 

 eighteen feet high, with long leathery leaves and 



