Ceilifori^ia A.rt 8^ Nature 



MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



In the Mission days of California, 

 the Jesuite and Franciscan fathers and 

 the early settlers found it necessary to 

 rely upon their own resources and to 

 become proficient in many trades and 

 professions which in a more advanced 

 stage of civilization are relegated to 

 specialists. Medicine and surgery were 

 sciences which naturally demanded 

 the attention of everi- one, especially 

 of the fathers who were virtually en- 

 trusted with both the spiritual and 

 physical welfare of these primitive 

 communities. At times, doubtless 

 their limited stock of simple remedies 

 ran low, and with the slow means of 

 communication with other communi- 

 ties, and with Mexico and Spain, 

 whence they drew their earlier sup- 

 plies, they gladly availed themselves 

 of the traditional knowledge of the 

 virtues of native plants which ob- 

 tained among the Indian population 

 around them. 



Among the Californian aborigines, as 

 among most tribes of Indians, there 

 existed so-called medicine men or 

 doctors, who, by practicing on the su- 

 perstitions of their fellows, and with 

 the aid of their traditional knowledge 

 of the virtues of certain plants — hand- 

 ed down from generation to generation 

 of medicine men — followed with great- 

 er or less success the healing art. 



Local remedies, however, are known 

 and used every where in all climes and 

 among all conditions of people, and 

 unquestionably the simple formulae, 

 comprised of harmless vegetable in- 

 gredients, as practiced among a norm- 

 ally healthful rural community, are 

 more successful in the average cases, 

 than the complicated combinations of 



poisons administered by the old 

 school physician. 



WEST AMERICAN MOLLUSCA. 



SCALA STEARNSII Dall. 



Pliocene: Pacific Beach, San Diego, 

 Calif. (Stearns, 18S7). 



Stearns, Wagner Free Inst tr III, pt 

 2:24S t 21 f 4 (1892). 



SELENITES HEMPHILLI W. G. BInn. 

 Eastern Oregon; Washington. 



SELENITES VANCOUVERENIS Lea. 



Large, whorls 5, the superior part of 

 the last one flattened upon approaching 

 the aperture, rounded beneath; bright 

 yellowish-green, shining, roughly striate, 

 with very slight revolving lines, suture 

 moderate, umbilicus of moderate width 

 and deep. Diameter 30 mm. Oregon; 

 Washington; Alaska; western Idaho. 



Macrocylis vancouyerensis Lea. 



Iryon. Mong T M 33, t 3 f 6. 



SPORTELLA STEARNSII Dall. 



"Shell of moderate size for the genus, 

 Inefiuilateral, not very convex, white, 

 with an almost imperceptible yellowish 

 epidermis; anterior dorsal margin nearly 

 straight, the base parallel with it, the 

 end.'t bluntly rounded; surface nearly 

 smooth ,with fainlj incremental lines and 

 microscopic sagrination; teeth normal, 

 stronj^, the posterior cardinal prominent, 

 vertical; ligament strong, external, on a 

 nymph; resilium well developed, its area 

 of attachment thickened; posterior ad- 

 ductor scar rounded, unusually large. 

 Lon. 13.5, alt. 10, diam. 5 mm. One well- 

 preserved specimen from the Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia, exact locality unknown, is con- 

 tained in the Stearns collection."— Dall, 

 U S Na Mu pr 21: 885, 879, t 87, f 8, 12 

 (1899). 



SUCCINEA STRETCHIANA Bland. 



Keep, West Coast shells, 129. 



Tryon, Monog T M 19, t 2 f 5. 



Globose-conic, thin, pellucid, shining, 

 strlatulate; sipire short, obtuse, suture 

 well impressed; yhorls 3, convex, last in- 

 flated; aperture roundly oval, columella 

 arcuate, slightly thickened. Greenish 

 horn color. Length 6.25, diameter 5 mm. 



Sub-alpine Sierra Nevada, California 

 and Nevada, 4,000 toi 6,500 feet altitude. 



