104 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



many cases are recorded of faces so swollen, that they could 

 not be recognized by intimate friends. Some persons are not 

 aftected by the tc ach of the Rhus ; but instances have occurred 

 wherein persons supposing themselves, after long experience, 

 to be free from danger, have at last been poisoned : and when 

 the poison has once taken hold, the system is always very 

 easily affected from that time forward. Even passing to the 

 leeward of the bush on a windy day, or going through the 

 smoke of a fire in which it is burning, will bring the poison to 

 the surface ao-ain. 



§ 84, Amole. — The amole [Chlorogalumpoineridlanmn)^ or 

 soap-j^lant, has an onion-like, bulbous root, which, when rubbed 

 in water, makes a lather like soap, and is good for removing 

 dirt. It was extensively used for washing, by the Indians and 

 Spanish Californians, previous to the American conquest. The 

 amole has a stalk four or five feet high, from which branches 

 about eighteen inches long spring out. The branches are cov- 

 ered with buds, which open in the night, beginning at the root 

 of the boughs, about four inches of a branch opening at a time. 

 The next night, the buds of another four inches open, and so 

 on. 



§ 85. Nutritious Herbage. — Of indigenous nutritious grasses 

 there are a number in the state. The wild oat, though not a 

 grass, may be mentioned under this head. It resembles the cul- 

 tivated oat so nearly, that there has been some doubt whether 

 they are not identical, but the opinion among botanists is that 

 they are a distinct species. The wnld oat, in the year 1835, 

 was found only south of the bay of San Francisco ; but about 

 that time, when the white men crossed frequently from the 

 southern to the northern side of the bay, the oat was sown in 

 a natural way by horses and cattle, and it spread rapidly over 

 the Sacramento valley and the coast region. It grew very 

 luxuriantly, and in some places surj)assed in the height, size, 

 and abundance of stalks, any field of cultivated oats which I 

 have ever seen. It is said that in some localities the oat-stalks 

 were so high, that men sitting erect on horseback could not 



