USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



old Indian man. Immediately three or four women 

 appeared at house doors and called inquiringly 

 "amoleV The old man halted his donkeys, lifted 

 from one a sack, out of which he drew several pieces 

 of thick, blackish root, which he distributed impar- 

 tially among the women, and then proceeded on his 

 way. The root, it transpired, was a sort of vegetable 

 soap and answered to that strange word of the 

 women, amole. This, in fact, is the name current 

 throughout our Spanish Southwest for several com- 

 mon wild plants indigenous to that region, and rich 

 enough in saponin to furnish in their roots a natural 

 and satisfactory substitute for commercial soap. 

 Several are species of the familiar Yucca in 

 particular Y. baccata, Y. angustifolia and Y. glauca. 

 Americans who prefer their own names for things 

 call them soap-root, when they do not say Spanish 

 bayonet, or Adam's Thread-and-Needle or just 

 Yucca. All three species mentioned have large, 

 thick rootstocks firmly and deeply seated in the earth, 

 so that a pick or crow-bar is needed to uproot them. 

 Before the white traders introduced the sale of com- 

 mercial soap, amole was universally used by Mexi- 

 cans and Indians for washing purposes, and the 

 practice is not yet obsolete by any means. The 

 rootstock is broken up into convenient sizes and 



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