USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



occurs and goes among the whites by the name of 

 Wild Anise."* Its roots bear in greater or less 

 abundance flattish tubers, which are ser\dceable in 

 the same way as Yamp. 



A more famous root of the Pacific Slope than 

 Yamp is the Bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva, Pursh), 

 the racine amere of the French explorers, and found 

 from Arizona north -to Montana (where it has given 

 name to the Bitterroot Mountains and Bitterroot 

 Eiver) and w^est to the Pacific. It is a member of 

 the Portulaca family, with showy, many-petaled 

 white or pink blossoms sometimes two inches across 

 and opening in the sunshine close -to the ground, in 

 form like a spoked wheel. Montana has adopted it 

 as her State flower. It is one of the marvels in the 

 history of alimentation that the unappetizing ro'ots 

 of this plant, intensely bitter when raw and smelling 

 like tobacco when boiling, should have secured a 

 stable place in any human bill of fare. Neverthe- 

 less, by the Indians of the far Northwest it has been 

 extensively consumed from time immemorial, and 

 explorers' journals contain many references to ab- 



4 Not to be confused with the mis-called Sweet Anise, which 

 is really Fennel, the introduced ForniciiJum vulfiare. The latter is 

 abundantly clothed with large, finely dissected leaves of a pronounced 

 licorice flavor and has vellow flowers; while the Carum bears white 

 flowers and its leaves are sparse and pinnate with simple seg- 

 ments. 



14 



