USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



in the first couple of centuries of the Spanish domina- 

 tion always speak of Chia with respect. Later, when 

 upper California came in for settlement, the diarist 

 of PortolcVs expedition to the Bay of San Francisco 

 specifies it as among the gifts offered by the Indians 

 to their white visitors; and archaeologists, grubbing 

 in prehistoric graves in Southern California, have 

 turned up deposits of the seed left as viaticum of 

 departed souls, which attest the antiquity of its use 

 within the limits of the United States. Even to-day, 

 shopkeepers in the Spanish quarters of our own 

 Southwestern cities as well as street venders in the 

 towns of Mexico include Chia as part of their stock 

 in trade. 



One wonders what this all but forgotten food can 

 be. 



It is the name applied to at least five or six dis- 

 tinct species of plants, of somewhat different aspects, 

 most of them belonging to the genus Salvia. The 

 seeds are flattish and more or less shining, suggest- 

 ing small flaxseed, of whose character they some- 

 what partake, being oily and mucilaginous. For 

 human consumption they should be parched and 

 ground, w^hen they may advantageously be added to 

 corn-meal, and this mixture made with water into 

 a mush was a favorite item in the old Mexican 



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