USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



times frequently made forced marches of a day on 

 no other ration than a small sack of pinole, con- 

 sumed in instalments as they traveled. ^' More often, 

 however, it is moistened with water and eaten as 

 mush or thinner as a gruel, or baked in the form of 

 cakes. While the different sorts of seeds are col- 

 lected and ground separately, it is not unusual to 

 combine them for consumption, as taste may dictate."^ 



It would be tedious to enumerate all the plants 

 which have been found of sufficient food value to 

 grind into pinole, but the following may be men- 

 tioned as of especial interest and worth : 



Of wide distribution in our Far West are two 

 annual species of the homely Goosefoot or Pigweed. 

 One is Chenopodium Fremontii, Wats., with more or 

 less mealy leaves of triangular shape, a plant usually 

 a foot or two high but sometimes attaining in over- 

 flowed lands a height of six feet or over ; the other is 

 C. leptophyllitm, Nutt., with very narrow leaves that 

 are scarcely mealy. The latter species occurs also 

 in seashore sands of the Atlantic coast from Con- 

 necticut to New Jersey. The inconspicuous green 



6 For white consumption, the digestibility of this ration is im- 

 proved by thorough and repeated grinding and parching after each 

 operation. 



7 V. K. Chesnut: "Plants Used by the Indians of Mendocino Co., 

 California." Printed as Contributions from the U. S. National 

 Herbarium, Vol. VII, No. 3. 



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