USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



desert in Soutliern California and extending into 

 Arizona and northern Mexico. It is a distant cousin 

 to the beloved boxwood of old gardens, though none 

 but a botanist would suspect the relationship. 

 The plant is dioecious, so that not every individual 

 is seed-bearing — only those possessing pistillate 

 flowers. The capsules are mature in early autumn, 

 and, gaping open, disgorge upon the ground the oily, 

 chocolate-browTi seeds, which are of about the size 

 and appearance of hazelnut kernels. These, too, 

 they somewhat resemble in taste, but are much 

 easier of consumption because nature does the 

 cracking for you. They are eaten with avidity by 

 children, Indians, sheep and goats. Mexicans call 

 them jojohas, and in Los Angeles I have seen them 

 in the Spanish quarter in the shops of druggists, who 

 find a steady sale for them for use in promoting the 

 growth of deficient eyebrows! For this purpose, it 

 seems, they are boiled, the oil extracted and this 

 applied externally. The seed's reputation as a hair 

 restorer, indeed, is rather extended in the South- 

 west. Mexicans in Lower California put it to still 

 another use, which mil be mentioned in the chapter 

 on Beverage Plants. 



According to M. Leon Dieguet in *^ Revue des 

 Sciences Naturelles Appliquees'' (October, 1895), 



80 



