VEGETABLE SUBSTITUTES FOR SOAP 



wash water. To wear uiulcr-clothes thus washed, 

 one must be indifferent to the pricldes of the rou^^h 

 hairs and broken fibre that are of necessity mingled 

 with the water. Among tlie Spanish-speaking 

 people of the Soutliwest, this gourd goes by the 

 name Calahasilla. In old x>h^iits the root is some- 

 times six feet long and five or six inches in diameter. 

 This, descending perpendicularly into tlie earth, 

 enables the plant to reach moisture in arid wastes 

 where shallow-rooted plants would perish. The 

 dried gourds, it may be added, may l)e very conven- 

 iently used as darning-balls. 



Probabh' the most widely known of all our Ameri- 

 can soap plants — though not all who know the plant 

 are aware that it bears soap in its gift — is an herb 

 of the Pink familv that used to have a corner in 

 many old-fashioned gardens under the name of 

 Bouncing Bet (Saponaria ofpcinalis, L.). It is a 

 smooth, buxom sort of plant with stems a foot or 

 two tall and noticeably swollen at the joints, oval, 

 ribbed leaves set opposite to each other in two's, and 

 dense clusters of white or pink 5-petaled flowers. It 

 is not a native-born American, but came hither from 

 Europe early in the white immigration and has now 

 become naturalized in many parts of the country 

 near the settlements of men, where it is often so 



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