CHAPTER X 

 MISCELLANEOUS USES OF WILD PLANTS 



mickle is the powerful grace that lies 

 In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities; 

 For nought so vile that on the earth doth live 

 But to the earth some special good doth give. 



Borneo and Juliet. 



IN the days before game laws came into being 

 within the limits of the United States, several 

 wild plants were employed for catching fish. I do 

 not mean that they were used as bait, but in a very 

 different way, long practised by the Indians. The 

 plants in question contain in their juices narcotic 

 poisons, which, stirred into the water of ponds, deep 

 pools or running streams temporarily dammed, con- 

 taining fish, stupefy the latter without killing them, 

 and cause them to float inert to the surface, where 

 they may be easily gathered into baskets. No ill ef- 

 fects appear to result from eating fish so poisoned, 

 and in old times in California there was ample chance 

 to test the matter, as both white men and red were 



210 



