USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



some, white flowers are among the best beloved of 

 the woodland posies of spring, from Manitoba to 

 Florida. The whole plant is charged with a bitter 



juice of a reddish- 

 orange color, and 

 that of the root- 

 stock was used by 

 the Indians to pro- 

 duce a bright red 

 coloring matter 

 with which they 

 painted their bod- 

 ies, and also col- 

 ored articles of 

 native manufac- 

 ture, particularly 

 baskets. An- 

 other Puccoon is 

 Lithospermum ca- 

 nescens, Lehm., of 

 the botanists. It 

 is a rough-hairy 

 herb of the Bo- 

 rage family common on the plains of the West, bear- 

 ing rather large, salver-shaped orange-yellow flow- 

 ers clustered at the summit of foot-high stems — 



224 



Puccoon 



(Lithosper'num canescens) 



