MISCELLANEOUS USES 



leaves, found in alkaline ground from California to 

 New Mexico. 



People who have an aversion to Lady Nicotine 

 may be interested in certain plants useful to weaken 

 the eifect of tobacco or to act as a substitute. Be- 

 fore the coming of the white man, the Indian smoked 

 principally as a religious rite, as an offering of re- 

 spect to superiors, or to cure disease. It was re- 

 served for the white man to make of the practice 

 a purely pleasurable indulgence. Moreover, the 

 smoking material of pre-Columbian days within the 

 territory of the present United States, was quite 

 different from Twentieth Century commercial 

 tobacco. There are several indigenous species of 

 Nicotiana, which the aboriginal inhabitants dried 

 and utilized, and in some instances cultivated. 

 Their customary ^' smoke," however, was not pure 

 tobacco, but a combination with other material; and 

 this brings us again to Kinnikinnik, mentioned a 

 little while ago. This word is an Algonkian-Indian 

 expression signifying a mixture, and was applied by 

 the plainsmen, trappers and settlers in the Fur 

 Trade days to a preparation of tobacco with the 

 dried leaves or bark of certain plants. Afterwards 

 it came to be given to the plants themselves, the 

 most important of which are these: 



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