SALAL (Gaultheria Shdllon, Pursh.). Flowers white or 

 pinkish, about 3 inch long, urn-shaped, viscid, in elongated, 

 many-flowered racemes. Leaves ovate, evergreen, leathery, 

 finely toothed, alternate, 2 to 4 inches long. A shrub 1 to 3 

 feet high, sometimes taller and sometimes prostrate; with 

 stout spreading stems branches and flower stalks, as well as 

 the corolla, sticky hairy. Blooming in spring or early sum- 

 mer in the shade of trees in the Coast Ranges from Santa Bar- 

 bara northward to British Columbia. 



The Salal is a feature of the forest floor-covering under the 

 redwoods of Northern California; but its most robust develop- 

 ment is attained in Oregon and the upper limit of its range. 

 In autumn the plants are adorned with purple-black berries 

 resembling small grapes, of a spicy fragrance and taste. The 

 Oregon Indians made them a part of their diet. Lewis and 

 Clarke's journal usually records the aboriginal name for the 

 plant as Shallun, but in one place as Shelwel. The Indians 

 make a kind of syrup of the berries and also, according to the 

 journal, a sort of bread, "which being boiled with roots forms 

 a soup, which was served in neat wooden trenchers." 



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