BIG ROOT (Echinocystis fabacea, Naudin). Flowers yel- 

 lowish-white, wheel-shaped, about \ inch across, of 2 sexes in 

 the same plant, the staminate in axillary racemes at the base 

 of which a solitary pistillate flower is usually borne on a foot- 

 stalk. Leaves palmate, about 5-lobed. A graceful vine, 

 sometimes 25 or 30 feet long, clambering over bushes, growing 

 rapidly in the spring from a huge root, Southern and Central 

 California, blooming February to May. 



The remarkable root of this common plant is as big often 

 as a man's body. Seen exposed at the surface of the ground 

 it might be mistaken for a jutting rock, but for the vine stems 

 rising from it. The curious prickly burs or seed vessels con- 

 tain a few large, smooth seeds which have long served Cali- 

 fornia children as playthings. Another purpose to which they 

 were put by Spanish-Californians was to make necklaces of 

 them the meat first having been extracted through small 

 holes cut in the shell. They called the plant Chilicothe a 

 form apparently of the Aztec chilacoyote, wild cucumber. 



The nomenclature of the genus is much confused. Some 

 botanists call it Micrampelis, others Megarrhiza. 



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