IXCIEXSO. IXCEXSE PLANT (Encelia farinosa, Gray). 

 Flower heads yellow, both ray and disk, the heads somewhat 

 clustered at the tips of numerous nearly leafless branches, 

 rising above the compact plant. Leaves ovate, narrowed to a 

 rather long footstalk, silvery white with a dense scurfy wool. 

 A woody perennial, forming a round-topped bush 2 to 5 feet 

 high, with usually a stout, trunk-like stem; blooming in spring 

 on dry hills and mesas in Southeastern California, throughout 

 the deserts to Arizona and southward to Mexico. 



This is one of the commonest of desert under-shrubs, and a 

 close look at it shows its stem and branches exuding globules 

 of resinous gum. This plays a considerable part in the human 

 life of the desert. In Lower California it has been burned as 

 incense in the churches (whence the name Incienso); Indian 

 children use it as chewing gum; and their fathers make a var- 

 nish of it. According to Mr. Karl S. Lumholtz ("New Trails 

 in Mexico") Mexicans warm the gum and smear it on the left 

 side of the body below T the ribs for pain there. On this ac- 

 count the plant is sometimes called Yerba del Vaso, "waist 

 herb." 



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