FOOD PLANTS OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 6 1 



along the California coast and had a wide use among the California 

 Indians. It is called by the Mexicans "yslay" and by the Coahuillas 

 chd-mish. It grows abundantly in all the canons of the San Jacinto 

 mountains, its dark, handsome foliage crowding many a pass and hill- 

 side. Its fruit is of a reddish-yellow color, and resembles very small 

 gage plums. The pulp is, however, very thin and puckery and the 

 pit preposterously large. It is the kernel of the latter and not the 

 pulp that is mostly utilized. These plums are gathered in very large 

 quantities in August and are spread in the sun until the pulp is 

 thoroughly shrunken and dried. The thin shells of the pits are then 

 easily broken open and the kernels extracted. These are crushed in 

 the mortar, leached in the sand basket, and boiled into the usual atole. 

 The other plum tree has with some question been identified by Mr. 

 Jepson as the Prunus Andersonii, Gray. I found it growing along the 

 eastern summits of the San Jacinto range. Its fruit somewhat resem- 

 bles the Zizyphus and was formerly eaten by the Coahuillas, who called 

 it cha-wa-kal. 



The Prunus demissa, a shrub with a wide green leaf, grows about 

 the springs and moist canons of Coahuilla valley. Its fruit is a small 

 red berry called a-tut. 



A small grayish-green shrub, doubtfully identified by Mr. Jepson 

 as Halodiscus discolor, Maxim, is called by the Coahuillas tet-nut. I 

 have never seen the fruit, but the Indians say that though small it is 

 good food. 



Before dismissing the truly desert plants that yield food, a word 

 is merited by the palms. These have been referred to above. They 

 grow in long, waving lines along the gorges leading into the desert 

 wherever water stands in pools or seeps through the sandy bottoms. 

 Beneath the wide fronds the dates grow in great clusters, supported by 

 a strong but drooping stalk. These dates are very small and the seeds 

 are disproportionately large, but early in the fall, when they ripen, the 

 Coahuillas lasso the clusters and draw them down for food. Swarms 

 of bees surround the fruit as it ripens, and in the fronds of the palms 

 are multitudes of "yellow jacket's" nests. The Indians of Lower 

 California cut out the heart or center of the top of young palms and 

 eat them with great relish. I have not known the Coahuillas to 

 indulge in these "palmitos." 



44. In the valleys near the summit of the range and especially in 

 the Pinon Flats are groves of the Juniperus occidentalis, Hook., low ever- 

 green trees, with thin, shreddy bark. The fruit, a bluish-black drupe 



