66 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



its many nutritive and useful products. The use of the yellow blossoms, 

 amu-sal-em, of the Agave deserti, has been mentioned above. The 

 flower-crowned tops of the succulent roasting stalks are invariably 

 saved and the splendid clusters of blossoms carried home, there to be 

 boiled and then dried for preservation. I have some, thus prepared, 

 in my possession, that have kept perfectly for five years. They are 

 still sweet and palatable, even inviting to the taste. The incomparable 

 waxy flowers of the Yucca Whipplei are prepared for food in the same 

 way, by boiling in an olla of water. 



The use of the sweet scarlet blossoms of the Fouquiera spinosa has 

 also been noted. 



The large sumac Rhus ovata, which grows in great clumps through- 

 out southern California and whose broad green leaves ornament many 

 a dingy range of chaparral, has a small blossom which grows in full 

 clusters and is of economic importance as bee-feed. These clusters of 

 the sumac, ndk-wit, are cooked in water and eaten. 



A species of wild rose, common in southern California, grows 

 along the usually dry washes of the Coahuilla valley and hills. It is 

 either Rosa Californica or ramoscina. It is called t/s/i-u/, and the cap- 

 sules, ush-ul-toi, are picked and eaten to a small extent. 



One of the most curious ways of preparing food is the treatment of 

 the small slender capsules of the bladder-pod (Isomeris arborea, Nutt.), a 

 shrub with a hard yellow wood. These little pods, so the Indians have 

 informed me, are gathered and cooked in a small hole in the ground 

 with hot stones. 



Beside the leaves of the Chenopodium, the tiny dark leaves of the 

 Sueda suffructescens, Watson, whose use as a dye for basket materials 

 has already been noticed, are boiled for greens. 



A tall annual plant, unidentified, but called by the Coahuillas ten-il, 

 which has a yellow flower and large leaves, is cooked in an olla and eaten. 



One of the cancer roots, Aphyllon Ludovicianum, Gray, called by 

 the Coahuillas mis-a-lem, grows plentifully in the sandy washes. It has 

 large succulent roots, yellow or white, and in the springtime, before 

 the plant blossoms, and while the roots are young and tender, they are 

 dug up and roasted in the coals for food. 



The Astragulus, "rattle-snake weed" or "loco weed," is a genus 

 well known to California stockmen. It has numerous species, some- 

 what difficult of determination. Several species, at least, are poisonous 

 to cattle and sheep, and it is universally believed to madden horses, 

 dispossessing them of self-control and making them subject to fits 



