TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



99 



Oklahoma. It has Large, smooth black seeds inclosed in the waxy, 

 yellow translucent fruits, which are borne in great profusion. ThJ 

 seeds have been utilized for beads by the tribes ac(iuainted with them. 

 The Omaha traveling into Oklahoma have found them there, and 

 have taken up their use. They already had employed for beads as 

 well as for a good-luck charm the brigiit red seed of a species of 

 Erytkrina. They say it grows somewhere to the southwest, toward 

 or in Mexico. They call it "red medicine," vmka'^ zhlde (nwka", 

 medicine; zkide, red). AVhen the seeds of Mella were adopted for 

 use as beads they likened them to maka" zhide, and so call them 

 maka"-zhide nabe, " black red-medicine." 



EurHORBIACKAE 



Croton texexsis (Klotzsch) Muell. Arg. 



One Pawnee informant said that very young babies, when sick, 

 were bathed with a decoction of leaves of this plant. 



Chamaesvce sKKPTLLiFOLiA (Pers.) Small. 



Naze-ni pezhl (Omaha-Ponca), "milkweed" {na^c-ni, milk; 

 pezhi, weed or herb). 



According to a Ponca informant this phuit was boiled and the 

 decoction drunk by young mothers whose flow of milk was scanty 

 or lacking, in order to remedy that condition. This use of the plant 

 is probably prescribed according to tiie doctrine of signattires. An 

 Omaha informant said it was used as a remedy in case of dysentery 

 and abdominal bloating in children. For this purpose tiie leaves of 

 the plant were dried and pidverized and applied after first cross- 

 hatching the abdomen with a knife and then further abrading the 

 skin with the head of a certain plant, the identity of which I do not 

 know at present as I have not had a sample. Then the pulverized 

 leaves were rubbed by hand on the abraded surface. It was said to 

 cause a painful, smarting sensation and to act powerfully u[)on the 

 bowels through the intervening tissues and to give relief. 



An Oghila informant said little boys used the plant in play as a 

 headdress. 



DiciiiiOPHYLLUJi JiAROiXATUM (Pursli) Kl. & ( iarckc. Sno\v-on-the- 

 mountain. 

 Karipika or kalipika tsitniks (Pawnee); tsififiks, '• j)oison." 

 Karip'tka or kalipika is the Pawnee name of AneJepidH ,ii/riaca, to 

 which they compare this plant, because of its milky juice, but 

 they recognize the poisonous quality of all the genus. 

 Anacardiaceae 



Khus glabra L. Smooth Sumac. (PI. 19, a.) 

 Cha"-zi (Dakota), "yellow- wood " (2/, yellow). 

 Mi"hdi-hi (Omaha-Ponca). 



