STEVENSON] MEDICAL PRACTICES AND MEDICINAL PLANTS 51 



Euphorbia polycarpa Benth. Spurge. Elthorbiace^e. Spurge 



family. 

 rhmiklakla tsan'na, 'make little milk' (i'l-wiliUilla, make milk; 

 tsan'na, small, little). 

 Four pinehe.s of the ground plant are put with the several fingers 

 into a cup of warm gi-uel made of white commeal, wliieh is drunk 

 for retarded flow of milk after childbirth. Its action is said to be 

 rapid. There is a belief that only wliite corn must be used for the 

 gruel, otherwise the milk would not be white. When the plant is 

 used for tliis purpose it belongs exclusively to the women. 



EupJiorhia serpyUifolia, Pers. Sptrrge. EuPHORBiACE.fi. Spurge 



family. 

 ricvnldahla, 'make milk.' 

 This plant also is used to increase the flow of milk. It is admin- 

 istered too as an emetic and a cathartic by the theurgists of the secret 

 fraternities.' 



Eurotia Janata (Pursh) Moq. Winter Sage. Chenopodiace.e. 



Goosefoot famih". 

 Tan'a.n, 'winter sage.' 

 Remedy for burns. The fresh root is chewed, and the dry root 

 is ground between stones. In both cases the theurgist takes a quan- 

 tity of the root into his mouth and ejects it into his hand. Placing 

 both hands together, he blows four times into them, that the "good 

 of his heart" may enter into the medicine; he then expectorates 

 on the palms of his hands, and, rubbing thom together, applies the 

 root to a burn, which he binds with a cotton cloth. This medicine 

 belongs to all the fraternities. 



Gaertneriaacanfhicarpa (Hook.). Britton. Ragweed. Ambro- 



siACE^. Ragweed family. 

 Mo'watapa, 'hail prickly' {moKmo'piawe, hail (pi.); wa'tapa, 

 prickly) . 

 So named because the seed-pods are prickly. 



They fall \a the giound, are covered with soil, and germinate just as do the seeds 

 that are left on the ground by hail-stones which bring the seeds from the undermost 



1 " The scientific name £«pAor6ioissaid tohavebeengiven to this genus of plants by a celebrated African 

 monarch, King Juba of Mauritania. This king was son of the partisan Juba, of the wars of Pompoy and 

 Caesar. It is claimed that he was exceptionally learned and had some knowledge of botany and medicine. 

 Having found purging properties in a plant growing in his dominion, he called the attention of his renowned 

 court physician, Euphorbus, to it and named it in his honor— Euphorbia. The trivial name, spurge, seems 

 to have arisen from the reputed property given by King Juba, as it is but a contraction of 'espurge,' a 

 French term meaning to purge. "—King. A mer. Dispevsatory, vol. i, 1S9S, p. 745. 



" Euphorbia polycarpa, called by Me.xicans Golendrina. — A strong decoction made from this plant and 

 applied to snake bites soon produces reaction. Many cures effected in this way are reported. In fact, the 

 Indians of Arizona and Southern CaUfomia rely entirely upon it in such cases. Some years since, being 

 in San Diego, and wading in the salt water, a fish (Sting-Ray) plunged the bony projection at the base of 

 its tail into my left foot, and soon the swelling and pain became excessive. A Mexican woman made several 

 gallons of a very strong decoction from this plant, and plimged my leg up to the knee into it while hot, and 

 in a few hours relief came." — Pxlmes in Amer. Jour. Pharm., 1878, vol.50, p. 590. 



