The Golondrina Plant. 193 



butter or even lard, are the most general pojjular remedies credited 

 with eurin<j^ the bites of venoinous reptiles or insects. Other reme- 

 dies, like black ash bark, caustic and bluestone, gunpowder ignited 

 on the wound (in cases of horses or cattle liitten), and many others 

 are often reported as efficacious in the cases where they W'ere ap- 

 plied. 



The Elii)lu)rbiacea' or s])urge family contains jjlants and shrubs, 

 usually with a milky, acrid (])oisonous) juice. In Euphorbia, the 

 l)rincii)al genus in America, the flowers are monoecious, included in 

 a cui>sha])ed, four and five-lobed involucre resembling a calyx or 

 corolla, usually bearing large and thick glands at its sinuses. 



In the species to which the name golondrina is usually ap])lied 

 the leaves are small, all opposite and similar, furnished with awl- 

 shapcd or scaly stii)ulcs ; stems and branches usually forming a 

 broad, spreading mat on the grountl ; annual, usually in blossom 

 throughout the year. 



Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit (West .\.meric.\n Scien- 

 tist, vol. vi., p. 84), say of these plants: 



"We find that several species of Euphorbia, mostly the E. albo- 

 marginata and the E. ])rostrata, have acquired a reputation as 

 antidotes f<jr snake ])oisoning under the names of 'golondrina' and 

 'gollindrinera.' 



In Southern California Eujjhorbia jiolycarpa is the common 

 golondrina of the Mexicans and Indians, and has the rei)utation of 

 being a sure cure for all cases of venom poisoning, in common w'ith 

 other similar, nearly related species of this genus. It is abundant 

 from the seashore to the Colorado desert, where a larger variety 

 than ours is very abundant. 



The Hernid, of Banning, Cal., Louis Munson, editor, under date 

 of October 12, 1889, contained the following article on the varieties 

 of this plant, which I consider w^orthy of reproduction : 



An article of Dr. S. Wier Mitchell, of Philadelphia, lately widely 

 copied, announced that no sure cure was known for the virus of a 

 rattlesnake. The doctor evidently had not consulted the lore of the 

 Indians of Southern California. Nobody hears of an Indian dying 

 from the bite of a rattlesnake, nor of his losing any stock from that 

 cause. On the authority of Mr. I. K. Fisher, of Santa Barbara, we 

 state that when a snake has bitten itself it resorts to the remedy 

 which the Indians use, from which we infer that their disco ver^' of 

 the cure arose from observing the snake's employment of the same 

 remedy. 



Mr. Frank Smith, of Whitewater, speaks the Indian language, 

 and through that has come into possession of many secrets which 



