ROOTS USED FOR FOOD. 425 
wild garlic (Alliwm—tku'-th); the eight-leafed garlic (shal), the five-leafed 
garlic (in'-shal), and the three-leafed garlic (wuk'-wi); the yellow-blossom 
grass-nut (Calliproa lutea—us'-tuh); the long-leafed grass-nut (Drodica 
congesta, although the Indians have a different name for it from that men- 
tioned just above, namely, yoang wai); the white-flowered grass-nut (Hes- 
peroscordium lacteum—yo'-wak wai); and the wild onion (Alliwm cepa—chan). 
There is one other grass-nut, with a-black bulb ( Anticlea—hak'-kul), which 
the Indians consider poison, although it probably contains no more poison 
than other members of the liliaceous family. 
The list of greens which they eat in the spring is also quite extensive. 
Besides the grasses and the yellow dock above mentioned, there is the mask- 
flower (Mimulus luteus—pu'-shum); two species of the Angelica (hen and 
oam'-shu), which are difficult to determine; the California poppy (Zisch- 
holtzia Californica—ta'-pu), either boiled or roasted with hot stones, and then 
laid in water; the rock-lettuce (Zcheveris lanceolata—pit'-ti-tak), eaten raw; 
the wild lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata—yau), and a species of Sanicula (man'-ku), 
the root of which, long and slightly tuberose, is also eaten. Of the wild 
lettuce a curious fact is to be noted. ‘The Indians living in the mountains, 
about at the elevation of Auburn, gather it and lay it in quantities near the 
nests of certain large red ants, which have the habit of building conical 
heaps over their holes. After the ants have circulated all through it, they 
take it up, shake them off, and eat it with relish. They say the ants, in 
running over it, impart a sour taste to it, and make it as good as if it had 
vinegar on it. I never witnessed this done, but I have been told of it, at 
different times, by different Indians whom I have never known to deceive 
me. 
Of seeds, they eat the following: A kind of coarse, wild grass (Bromus 
virens—do'-doh); a species of yellow-blooming, tarry-smelling weed (Mada- 
ria—Ikoam'-duk), the seeds of which are as rich as butter; the yellow-blossom 
or crow-foot (Ranunculus Californicus—tiss), of which the seed is gathered by 
sweeping through it a long-handled basket or a gourd; a little weed which 
grows thick in ravines (Blennosperma Californicum—poll), gathered the same 
way; also a weed (shi’-w) with little white blossoms distributed all along 
the stalks, which are thickly covered with minute prickles—I know not 
