OHAPTER: Tit. 
NOTES ON ECONOMIC BOTANY. 
Berseris Aquirotium, Pursh. Oregon Grape—According to Dr. En- 
gelman, this is also called in Colorado, Mountain Grapes, and the juice 
when fermented makes, on the addition of sugar, a palatable and whole- 
some wine. 
CAULANTHUS CRASSICAULIS, Watson. Wild Cabbage-——Sometimes used 
as food, when a better substitute cannot be found. 
Fremontia Cautrornica, Torr. California Slippery Elm.—Though to- 
tally unlike Eastern slippery elm in its botanical characteristics, the inner 
bark develops large quantities of mucilage when wet; in this respect sharing 
the peculiar properties of some other members of the order. Used in Cali- 
fornia to make poultices, etc. — 
Eroprum cicurarium, L. Her. Alfillaria,* Pin Clover, Pin Grass.—A 
valuable forage in California, Arizona, and New Mexico; eagerly eaten by 
the stock. Gay (Historia de Chile, Botanica, tom. prim p. 388) speaks of 
both this and E. moscuatum as among the best natural forage-plants of 
Chili, and believes them to be indigenous. It is strange that little or noth- 
ing is said concerning their value in this respect in European works. I can 
only account for this, that on the more constantly green swards of the East 
stock does not seize upon it with the same avidity that it does in a country 
where it remains green after all else is dead, and grows where nothing else 
will flourish. 
Larrea Mexicana, Moricand. Creosote-bush—Common from Western 
Texas to Kern County, California, and southward into Mexico. Dr. Loew’s 
examination proves that ‘the reddish-brown exudate on the branches” will 
yield a red coloring-matter showing all the reactions of cochineal. 
“The alcoholic extract of the leaves on evaporation yields a greenish- 
brown residue of a specific and somewhat disagreeable odor, more strongly 
perceptible on boiling the extract with water. This residue is only toa 
* Commonly spelled as above, but the correct orthography appears to be Alfilerillo. 
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