GENERAL REPORT. 49 
to lessen the quantity of water taken, which in hot countries is often so - 
excessive as to produce serious illness. As a remedy it is invaluable, from 
its demulcent properties, in cases of gastro-intestinal disorders. It also 
holds a place among domestic remedies, for the same purpose that flaxseed 
occasionally does with. us, i. ¢., a grain of the seed is placed in the eye 
(where it gives no pain) to form a mucilage by means of which a foreign 
body may be removed from the organ. I have found it of great service as 
a poultice. As a matter of archzxological interest, it may be noted that 
quantities of this seed were found buried in graves several hundred years 
old. This proves that the use of the seed reaches back into the remote 
past. Indeed, I find several allusions to the name Chia in the second vol- 
ume of Bancroft’s great work on the ‘Native Races of the Pacific States,’ 
pp. 232, 280, 347, 360. Chianpinoli appears to have been made by the 
so-called Aztec races from corn which was roasted and ground as the Chia 
was. Chia was, among the Nahua races of Ancient Mexico, as regularly 
cultivated as corn, and often used in connection with it. Indeed, it was 
one of the many kinds of meal in constant use, and which appear to have 
gone then, as now, under the generic name of pinoli.” 
AsroniA FRAGRANS, Nutt—The delicious perfume of the flowers of this 
plant suggests the inquiry as to whether it could not be utilized as a toilet 
adjunct. Specimen number 127 of the New Mexican collection, when taken 
at Agua Azule, was fairly loading the air with its matchless fragrance. 
SuUROTIA LANATA, Moq ‘“‘ White Sage,” ‘‘ Winter Fat.”— Widely diffused 
through our Western Territories, and held in great repute as a winter forage; 
stock feeding on it actually gaining flesh when living on this plant, so un- 
promising in its appearance. It is noteworthy that most animals do not at 
first eat it from choice. Of this we had the strongest evidence furnished 
by mules taken from Missouri to Colorado. They would not touch it The 
Utah band, however, eagerly devoured it. Said by Mr. Watson to impart 
a disagreeable flavor to the meat of cattle fed upon it, and also asserted 
by the same authority to be used as a remedy in intermittents. 
Anemiopsis* Catirornica, Hook. ‘Yerba de Mansa.”—This plant, if we 
* Spelled Anemopsis in Bot. Beech. p. 390: Anemiopsis in DC. Prod. yol. 16, pars 1, p. 237; where 
also in the index, as a footnote, the following occurs: ‘‘ Anemopsis in Hook, et Arn. [ Bot. Beech. 1. v.], 
sed reetius, ex Anemia, Anemiopsis ut seripsit Endlicher.” 
4 BOT 
