CHAPTER III 



NOTES ON ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



Berber] s Aquifolium, Pursh. Oregon Grape. — According to Dr. En- 

 gelman, this is also called in Colorado, Mountain Grape, 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 Californica, 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. 



Erodium cicutarium, L. Her. Alfilaria* Pin Clover, Pin Grass. — A 

 valuable forage in California, Arizona, and New Mexico ; eagerly eaten by 

 the stock. Gay (Historia de Chile, Botanica, torn, prim p. 388) speaks of 

 both this and E. moschatum 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 to a 



"Commonly spelled as above, bat the correct ortbograpby appears to be Alfilerillo. 



41 



