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 gastrointestinal disorders. It also 

 holds a place among domestic remedies, for the same purpose that flaxseed 

 occasionally does with us, i, c, 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 archaeological 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." 



Abronia 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. 



Eurotia 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* California, Hookr "Yerba de Mansa."— -This plant, if we 



•Spelled Anemopsis in Bot. Beech, p. 390: Anemiopsis in DC. Prod. vol. lfi, pars 1, p. 237; where 

 also in the index, as a footnote, the following occurs: " Anemopsis in Hook, et Arn. [Bot. Beech. I. c.J, 

 Bed rectius, ex Anemia, Anemiopsis tit scripsit Endlicber;" 

 •1 BOT 



