104 RESOURBCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
many eases are recorded of faces so swollen, that they could 
not be recognized by intimate friends. Some persons are not 
affected by the vouch of the Rhus; but instances have oceurred 
wherein persons supposing themselves, after long experience, 
to be free from danger, have at last been poisoned: and when 
the poison has once taken hold, the system is always very 
easily affected from that time forward. Even passing to the 
leeward of the bush on a windy day, or going through the 
smoke of a fire in which it is burning, will bring the poison to 
the surface again. 
§ 84, Amole.—The amole (Chlorogalum pomeridianum), or 
soap-plant, has an onion-like, bulbous root, which, when rubbed 
in water, makes a lather like soap, and is good for removing 
dirt. It was extensively used for washing, by the Indians and 
Spanish Californians, previous to the American conquest. The 
amole has a stalk four or five feet high, from which branches 
about eighteen inches long spring out. The branches are cov- 
ered with buds, which open in the night, beginning at the root 
of the boughs, about four inches of a branch opening at a time. 
The next night, the buds of another four inches open, and so 
on. 
§ 85. Nutritious Herbage.—Of indigenous nutritious grasses 
there are a number in the state. The wild oat, though not a 
grass, may be mentioned under this head. It resembles the cul- 
tivated oat so nearly, that there has been some doubt whether 
they are not identical, but the opinion among botanists is that 
they are distinct species. The wild oat, in the year 1835, 
was found only south of the bay of San Francisco; but about 
that time, when the white men crossed frequently from the 
southern to the northern side of the bay, the oat was sown in 
a natural way by horses and cattle, and it spread rapidly over 
the Sacramento valley and the coast region. It grew very 
luxuriantly, and in some places surpassed in the height, size, 
and abundance of stalks,eany field of cultivated oats which I 
have ever seen. It is said that in some localities the oat-stalks 
were so high, that men sitting erect on horseback could not 
