WILD SEEDS OF FOOD VALUE 



dietary. Some of the present-day Indians of 

 Southern California mix Chia meal with ground 

 wheat, imparting to the latter a delicate, nut-like 

 flavor, though the mucilaginous character of Chia 

 disposes the mixture to gumminess. Pure Chia 

 meal, mixed with water, cold or hot, swells to several 

 times the original bulk, and is best eaten as a semi- 

 fluid gruel. Old time travelers in our desert regions 

 used to provide themselves with this meal, which 

 constituted an easily portable and highly nutritious 

 ration eaten dry with the addition of a little sugar. 

 The species indigenous to the United States are 

 Salvia Columhariae, Benth., and 8. carduacea, Benth. 

 Both are winter annuals native to the Pacific side 

 of the continent. The former is the more common, 

 found in dry ground throughout Southern Cali- 

 fornia and adjacent parts of Nevada, Arizona and 

 Mexico. The small, blue flowers, crowded in dense, 

 prickly, globular heads, interrupted upon the stalk 

 (which passes through the midst like a skewer), ap- 

 pear from March to June, and the seeds are ripe 

 a month or so later. They are easily gathered by 

 bending the stalks over a bowl or finely woven 

 basket, and beating the heads with a paddle or fan, 

 which shatters out the seeds. That is the Indian 

 method; but when the plants grow plentifully, as 



43 



