The Golondrina Plant. 193 



butter or even lard, are the most general popular remedies credited 

 with curing the bites of venomous reptiles or insects. Other reme- 

 dies, like black ash bark, caustic and bluestone, gunpowder ignited 

 on the wound (in cases of horses or cattle bitten), and many others 

 are often reported as efficacious in the cases where they were ap- 

 plied. 



The Euphorbiaceae or spurge family contains plants and shrubs, 

 usually with a milky, acrid (poisonous ) juice. In Euphorbia,, the 

 principal genus in America, the flowers are monoecious, included in 

 a cup-shaped, four and hve-lobed involucre resembling a calyx or 

 corolla, usually bearing large and thick glands at its sinuses. 



In the species to which the name golondrina is usually applied 

 the leaves are small, all opposite and similar, furnished with awl- 

 shaped or scaly stipules ; stems and branches usually forming a 

 broad, spreading mat on the ground ; annual, usually in blossom 

 throughout the year. 



Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit (West American Scien- 

 tist, vol. vi., p. 84), sa}^ of these plants: 



"We find that several species of Euphorbia, mostly the E. albo- 

 marginata and the E. prostrata, have acquired a reputation as 

 antidotes for snake poisoning under the names of 'golondrina ' and 

 ' gollindrinera.' 



In Southern California Euphorbia polycarpa is the common 

 ^golondrina of the Mexicans and Indians, and has the reputation of 

 being a sure cure for all cases of venom poisoning, in common with 

 other similar, nearly related species of this genus. It is abundant 

 from the seashore to the Colorado desert, where a larger variety 

 than ours is very abundant. 



The Herald, of Banning, Cal., Louis Munson, editor, under date 

 of October 12, 1889, contained the following article on the varieties 

 of this plant, which I consider worthy of reproduction : 



An article of Dr. S. Wier Mitchell, of Philadelphia, lately widely 

 copied, announced that no sure cure was known for the virus of a 

 rattlesnake. The doctor evidently had not consulted the lore of the 

 Indians of Southern California. Nobody hears of an Indian dying 

 from the bite of a rattlesnake, nor of his losing any stock from that 

 cause. On the authority of Mr. I. K. Fisher, of Santa Barbara, we 

 state that when a snake has bitten itself it resorts to the remedy 

 which the Indians use, from which we infer that their discovery of 

 the cure arose from observing the snake's employment of the same 

 remedy. 



Mr. Frank Smith, of Whitewater, speaks the Indian language, 

 and through that has come into possession of many secrets which 



