596 Plants Used by Indians of the United States. | September, 
little water on the inside, then a little meal alternately, until the 
hat or bread tray was filled. After being patted on the top, it was 
set on the ground and exposed to the direct rays of the sun for 
some hours, or until it would turn out a solid cake or bread. So 
little water had been used to wet the meal that it seemed to me 
it would not stick together, but possessing a large percentage of 
sugar, little water was necessary. This was rather chaffy-looking 
bread, not unlike that made of corn meal with all the bran in it; 
nevertheless, it was very sweet. The Indians keep fat as long as 
this bread lasts. 
Quercus emoryi, a rather common tree in Arizona, but the 
wood is of no use except for fuel. This tree as well as other 
varieties in the same region, however, yields abundance of food. 
In the Smithsonian collection at the Centennial Exhibition was 
a sample of sugar from the mountain oak, at McCloud river, 
sent by L. Stone. The sugar or manna-like substance was in 
small irregular lumps of a dull color, and very brittle. 
Q. undulata var. pungens—This is a dwarf, compact bush, 
and very prolific. Its fruit is as sweet and as pleasant as fresh 
chestnuts, and is considered a great delicacy by the Lower 
California Indians. So ripe are the nuts before they fall, that 
nearly every one germinates while still in the cup. 
Q. chrysolepis, the finest of Southern California evra 
oaks, produces the largest acorn and cup, but, though much 
used as food, the nuts are not considered as good as some others. 
` `Q. sonomensis ; a common deciduous oak of the hills about 
Julian, Southern California, very productive, affording much 
choice Indian food. 
Q. agrifolia ; this beautiful evergreen oak is very abundant in 
Southern California. When deprived of its branches, it will 
sprout again as freely as a willow. Its fruit is considered by In- 
_dians superior to all other acorns. The failure of the acorn crop 
is a serious loss, and drives the Indians of Southern California to 
` hunt up every kind of substitute for them. In preparing food 
_ from acorns, the first thing is to take off the hulls. This is done 
_ in a mortar by a few slight strokes. The hulls are then removed, 
and the kernels reduced to a very fine meal. As all acorns, with 
few oon Colon possess a bitter, astringent property, which renders __ 
unfit for food until it is removed, the Indians accomplish 
laying a coarse flat basket or strainer on a Te of a : 
