48 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



tried with eminent success, for in three days after its apphca- 

 tion he was able to resume his business. As nearly everyone 

 throughout California is familiar with this root, we need only 

 add that it is used in the same manner as common soap." 



The soap plant or Amole {Chlorogaluin pomcridianuin) , 

 is a plant of the lily family with a paniculately brandling stem, 

 from one to five feet high, springing from a large densely 

 brown-fibrous coated bulb. The coarse, grass-like, undulate 

 leaves are strongly keeled and are borne in a basal tuft. The 

 delicate white flowers, veined with purple, are borne along the 

 branches of the spreading panicle, from the latter part of May 

 to July. The flowers open only during the middle of the after- 

 noon. The soap plant is common on rocky banks and hills to 

 above 4,000 feet in the Sierras, and in the early days its sapon- 

 aceous bulbs were often used in place of soap. 



The Indians of the Sierras have also a curious use for the 

 bulb of the soap plant. The following incident is related by 

 the late Galen Clark in his 'Tndians of the Yosemite" : "The 

 soap-root was used at a low stage of water, late in summer. 

 They dug several bushels of the bulbous roots and went to a 

 suitable place on the bank, where the roots were pounded into 

 a pulp, and mixed with soil and water. This mixture, by the 

 handful, was then rubbed on rocks out in the stream, which 

 roiled the water and also made it somewhat foamy. The fish 

 were soon affected by it, became stupid with a sort of strangu- 

 lation, and rose to the surface, where they were easily cap- 

 tured by the Indians with their scoop baskets. In a stream the 

 size of the South Fork of the Merced River at Wawona, by 

 this one operation every fish in it for a distance of three miles 

 would be taken in a few hours." 



Though practically immune to RJius poisoning, I do not 

 appear to be exempt from the poisonous effect of the hairs of 

 the showy lady's slipper {Cypripediiiui liirsutum) , formerly 

 known as C. spcctabile. I handle the lady's slipper with more 



