ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

373

Aboriginal Botany.
BY STEPHEN POWERS.

As employed in this paper the word, " botany " is somewhat loosely compre-
hensive, and is used for the lack of a better. Under it are included all the
forms of the vegetable world which the aborigines use for medicine, food, tex-
tile fabrics, ornaments, etc. .Among savages, of coul'1!e,there is no systematic·
classification of botanical knowledge. Every oak, pine, and grass has its
separate name ; the Indian never groups individuals together, except occasion-
ally, by adding one of the words cha,doo, popo, com, wi, back, {tree, bush,
grass, seed, root, leaf) or something of that sort. But it is not for a moment
to be supposed that the Indian iRa superficial observer; he takes careful note of
the forms and qualities of everything that grows on the face of the earth.
True, be ascribes marvelous and impossible qualities to some plants-frequently
those which do not grow in his neighborhood-but that does not blind him to
their real properties. .And as bis perceptions of individual dilferentations is
nice and minute, so bis nomenclature is remarkably run. I assert without hes-
itation that an average intelligent Indian, even if not a medicine-man, knows
a much greater catalogue of names than nine-tenths or .Americans. Nothing
escapes him-he has a name for everything. .And, indeed, there is reason. In
times or great scarcity they are driven by the sore pangs of hunger to test
everything that the soil produces, if perchance they may find something that
will appease the gnawings of appetite. They therefore know the properties or
all herbs, shrubs, roots, leaves, whether they are poisonous or nutritive, wheth-
er purgative, astringent, sedative, or what not, or without irny active principle .
.And they have often found out these things by bitter experience in their own
persons. It is surprising what a number of roots, leaves, berries, and nuts the
squaw will discover. She will go out in the spring with nothing but a fire-
hardened stick, and in an hour she will pick a breakfast of green stuff',into
which there may enter fifteen or twenty ingredients, though, or coarse, they
are seldom reduced to this extremity nowadays. Her eye will be arrested by a
minute plant that will yield her only a bulbous root as large as a large pea,
but which the .American would have passed unnoticed. Tbe women are gen-
erally best acquainted with the edible matters ; while the old men are the an·
thority as to the medicines.
There are seventy-three vegetable substances mentioned in this paper. I am
indebted to the kindness of Professor H. N. Bolander, who identified for me
many plants that I was unable to determine. There are a few specimens
which are so scarce, nowadays, owing to the ravages or stock, or so difficult to
find in flower, that it was impo~ble to give their scientific names.
I will take this occasion to say that there are many substances popularly
called '' Indian medicines" which are humbugs, and which have been fathered
upon the aborigiaes by patent-medicine meo. Whatever is set down in this
paper baa been learned from the Indians themselves.
374 PROCBEDINGS
OF THB OALIJ!'ORNIA

lo regard to mediciDal herbs aDd plaDts, their usages are peculiar aDd some-
times amusing. As the practice of medicine among them is a source of great
profit and prestige, it is sought to be invested with mystery. The medicines
always are crafty men, keeD observers, reticent. An old doctor always clothes
his art with a great deal of superstitioD, secrecy, and pompous solemnity. Io
answer to impertiDent youDg questioDers, be says his simples do not grow aDy-
where iD that neighborhood ; be is obliged to purchase them from tribes HviDg
at a great distance. I have kDown aD old doctor aDd his wife, both as full of
guile aDd subtlety as an egg is of meat, who always ~rose at the dead of night,
crept stealthily out of camp, aDd gathered their potent herbs, roots, etc., then
returned before any one was stirring, aDd concealed them.
The Indians referred to in this paper are the N eeshenams, of Bear River,
and the flora is that of the extreme lower foothills of Placer Oounty. Their
general name for " medicine" is wmmh, which denotes "good " ; but they fre-
quently use the word" medicine," even among themselves.
'l'o begin with the oaks, the species which produces their favorite acorns is
the Quercus Gambelii, Indian name, chacow. They generally select those trees
which have a free, coarse bark and large acorns. About the middle of Octo-
ber the harvest begins, when the Indian, armed with a long, slender pole, ascends
the tree and beats off' the outs. A tree which has been well stripped looks
as if it had been scourged in~ mighty bail storm. The old men generally as-
sist in carrying them home in their deep, conical ba!!kete, and there the squaw's
duties commence. HoldiDg an acorn ODa stoDe, she gives it a slight tap with
a stone pestle called S()(Jmh,to crack the shell, which 11be stripe off rapidly.
They are then dried aDd beateD to powder iD small hollows OD top of some
great rock. The flour is soaked a few hours iD a large hollow scooped in the
l'B.Dd,the water drainiDg off' and carrying away the bitterDess ; after which it is
cooked into a kiDd of mush iD baskets by means of bot stones, or baked as
bread underground. The acorn which stands secoDd in favor is that of the
burr-oak (Q. lobata-IndiaD, lowlt). In Placer Oounty this oak seems to be
more properly Q. Dougla,ii, as its braDchlets are erect and rigid. There is
an oak which they call shuheh, which seems to be something like a cross be-
tween the white and burr-oaks, having very white and coarsely rimose bark,
and glabrons, shining, deeply sinuate leaves. But Professor Bolander pronounces
this also Quercus Gamhelii. The live oak is haha; Q. Wislizenia, hammut ;
the black oak, (Q. &momensis)hanchu. The acorns of these last are eaten
only when they can procure no others. There is one other very small species
called clteepis,found growing in the mountains ; but I cannot determine from
their description whether it is the chinquapin or the whortleberry oak.
The nnt-piDe or silver-pine is toan, toanem elm. It is a great favorite with
them, the most useful tree they have, and they always regret to see an Ameri-
can cutting one down. The nuts are a choice article of food; and, burned and
beaten to powder, or crushed up raw and spread ODiD a plaster, they form their
specific for a burn or a scald. The pitch, and the mistletoe which grows on this
pine, are very valuable, in their estimation, for coughs, colds, and rheumatism.
They set th.em afire, making a dense smudge, and then the patient, wrapped in
a blanket, squats over it or stands on all-fours over it, and works and shuffles
his blanket, so as to make the smoke circulate all through it, and come in con
tact with every portion of bis body. When an. Indian baa an arrow-wound, or
wound or sore of any kind, be smears it with the pitch of this tree, and renews
it when it wears otr. In the spring, if food is scarce, they eat the bods on the
ends of the limbs, the inner bark, and the core of the cone, (ltuh) which is some-
thing like a cabbage-stalk when green. The cone-core and hooch-grass are
boiled together for a hair-dye. They are as proud of their black hair as the
Chinese ; and when an old chief who is somewhat vain of his pel'IIOnalappear-
ance, or one of the dandies of the tribe, finds his hair growing gray, he has his
squaw boil op a decoction of this kind, and he sops his bleaching locks in it.
The tar shindac, which i11worn by widows in mourning, is made of hot pitch
and horned acorns, powdered ; it i11removed by meaDB of soap-root and hot
wnter.
(In adding the word for " tree," or " hDBh,"they generally suffix the syllable
em, thus : toan, toanemcha; paddil,padditemdoo.)
C/1ippais the willow, the long twigs of which are used both for arrows and
basket-making. In making au arrrow, the banter employs a rode kind or tnrn-
ing-latbe, a couple of sticks held in the hand, between which the twig intended
for the arrow is tightly clamped and twisted around, which robs off the bark and
the albomnm, and makes it round. The long, straight shoots of the buckeye,
poaloh, poa/em doo, are used for the same purpose. For the woof in basket-
making they employ the wood of the redbud, ( Ctrci1occidenta/u-paddil) which
is split up with flints or the finger-nails into fine strings, used substantially as
thread. The willow twig is passed round and round the basket, the butt of one
lapping the twig of the other, while the redbud strings are sewn over the upper
and under the lower.
Cotoh is the manzanita. Its berries are a favorite article of food, and are
eaten raw, or pounded into flour in a basket, the seeds separated out, and the
floor made into mDSh,or sacked and laid away for winter. They also make
quite an agreeable article of cider from them, by soaking the flour in water sev-
eral hours, and then draining it oft
Alder is shootoom; poison oak is cheetoc . They are less easily poisoned by
the latter than .Americans; their children handle it a great deal while little.
They eat the leaves, both as a preventive, and as a core for its effects; though
it sometimes poisons them internally, The women use the leaves freely in cook-
ing; they lay them over a pile of roots or a batch of acorn bread, then lay on
bot stones and earth. The bright red berries of the California holly (Plwtinea
ai·bulifolia-yoalus) are eaten with relish ; also, the berries of the elder, nock,
and wild grapes-peemen. They call a grapevine n bush-Peeme11emdoo.
Soap-root, howh, is osed for poisoning fish. They pound up the root fine, and
mix it into pools where the fish and minnows have no way of escape, and at the
same time stir up the bottom until the water becomes muddy. The minnows
thrust their heads out of the water stupefied, and are easily scooped up. Bock·

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 876 PROCBBDINGS OP THE CALIJl'ORNIA

eyes are ueedin the same manner. Soap-root is also used to heal and cleanse
old sores, being heated and laid on bot. Both soap-root and buckeyes are eaten
in times or great scarcity ; they are roasted nnder ground thirty-eix boors or
more. to extract the poison.
For toothache, the remedy is the root of the California bucktborn (Frangula
Californica-luhum doo). It is heated as hot as can be borne, placed in the
mouth against the offending member, and tightly gripped between the teeth.
Several sorts of mints, heesuh,are ueedin a tea or decoction for colds or coughs.
Ague is believed to be cured by a decoction of the little mullen, (Eremocarpus
saigerus-badah) which grows on black adobe land in autumn. Colic is treat-
ed with a tea made from a greenish-gray lichen, ( Parmtlia saxicola-u,ahattac)
round growing on stones. For rheumatism, they take the leaves and stems of a
parasite vine (Galium-slushem) which grows up in. the middle of the chap-
arral bush, heat or burn them, and clap them bot on the place.
Yellow-dock, heet,is a valuable specific iu their pharmacopceia. In cue of
acute pain of any description, the root is heated bot, and pressed upon the spot.
In the spring, the leaf is eaten boiled, for greens, together with clover and many
other things.
Bunch-grass, boopuh, is the subject of superstition. They believe that the
long, slender stalks of it, discharged as arrows from a little bow against a preg-
nant woman, will produce a misCQrriage; also, that they will hasten the time of
maturity in a maiden. There is another thing, which they call 10ocoamala, prob-
ably wild parsnip, which they believe to be a deadly poison. . It will produce
nose-bleed, and the people who keep it in their houses will surely die. I will
here state that I cannot discover that the Indians ever used poisons to any con-
siderable extent to rid themselves of enemies; if they did, it was the old medi-
cine men, and they keep the matter a secret. The lndiane profess to stand in
great and perpetual dread of being poisoned by one another ; and no one will
taste anything banded to him by one who is not a member of hie family, unless
the other tastes it first ; but they imagine a hundred cases of poisoning where
one actnally occnrs.
Of grasses, they eat the seed of the wild oat, (tootootemcom)but very spar-
ingly. Wild clover, chenoee; alfilleria, batti.s; and a kind of grass growing in
wet places, (Melica-holl) are all eaten raw when young and tender, or boiled
for greens.
There are two kinds of mnshroorns which they consider edible. The one of
which they are fondest is called pnolcut, and is a little round ball, from the size
or a marble to that of a black walnut, found underground in chaparral nnd
pine thickets. They eat it raw with great relish, or roast it on the ashes. An-
other kind is the wachuh, which grows in the ordinary form, brown on the upper
side, chocolate-colored and deeply ribbed underneath, and easily peeled. It is
eaten boiled.
Higher up in the mountains they find a root looking somewhat like cork, a
piece of which they sometimes wenr suspended to their clothing as a charm. It
 AOADBKY OP SCIBNCEB. 377
is called clwcl&or champoo. Indians or other tribes io the State invest dif-
ferent species of Angelica with talismaojc attributes.
Under the popular name of grass-not there is included a large number of
plants with a small, round, bulbous root, all of which, with one exception, the
Indians eat with much satisfaction. They are generally pried out of the ground
with a sharp stick and eaten raw on the spot; but sometimes the women col-
lect a quantity in a basket and make a roast in the ashes, or boil them. Most
or them are by no means disagreeable to the civililed taste. There is the
beaver-tail grass-nut, ( Cyclobothra-wallic) the turkey .pea, ( Sanicula luber08a-
luen) the purple-flowered icrass-out, (Brodiaa congesta-oakoui) the tule grass-nut,
(coah) a small bulb, with a single, wiry, cyliodrical stalk, growing in wet
places, which I could not identify; the climbing grass-out, ( Brodiaa oolubilis-
oampoom 101)sometimes planted by Americans for ornaments ; the little aoap-
root, (Chlorogalum dilJaricatum--poyum) the wild garlic, (Allium-cooeeh) the
eight-leafed garlic, (shal)the five-leafed garlic, (insl,al) and the three-leafed gar-
lic, (wooktoe) the yellow-blossom grass-nut ( Calliproalutea-ustuh); the long-
leafed grass-out (Brodiaa congesta, although the Indians have a dilferent name
for it from that mentioned just above, namely, yoang Uli) the white-flowered
grass-nut (Hupero,rordium lacteum-yowak Uli) ; aod the wild onion (Allium
upa-chan.) There is one other grass-out, with a black bulb, (A.ntlclea-hatcul)
which the Iodians consider poison, although it probably contains no more
poison than other members of the liliaceous family.
The list of greens which they eat in the spring is also quite extensive. Be-
sides the grassesand the yellow dock above mentioned, there is the mask-flower,
(Mimulm lutem-pooshum) two species of the Angelica, (hen aod oamshu) which
are difficult to determine; the California poppy, (Esclwltzia Califomica-tapoo)
either boiled or roasted with hot stones, and then laid in water; the rock-let-
tuce, ( Echeverislanceolata-pittilac) eaten raw ; the wild lettuce, ( Olaytonia
perfoliata-yau) and a species of Sanicula, (mancoo) the root of which, long
and slightly tuberose, is also eaten. or the wild lettuce a curious fact is to be
noted. The Indians living in the mountains, about at the elevation of .Auburn,
gather it and lay it in quantities near the nests of certain large red ants, which
have the habit or building conical heaps over their boles. .After the ants have
circulated all through it, they take it up, shake them off',and eat it with relish.
They say the ants, in running over it, impart a sour taste to it, and make it as
good as if it bad vinegar on it. I never witnessed this done, but I have been
told of it, at different times. by different Iodians whom I have never known to
deceive me.
Of eeeds, they eat the rollowing: A kind of coarse, wild grlll!s,(Prom us vire11s
-dodoh) a species of yellow-blooming, tarry-smelling weed, (Madaria-
coamduc)the seeds of which are as rich as butter; the yellow-blossom or crow-
foot, (Ranunculus Californicu.s-ti~s) of which the seed is gathered by sweep-
ing through it a long-handled basket or a gourd ; a little weed which grows
thick in ravioe11,(Ble1mospe1·ma Califomicum-poll) gathered the same way;
also a weed (.,heeoo)with little white blossoms distributed all along the stalks,
378 PROCEEDINGS
OF THE CALIFORNIA

which are thickly covered with minute prickles-I know not what it is. All
these seeds are generally parched a little, and then beaten to flour, and eaten
without further cooking, or made into bread or mush. The dry, parched flour
of the crowfoot seed has that peculiar, rich taste of parched corn.
There is an umbelliferous plant, (sltokum)the root of which the Indians esteem
very highly for food ; more highly than any other, it being their nearest equiv-
alent to potatoes. I know not if it is the true cammas ; I think it is at least a
species of it. It grows on rocky hill-sides, blossoms in Jone and July, bas an
extremely delicate, fringe-like leaf, and a root about an inch long and a quarter
as thick, sweetish~pungentand agreeable to the taste. In Penn Valley, Neva-
da county, they gather large quantities or it.
They are acquainted with the Yerba santa, bot attach no particular value
to it .
.Around old camps and corrals there is found a wild tobacco, (Nicotiana
plumbaginijolia-pan) which they smoke with great satisfaction. They gather
tho leaves and dry them in the sun in a rude fashion, then cut them up fine. It
has a pungent peppery taste in the pipe, but is better than nine-tenths of the
Chinese-made cigars. It is smoked i.n a wooden or stone pipe, which is con-
structed of a single straight piece, the bowl being simply a continuation of the
stllm, enlarged. I saw one made of soapstone, about six inches long, five inches
of it being the bowl, which was nearly an inch wide at the extremity, so that it
would bold enough to last half an hour. It was quite a handsome piece of
workmanship, perfectly round and smooth, tapering evenly down to a bulb,
which was inserted in the mouth. The tobacco-pipe is called pammcoolah.
There are two plants used for textile purposes. One is a kind of tulc-grass,
or small bulrush, (Juncus-doccun) which they hetcheled with flints or with
their finger-nails,bleached, and wove into breech-cloths. For strings, cords,
and nets, they used the inner bark of the lowland milk-weed (Asdepias-poo).
When it is dry, the Indian takes both ends of a stalk in his bands, passes it
through his mouth, and crushes it with his teeth, or else passes it over a stone
while he gently taps it with another; then strips off the bark and twists it into
strands, then into cords. The rock milk-weed, (oampoo) has a medicinal value;
they use the root for the toothache, the same way the root of the bockthorn is
used.
It is necessary to state that most of the medicines above mentioned are of the
class which the women are allowed to become acquainted with and to employ.
There are several other substances which are more rare and valuable, or at least
they deem them more valuable, and which the medicine-men alone know any-
thing about. They are found far up in the mountains or in other localities, and
may be called the medicines of commerce, having a tolerably well-settled value in
shell-money. I regret that I was generally unable to secure sufficiently com-
plete specimens to determine them. For instance, there is a root (luhno) which
I should call Seneca snake-root, but or which I could procure only a little piece.
.A root about as large as a pipe-stem, and four inches"long, is worth about
a dollar. A decoction of it is used for diarrhrea, tlmt scourge or aboriginal life;
 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 379

also for venereal diseases. There is a bush (chapum)round in the mountains, with a
very pale tea-green bark, and minute golden specks on the small limbs, which ie
probably California eaesafras, and which is very highly esteemed for coughs and
cold@,a tea of the bark being given. Another root, (.pallic)spignet Crom its
appearance, is made into a tea and drunk for diarrhrea ; this al110 is very
valuable. There is still another root, (litway) found on the Truckee, which is
good for the dropsy .
.Although it is not strictly germain to the topic, I may be permitted to state
that the Indians have names for all the internal organs of the human body; and
their ideas of their functions, and of the operations of medicine, are at least as
respectable as those of the Chinese.

REGULAR MEETING, SEPTEMBER 21st, 187 4.

In the absence of the President and Vice President, Dr. Hark-

ness was called to the Chair.
Thirty-nine members present.
Donations to the Museum : Four jars of alcoholic specimens
were received from John C. Merrill. Twenty-one fine specimens
of fossils, and six jars of alcoholic specimens from Alaska, were
received from the officeof the United States Coast Survey; accom-
panying these specimens was a letter from J. S. Lawson, dated U.
S. Coast Survey Brig R.H. Fauntleroy, Admiralty Inlet, Wash-
ington Territory, August 1st, 187 4, as follows:

On behalf of Captain Charles Willoughby, sailing master of this vessel, I

send, for the California .Academy of Sciences, two cases containing some teeth,
portions of tusks and of bones, supposed to he remains of the ElephasPrimi-
geniru. 'l'bese were found on the beach at Scatchet Head,Whidley Island; and
as their appearance indicates-all being thickly ·encrusted with small barnacles
when picked up-they have been subjected to the action of water for a long
time. I am informed that some fourteen years ago a large slide took place at
this point, since which time portions of these remains have, from time to time,
been picked up. One tooth then found, and now in possession of .Arthur
Phinney, Esq., of Port Ludlow,shows no sign of having lain in the water.
Captain Willoughby has climbed the bluff in several places whenever .he
could make an ascent, but could not find any of these remains. Those now