Part 25

TOLGUACHA. LARGE-FLOWERED DATURA.

Datura meteloides, DC. Nightshade Family.

Hab.--Southern California, and northward--at least to Stockton.

The large-flowered Datura is a common plant along southern roadsides, producing in early May its enormous white or violet-tinged funnels, which are sometimes ten inches long. It resembles the common Jamestown-weed, of which it is a near relative, but may be distinguished by its large flower and its cylindrical calyx, which is not angled. It shares with the Jamestown-weed its narcotic poisonous qualities, and is a famous plant among our Indians. Dr. Palmer writes that they bruise and boil the root in water, and when the infusion thus made is cold, they drink it to produce a stupefying effect. In a different degree they administer it to their young dancing women as a powerful stimulant, and before going into battle the warriors take it to produce a martial frenzy in themselves.

By the Piutes it is called "main-oph-weep." The specific name, meteloides, indicates the resemblance of this plant to Datura Metel, of India.

YERBA SANTA. MOUNTAIN BALM.

Eriodictyon glutinosum, Benth. Baby-eyes or Waterleaf Family.

Shrubby; three to five feet high. Leaves.--Thick; glutinous; smooth above; light beneath, with prominent net-veining; three to six inches long. Flowers.--Purple, violet, or white. Calyx.--Five-parted. Corolla.--Six lines long; four lines across. Stamens.--Five; alternate with the corolla-lobes. Ovary.--Two-celled. Styles two. Hab.--Western California; common on dry hills.

The bitter, aromatic leaves of the yerba santa are a highly valued, domestic remedy for colds, and many old-fashioned people would not be without it.

Dr. Bard, one of our most eminent physicians, writes of this interesting little shrub: "It has been reserved for the Californian Indian to furnish three of the most valuable vegetable additions which have been made to the pharmacopoeia during the last twenty years. One, the Eriodictyon glutinosum, growing profusely in our foothills, was used by them in affections of the respiratory tract, and its worth was so appreciated by the missionaries that they named it yerba santa, or holy plant."

The other plants referred to by Dr. Bard are the Rhamnus, or Cascara sagrada, and the Grindelia. In the mountains of Mariposa County, it is known as "wild peach," probably because the leaf somewhat resembles the peach-leaf.

Dr. Behr writes that considerable quantities of it are exported, partly for medicinal purposes, and partly as a harmless and agreeable substitute for hops in the brewing of certain varieties of beer, especially porter.

In Ventura County this passes by insensible gradations into E. tomentosum, Benth., and there it is difficult to distinguish clearly between the two species.

E. tomentosum, Benth., is found from San Diego probably to Santa Barbara. This comely shrub is so disguised in its woolly coat that one does not at first detect its close relationship to the more common yerba santa. Its broad, oval leaves, ribbed like the chestnut and closely notched, and its generous clusters of unusually large violet flowers, serve to bewilder us for the moment. The wool upon the foliage gives it a gray-green tone, harmonizing perfectly with the violet flowers. It is specially abundant all over the mesas by the seashore, near San Diego.

ALUM-ROOT.

Heuchera micrantha, Dougl. Saxifrage Family.

Rootstock.--Stout. Leaves.--All radical; two to four inches long. Scapes.--Often two feet high. Flowers.--White; minute; in loose panicles. Calyx.--Five-toothed; one or two lines long. Petals.--Five; one line long; on the sinuses of the calyx. Stamens.--Five. Ovary.--One-celled. Styles two. Hab.--Coast Ranges and Sierras from Monterey to British Columbia.

Upon almost any drive or walk along a shaded road, we may find the alum-root hanging over a mossy bank. Its large, airy panicle is composed of minute flowers, and appears in early summer. But it is more conspicuous for its exquisite foliage than for its flowers. The leaves are usually mottled in light green and richly veined in dark brown or red, and they often turn to a rich red later in the season.

The root is woody and astringent, to which latter fact the plant owes its English name, which it shares with the other members of the genus. These are very satisfactory plants to bring in from the woods, because they remain beautiful in water for many weeks.

CHAMISAL. CHAMISO. GREASEWOOD.

Adenostoma fasciculatum, Hook. and Arn. Rose Family.

Shrubs two to twenty feet high, with gray, shreddy bark and reddish, slender branches. Leaves.--Two to four lines long; linear to awl-shaped; smooth; clustered. Stipules small; acute. Flowers.--White; two lines across; in terminal racemose panicles. Calyx.--Five-toothed; with bracts below resembling another calyx; tube ten-ribbed. Petals.--Five. Stamens.--Ten to fifteen; in clusters between the petals. Ovary.--One-celled. Fruit.--A dry akene. Hab.--Widely distributed.

The chamisal forms a large part of the chaparral of our mountain slopes, and when not in bloom gives to them much the aspect imparted to the Scotch Highlands by the heather. It is an evergreen shrub, with small clustered, needle-like leaves. In late spring it is covered with large, feathery panicles of tiny white blossoms, which show with particular effectiveness against the rich olive of its foliage, and furnish the bees with valuable honey material for a considerable season. When interspersed with shrubs of livelier greens, it gives to our hill-slopes and mountain-sides a wonderfully rich and varied character. In the summer of a season when it has flowered freely, the cinnamon-colored seed-vessels blending with the olives of the foliage lend a rich, warm bronze to whole hillsides, forming a charming contrast to the straw tints and russets of grassy slopes, and adding another to the many soft harmonies of our summer landscape. It is most abundant in the Coast Ranges, where, in some localities, it covers mile after mile of hill-slopes, with its close-cropped, uniform growth.

When the chaparral, or dense shrubby growth of our mountain-sides, is composed entirely of Adenostoma, it is called chamisal.

Another species, A. sparsifolium, Torr., found in the south, and somewhat resembling the above, may be known from it by its lack of stipules, its scattered, not clustered leaves, which are obtuse and not pointed, and its somewhat larger flowers, each one pediceled.

This is commonly known among the Spanish-Californians as "Yerba del Pasmo," literally the "herb of the convulsion," and among them and the Indians it is a sovereign remedy for many ailments, being considered excellent for colds, cramps, and snakebites, and an infallible cure for tetanus, or lockjaw. The foliage fried in grease becomes a healing ointment.

The bark of this species is reddish and hangs in shreds.

HOLLY-LEAVED CHERRY. ISLAY.