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 pharmacopœia 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.
[YERBA SANTA—Eriodictyon glutinosum.]
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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.