Then there is one short rest period for about one month as if in preparation for a carpet of golden blooms.
Shrubs, bushes, and small trees which have been practically dormant for ten months of the year burst out in golden vestments to greet the approaching winter, and bid a last farewell to Indian Summer.
Such is the aspect of the desert, at that time of the year. And, strangest of all, of all the hundreds of species of trees, bushes, and shrubs, all different from each other, not one bears anything but yellow blossoms.
Let us turn back to where we began, to the especial value of the plant to hunters and vacationists who make their yearly visits to certain mountain and desert regions favored by them. It will certainly do no harm to acquaint yourself with the medicinal value of the Eriogonum since you have to depend for your sustenance mostly on canned foods.
Occasions arise when users of such foods are made very ill, even suffer death, through so-called ptomaine poisoning. To obtain the service of a doctor is well-nigh an impossibility and ptomaine poisoning is a fast-working, exceedingly dangerous poison, where delay is fatal.
The plant Eriogonum grows nowadays in the coastal regions as well as in the desert where it originally came from, and the first thing to do when attacked by ptomaine poison is to make a strong infusion from the blossoms of the Eriogonum, or, if these are not available, use the roots, and take, or give to the poison victim, two brimful cups with a pinch of salt added to each cup.
This remedy counteracts the poison and gives safe and complete relief.
Jewelry and talismans.
ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA
(Ind. Samat-hap-pac)
American Milk Weed. White botanists claim this plant to be edible, but to my knowledge there is no botanical record extant which bears out the assertion as to its ever having been used as a food.