od potatoes they are. You will find these growing everywhere
throughout California, blooming from May to July, their six long,
slender, white petals shading to gold at the base, grayish on the
outside, a pollen-laden pistil upstanding, eight or ten gold-clubbed
stamens surrounding it, the slender brown stem bearing a dozen or more
of these delicate blooms, springing high from a base of leaves sometimes
nearly two feet long and an inch broad, wave margined, spreading in a
circle around it. In the soil of the plains and the dry hillsides you
will find an amazingly large solid bulb, thickly enwrapped in a coat
of brown fiber, the long threads of which can be braided, their amazing
strength making them suitable for bow strings, lariats, or rope of any
kind that must needs be improvised for use at the moment. The bulbs
themselves have many uses. Crushed and rubbed up in water they make a
delightful cleansing lather. The extracted juice, when cooked down, may
be used as glue. Of the roasted bulbs effective poultices for bruises
and boils may be made. It was an Indian custom to dam a small stream and
throw in mashed Amole bulbs, the effect of which was to stupefy the fish
so that they could be picked out by hand; all of which does not make it
appear that the same bulb would serve as an excellent substitute for a
baked potato; but we must remember how our grandmothers made starch from
our potatoes, used them to break in the new ironware, and to purify the
lard; which goes to prove that one vegetable may be valuable for
many purposes. Amole, whose ponderous scientific name is Chlorogalum
pomeridiarum, is at its best for my purposes when all the chlorophyll
from flower and stem has been driven back to the bulb, and it lies ripe
and fully matured from late August until December.

Remove the fibrous cover down to the second or third layer enclosing the
bulb. These jackets are necessary as they keep the bulbs from drying out
and having a hard crust. Roast them exactly as you would potatoes. When
they can easily be pierced with a silver fork remove from the oven,
and serve immediately with any course with which you would use baked
potatoes.

"And gee, but they're good!" commented Linda as she reread what she had
written.

After that she turned her attention to drawing a hillside whitened
here and there with amole bloom showing in its purity against the warm
grayish-tan background. The waving green leaves ran among big rocks
and ov