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Mendocino County Historical Society, Published 1974. Paperback, pp. 295-422 as paginated in the original, with preface and county map added; 23 cm; reprint of the 1902 edition; illustrated with black-and-white photographic plates and numerous line drawings.
In Very Good condition. Green illustrated card covers with black lettering, oak leaves and acorns drawn on front, light bumping to edges and corners, mild surface and edge wear, toning to edges and spine. Rear cover shows scattered small dark spots, a dark mark with slight loss to the coating right of center, and a pale patch at lower right where a price sticker was removed. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Otherwise unmarked. First published in 1902 by the United States Department of Agriculture Division of Botany, from fieldwork at the Round Valley Indian Reservation and at Ukiah in the summers of 1897 and 1898. Chesnut recorded plant use among the Yuki, Pomo, Yokia, Wailaki, Concow, Calpella, Little Lake, Potter Valley and Numlaki peoples, tribes brought to Round Valley after the reservation was established in 1856, so the record covers plant knowledge from well beyond the county itself. Arranged by plant family from seaweeds, fungi and lichens through the flowering plants, each entry giving the botanical name, the Indian names with tribal attribution and phonetic marks, and the recorded uses as food, medicine, fiber, dye, fish poison and basketry material. A Classified List of Economic Plants groups the species by use, and the index includes tribal name keys. Photographic plates by W. L. Jepson and E. R. Drew of the University of California and by A. O. Carpenter of Ukiah; the classified summary was almost entirely the work of Mrs. V. K. Chesnut. This Historical Society reprint adds a preface and a map of Mendocino County circa 1900, with cover design by Dorothy Cain of Fort Bragg.