The Botanical Lore of the California Indians with Side Lights on Historical Incidents in California

"The Botanical Lore of the California Indians" by John Bruno Romero, is a record of old-fashioned studies of plants and medicine of California's native populations. Indigenous Californians had an amazing understanding of the plant-world around them, using local plants and herbs as medicine. Important plant knowledge was often kept secret and sacred. The book aims to protect this vital knowledge, shedding light on interactions between Native Americans and colonizers while discussing how effective traditional remedies are. The book begins by looking at struggles during smallpox outbreaks in the early 1800s. It presents us to people like Chief Andres Lucero, who used local herbal knowledge to fight diseases that hit his and other communities very hard. Plants were very important in their medical treatments, and the historian also documents these plant uses alongside important historical events, giving us a deeper knowledge of Native American additions to medicine and culture.