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L 
generalization. It {maiil) means ' branch/* and was frequently used 
in this sense. It was applied to old and young limbs, and it ex- 
pressed the ideafn the minds of these people that the tree was a group 
of branches of which the leaves were the last and most tenuous form. 
Atlapalli means both a 'leaf and a ' bird's wing/ another interesting 
simde; amatlapalli, our author seems to think implies something thin, 
resembling paper {amatl)\izhuatl, the last term, probably signified the 
frond of a palm. 
The paper contains a long discussion of the involved and difificult 
subject of the Mexican graphic representation of plants. The In- 
dians, for this purpose, employed three methods, the figurative, the 
symbolic, and the syllabic, either alone or combined. The figurative 
vvas generally used when the component parts of a plant were to be 
indicated, as branches, leaves, flower, fruit and seed; but the entire 
plant was indicated by combining the two methods of symbolism and 
syllabism. The conventional sign for a tree was a branching base, 
colored red, representing the root, from which sprang the trunk, 
almost always cylindrical, which was subdivided into three branches, 
usually gray in color, while from the extremity of each branch 
started a green object formed of obtuse segments representing leaves. 
This was the universal arborescent type, which was variously modi- 
fied in separate cases. Our author asserts the use by the Indians of 
a sign of generic value. Thus, plants known under the general class 
of zacatl\ had a special symbol which consisted of two parts, a cen- 
tral axis, with a series of parallel yellow lines disposed symetrically 
from one to the other side of the axis. 
It is insisted that the Indians of Mexico possessed very consider- 
able skill in drawing, judging from the symmetry, and the quality of 
execution of these hieroglyphics. 
The botanic symbol, as used for a group of plants resembling 
each other in some particular, gave rise to classification and nomen- 
clature, and the discussion of this forms the last portion of the 
author's instalment of his studies, which are yet unfinished. 
Conoidal fructification formed the generic symbol of the pines, 
the pod that of the Leguminosae, the tuberous root for certain Con- 
volvulaceae, a leaf with lateral spines for various Cactaceae. These 
generic signs, modified by special ones, lent themselves as a flexible 
instrument for the indication of subordinate groups, as the lanceolate 
leaf joined to a tuber indicated a variety of the edible camote [sweet 
potato] the stone united with a spiny leaf a species of Opiintia, 
Our author, through a number of pages, endeavors to show that 
the Indians had a nomenclature similar to that invented by Linnaeus.J 
* Maid is the Aztec word for * hand,' and it was the fingers spreading out from 
the palm that suggested the idea of branches. Hence the name qtalmaitl, * herb- 
hand.' for the branch of an lierb. and (juamaitl, * tree-hand/ lor the branch of a tree. 
We have met with no compound in which ;«^7fV/ signified 'leaf.'-En. 
f A word generic for ' grass.' — Ed. 
i We are inclined to think that the Spanish writer has a very vague idea of the 
Linnaean system. We have studied Hernandez's Thesaurus very carefully, xs we 
have thai rich repository of Aztec botany— Sahagun's work— but we have failed to 
observe any other sort of classification than that found in the popular nomenclature 
of plants in all languages.— Ed. 
