198 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



How did the savages find out that the roots of certain plants hid 

 away under the earth were the best possil)le material for this function ( 

 And for another use the stem of a phuit had to be found, perhaps 

 miles away, so that in the makeup of a single example leagues would 

 have to be traveled and much discrimination used. Unless the utmost 

 care is exercised the fact will be overlooked that often three or four 

 kinds of wood will be used in the monotonous work of the weft. One 

 is best for the bottom, another is lig'ht and toug'h for the body, a 

 third is ])est for the flexible top. This in addition to the employment 

 of half a dozen others for designs, for warp or foundation, or for 

 decorative purposes. 



Among the basket maker's materials must not ho forgotten the 

 deuiand for water-tight vessels. Besides the widely spread faculty of 

 securing- this result b}" texture, there were present in certain areas 

 natural substances such as the gum of the pin3'on {Pinus exhilU), the 

 resin of various pines, and even the mineral asphalt. 



The making of canteens and other water vessels, in lieu of potter}^, 

 in this way was most prevalent among the Shoshonean tribes of the 

 Interior Basin and the migratory Apache farther south. Barrows" 

 calls attention to Humboldt's Essay on New Spain,'' in which the 

 Indians around Santa Barbara are spoken of as '"presenting the Span- 

 iards with vases verj- curiously wrought of stalks of rushes" and 

 "covered within with a ver}^ thin layer of asphaltum that renders 

 them impenetrable to water.'' 



The author is greatly indebted to Mr. Frederick V. Coville, Botanist 

 of the- Department of Agriculture, for the identification of plants 

 used in basketry h\ the Indians of America north of Mexico. This 

 list contains those that have been certainly identified. There are 

 other plants alleged to be used in basketr}^, but of which no scientific 

 determination has been made as yet. A complete discussion of this 

 part of the su})ject would demand that for each tribe making baskets 

 there should be a list of the plants employed by them, and for each 

 plant used a list of the tribes hj whom it is used. Such a discussion 

 requires a long and tedious investigation by a number of talented 

 workers cooperating. It is hoped that the chapter here given by 

 Mr. Coville will be a starting point iov a complete study of Indian 

 phytotechn}^ 



« The Ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern CaUfornia, Chicago, 1900, 

 p. 41. 



''Vol. II, p. 297. 



