8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 55 



to be within the seed; the informant said ''the phmt is in the seed, 

 but you can not see it." They say that when you put the seed into the 

 ground and pour water on it, and it ''gets a good shock," it grows up. 

 "Bees go to the flowers to get honey; after a while they get their 

 young from [by the help of] the flower." 



Classification of Plants 



Although the Tewa distinguish plants from animals and again from 

 minerals, and also recognize more or less consciously such classes as 

 trees, shrubs, small flowcrmg plants, vines, grasses, fungi,, mosses, 

 etc., much as Europeans do, the classificatory words in the Tewa 

 language are very few as compared with a language such as English. 



There is not even a word meanmg 'plant' unless it be p'e, which 

 signifies prunarily a 'stift', long object,' and is variously applied to 

 stick, pole, stake, stalk, trunk, timber, log, stave, staff, plank, board, 

 lumber, wood, plant. Yet the morphology of the language shows 

 how consistently plants are recognized as not being animals or min- 

 erals. All nouns denoting plants and most nouns denoting parts of 

 plants have vegetal gender,^ a fact shown by a peculiar form of 

 adjectives and verbs construed with such nouns. Thus "pe pViy^ 

 'red stick' (p'e, stick; pi, red), has vegetal gender: sing, p'e pPi^j^ 

 dual p'e pi'ivi 3+ plu. p'e pPP%- tse piH-^ 'red dog' {tse, dog; pi, 

 red), has animal gender: sing, tse pPP^, dual tse pPiy, 3+ plu. tse 

 pPiy; hu pPP\ 'red stone' (ku, stone; pi, red), has mineral gender: 

 sing, leu pPP^, dual hit pPiy^ 3+ plu. hi pPPK 



'J^^oy, 'field', 'open country', prepounded to the names of plants 

 in some cases distinguishes the wild from the cultivated variety; thus: 

 ^akqnsi, 'wild onion' Cakoij, 'field'; si, 'onion'). Plants are distin 

 guished also as mountain plants, valley plants, good plants, bad plants, 

 etc. Edible wild plants are sometimes grouped as tsaywxH^^ 'green 

 things' {tsclywsS: blue, green). 



There is no general word meaning 'tree' unless it be p'e, 'stiff 

 long object,' 'stick,' 'lumber,' 'plant,' referred to above. English 

 'tree' or Spanish arhol is sometimes rendered by te, Populus wislizeni, 

 r)wsE.y, Pinus brachyptera, or some other name of a large 'tree' 

 species ; cf . he, ' fruit tree,' below. 



There is no word meaning 'shrub' or 'bush' unless it be this same 

 word^V. The diminutive postpound 'e may be added to a tree name 

 to show that the plant is dwarfed or young. Thus: A]/, Juniperus 

 monosperma, /m'e, dwarfed or young plant, bush, shrub of Juniperus 

 monosperma. 



1 Piy, 'mountain,' and some other nouns which do not denote plants or parts of plants also have 

 this gender. 



