74 PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
but it is a matter of surprise that with equal care he acquires and 
disseminates information about creatures which hesdoes not use. I 
have never yet failed to get from an Indian a good and satisfactory 
name for any species of mammal, bird or reptile inhabiting his 
country; and I have found their knowledge of plants equally com- 
prehensive, It is true that not all Indians are equally well in- 
formed in this respect, but, as a class, they are incomparably supe- 
rior to the average white man or to the white man who has not 
made zoology or botany a subject of study. 
There is a prevalent impression that Indians are unable to gen- 
eralize; and a paragraph goes the rounds of ethnological treatises 
to the effect that the Chatas have no general term for oak tree, 
but only specific names for the white oak, the black oak, the red 
oak, etc. This impression is entirely erroneous. The Indian is as 
good a generalizer and classifier as his Caucasian brother. His 
system of classification does not fully coincide with that of the white 
naturalist, because his system of philosophy leads him to base his 
groups upon a different series of resemblances, but his arrangement 
is nevertheless the result of a process of generalization. 
Mr. Warp remarked that his own experience fully sustained the 
statements of the paper in regard to the botanical ignorance of 
white men, but less fully in regard to the accuracy of Indian ob- 
servations. “ When collecting plants in Utah, he had found that 
Piute boys and girls gave names to nearly all his specimens, dis- 
criminating allied species; but in collating the Indian botanical 
names recorded by others, he had been led to suspect that certain 
discrepancies arose from failure to recognize the same species in 
different stages of development. 
Mr. Mason said it is a canon of anthropology that things seem 
marvellous to us only when we do not understand them, every 
human phenomenon being governed by law. Our ignorance in re- 
gard to wild animals and plants is to be explained by the fact that 
our activities do not bring us into close relation with them, whereas 
the savage is dependent on them for sustenance. The market- 
women who bring herbs to Washington have names for them all, 
and ignorant mechanics handle technical terms of their craft with 
great familiarity. . 
Mr. Durron said that his own acquaintance with the Navajos 
