a a a 
Oe ee 
RS ee ee 
1896. ] Purposes of Ethno-Botany. 153 
urday night, and seat themselves each with his supply of but- 
tons, about a large camp fire, which is kept burning brightly. 
Button after button is swallowed from sundown until three 
clock A.M. Throughout the ceremony, there is no dancing 
or singing, but a continual monotonous beating upon drums 
iskept up by the attendants. The Indians sit in a blissful 
reverie for hours, enjoying the beautiful visions of color and 
other manifestations caused by the resulting intoxication. In 
fact, most of the plants which the new world afforded were 
made known in this way; ‘tobacco, chocolate, the potato, 
maize, and tomato were first used by the Indians of North 
and South America and afterwards borrowed by white men. 
One of the principal features of the equipment of every eth- 
nological museum where ethno-botany is to be studied should 
bea collection of seeds, kept in glass bottles, and systemati- 
cally arranged. The identification of all kinds of seeds col- 
lected from so Many sources is impossible without such a 
collection, 
“The seed collection of the Division of Botany, U. S. De- 
Partment of Agriculture, is put up in glass specimen tubes 
ent necks, and of two sizes, one 5™ long and 1.5™ in 
aig the other 10 long by 3. In addition to the seeds, 
n€ or two capsules of the dry fruits are inclosed whenever 
Possible, Fleshy fruits of our native wild plants are kept in 
rey f various stages of germination are also kept in alco- 
of reference and study. The bottles are placed in cloth 
gs dtrays made of heavy binder’s board. The trays for 
- et bottles hold 100 specimens. These are placed in 
foes ase, which is to contain also, so far as possible, herbarium 
ai aes . Pe plants from which the seeds were taken. A 
; Cx re) t . . . . . 
Mettiges. *s € collection is of great assistance in finding 
h ; : 
Microsg tPment would not be complete without a series of 
ae Slides, Prepared to show longitudinal, transverse, 
be in eval sections of all our native woods. These should 
available ¢- and catalogued in such a way as to be “easily 
€ for Comparative use. 
scum age ethno-botanic garden should surround the mu- 
With the it to provide living plants for study in connection 
: J€cts of vegetal origin displayed in the museum. ® 
Harsap Department of Agriculture 1894: 408. 
October 26, age arp and Garden. The Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. 
