870 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1146 



ent at the meeting, the paper was read by title. 

 It appeared in full in Torreya for July, 1916. 

 Winter Bape and Adulterants of This Seed (with 



lantern) : Edgar Brown. 



Five types of plants raised from seed imported 

 into the United States under the name of rape 

 were briefly described and illustrated. . The Dutch 

 and German sources of the winter rape seed nor- 

 mally used in this country for the production of 

 forage having been shut off, seed was imported 

 from other sources, including winter rape from 

 England, France and Japan, annuals of no forage 

 value from Argentina, France, China and Japan, 

 and biennials of no forage value from France and 

 Japan. 

 An Economic Amaranthus of Ancient America 



(with exhibition of specimens and lantern) : W. 



E. Safford. 



Among the tributes paid to Montezuma by the 

 pueblos of Mexico was a certain grain of ivory 

 whiteness and more minute than a mustard seed, 

 called by the Aztecs huauhtli. Eighteen imperial 

 granaries were filled with it each year, each hav- 

 ing a capacity of about 9,000 bushels. In some 

 parts of Mexico, at times when maize was scarce, 

 this seed was used in its stead and along the Pacific 

 coast it was an important food staple. Cabeza de 

 Vaea noticed it in Sonora in 1536. Its most im- 

 portant use was in religious ceremonies, when a 

 paste, called tzoalli, was made of it together with 

 maguey syrup, and images of the god Uitzilipuztli 

 were molded of it. After having been adorned 

 with beautiful ornaments and carried in proces- 

 sion, the image was carried to the top of the 

 pyramidal temple in the city of Mexico. Sacrifices 

 were made to it, including human beings, and the 

 next day it was broken up into fragments and 

 served as communion to the people. For a long 

 time the botanical identity of this seed was un- 

 known. The late Edward Palmer while making 

 collections in the states of Sinaloa and Jalisco, 

 found an Amaranthus growing both in cultivation 

 and spontaneously. Its ivory-white seeds, re- 

 sembling fish-eggs, corresponded exactly with the 

 huauhtli as described by early writers. Moreover, 

 its local name, "guaute, " is only a variation of 

 the Nahuatl huauhtli. Near Guadalajara Dr. 

 Palmer found a paste made of this seed and sugar 

 offered for sale in the form of strings of dump- 

 lings enveloped in corn husks, under the name of 

 "suale, " a corruption of the Nahuatl tzoali. He 

 collected botanical specimens of the plant produc- 

 ing the seed, which proved to be an Amaranthus, 

 evidently a white-seeded form of A. paniculatus. 



Although Dr. Palmer did not realize that he had 

 rediscovered an important economic plant of the 

 Aztecs, his botanical specimens together with his 

 field notes, found by the writer in the U. S. Na- 

 tional Herbarium, served to establish the identity 

 of the sacred huauhtli. The possibility of culti- 

 vating this Amaranthus in suitable situations in 

 the southwestern United States was suggested by 

 the writer. Very closely allied plants, also pro- 

 ducing white seeds, are cultivated as grain crops in 

 India, Thibet, South America and Africa. Of the 

 existence of this particular form in pre-Columbian 

 America there can be no doubt. It remains to be 

 determined whether or not the Asiatic and African 

 plants were endemic in the countries where they 

 are now cultivated, or were introduced there after 

 the discovery of America. Mr. Safford 's paper 

 will appear in full in the Proceedings of the Ninth 

 Congress of Americanists. 



Fungus Fairy Sings in Eastern Colorado and Their 

 Effect on Vegetation (with lantern) : H. L. 

 Shantz and E. L. Piemeisel. To be published 

 by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 'Report on the Local Flora: A. S. Hitchcock. 

 W. E. Safford, 

 Corresponding Secretary 



THE SOUTH DAKOTA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



The second annual meeting of the South Da- 

 kota Academy of Science was held in Watertown, 

 South Dakota, November 27 and 28. The follow- 

 ing papers were read: 



President's address, H. I. Jones. 



' ' The Locust Outbreak in South Dakota in 

 1916," by H. C. Severin and Geo. Gilbertson. 



"Water Culture," E. J. Gilmore. 



"The Plankton of the James Eiver, " W. H. 

 Griffeth. 



' ' Soil Fertility in South Dakota, " J. G. Hutton. 



"A Study of Lipase," H. I. Jones. 



"Aluminum Phenolate, " A. N. Cook and G. N. 

 Quam. 



"The Chemistry of the Cell," J. M. Scott. 



"Correlation in Corn," A. N. Hume. 



"Notes on Sodium Cyanide," W. J. Sharwood. 



The officers for 1916-17 will be: 



President, A. N. Cook, Vermillion. 



First Vice-president, A. N. Hume, Brookings. 



Second Vice-president, L. G. Atherton, Madison. 



Secretary, E. J. Gilmore, Huron. 



Treasurer, H. Loomis, Brookings. 



The next meeting will be held at Brookings in 

 October, 1917. E. J. Gilmore, 



Secretary 



