204 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 58. 



ciated with the myths of the aboriginal races of 

 America, and worthy to be our National em- 

 blem. This plant has been little thought of for 

 decorative purposes in our gardens ; yet, it is 

 decidedly ornamental and worthy of esteem. 

 The sunflower, too, ought to be grown. The 

 Indian recognized its value, for the Moquis and 

 Ava-Supais planted it for food, and used the 

 ground seed mixed with corn meal as a dainty. 

 Several travelers have described the plant as 

 grown by the inhabitants of the far Southwest. 

 Tobacco should not be forgotten. The European 

 owes much to this weed, nor is he the only one 

 who enjoys it, for the Redman from the earliest 

 time smoked the pipe of peace and, as the wind 

 wafted the smoke upward, offered significantly 

 a prayer to the Great Spirit. The tomato with 

 its crimson fruit, the pumpkin vine, the bean 

 and the potato should find their place as vege- 

 tables of aboriginal use in some comer of the 

 garden. The oak, yielding acorns; the willow, 

 dye stuffs, can be placed to good advantage near 

 the pond in which grow Wah-es-i-ping, Sagit- 

 taria variabilis Engelm; yellow lotus, Nelumbium 

 luteiim L. — both furnishing aboriginal root escu- 

 lents; water cress, Nasturtium, a salad plant, 

 and wild rice, Zizania aquatica, L. 



A partial list will show the large number of 

 ' Indian ' plants which a gardener could use: 



2. The plants should be arranged with refer- 

 ence to the Indian tribes which used them. 

 The plants of the Algonquins should stand 



apart from those of the Iroquois ; those of the 

 Aztecs from those of the Pueblos. Such a 

 geographical arrangement is most desirable for 

 educational purposes. 



3. An arrangement according to the uses of 

 the plants ought also be made. The strictly 

 agricultural plants, such as corn, beans, potatoes 

 and pumpkins, ought to be sown in one bed, the 

 fibre plants, like basswood, Tilia Americana, L.; 

 spruce, Picea ; sumach, JJ/ms aromatica; willow, 

 Salix lasiandra, Benth; unicorn plant, Martynia, 

 proboscidea, Glox ; tree yucca, Yucca brevifolia, 

 Engelm ; ash, Fraxinus, in another ; the dye 

 plants, as alder, Alnus incana, Willd; celan- 

 dine, Chelidonium majus, L. ; smart weed. Poly- 

 gonum Hydropiper ; poke, Phytolacca decandra, 

 L., Coptis trifolia, Salisb., in another. 



The myth plants and medicine plants also are 

 important as showing the culture of the aborig- 

 ines. They by no means should be excluded 

 from the garden. 



The educational purposes of such an ethno- 

 botanic garden have so far been discussed. The 

 question may arise : What is the scientific value 

 of such a garden ? It is this : Frequently in 

 studying the articles manufactured from plants 

 by the Indians, it is difiicult to determine what 

 plant was used in each particular case. A his- 

 tologic study of the vegetal tissues will give 

 sometimes a clue, and if the microscopic struc- 

 ture of the manufactured article be compared 

 with the fresh plant an identification is in many 

 cases possible. To cite a case, the writer was 

 asked not long since to identify the plant forms 

 found on certain Central American tablets.* He 

 was almost certain that the leaf found at the base 

 of the cross, in the celebrated Tablet of the Cross, 

 was that of the tobacco. The Herbarium speci- 

 mens of the genus Nicotiana were examined, but 

 showed very imperfectly the auricles at the 

 base of the leaf which were so plainly marked 

 in the conventionalized sculptured form. Had 

 he had the plant growing somewhere, the iden- 

 tification could easily have been made, certain 

 garden forms of tobacco, which he afterwards 

 saw, showing the auriculate base clearly. 



*See a paper of mine on the subject. Plant Forms 

 on Mexican and Central American Tablets. Ameri- 

 can Antiquarian, XVI., 299, September, 1894, in con- 

 nection with the Tf on the Tablet of the Cross. 



