June 16, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



863 



length of the use of this seed in the worship of 

 the god Uitzilipuztli. In his honor an idol was 

 made by young virgins, who "molian quantidad 

 de semilla de iledos jmitamente com mays tostado, 

 y despues de molido amassabanlo con miel." It 

 was undoubtedly this grain which Alvar NuiSez 

 Cabeza de Vaea found on the west coast, where it 

 took the place of maize as a food-staple. He re- 

 fers to the plant as bledos, and states that the 

 natives ate nothing else than flour made of it. 

 The identity of the plant called huautU, uauMU, 

 or guautli, has long been a mystery. In the eco- 

 nomic collections of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture are certain seeds collected by the 

 late Dr. Edward Palmer at Imala, Sinaloa, bear- 

 ing the vernacular name ' ' guaute, ' ' which are 

 used for food when maize is scarce. They are 

 _ground into paste, mixed with brown sugar, and 

 made into balls called suales, which are wrapped 

 in corn-husks and sold in the markets of Jalisco in 

 striugs called rosarios de suale. The seeds have 

 been identified as those of Amaranthus cruentus L., 

 a species closely allied to A. caudata L. At 

 Colima Dr. Palmer saw a handsome variety with 

 red spikes occurring both in cultivation and spon- 

 taneously, and in the vicinity of Guadalajara, both 

 red and yellow varieties cultivated either alone or 

 among maize. This species has a white-seeded 

 form which was described by Sereno Watson as 

 A. leucocarpus. It is interesting to note that very 

 closely allied, if not identical, species, also having 

 white-seeded forms, are cultivated as cereals in 

 Tibet, the mountains of India, and in Peru and 

 Bolivia. 



Food Plants and Textiles of Ancient America: W. 



E. Sapfoed. 



This paper is based on collections and observa- 

 tions by the author in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and 

 Mexico, supplemented by the study of additional 

 material from those countries and from various 

 parts of the United States derived from ancient 

 graves, cliff-dwellings, caves and prehistoric burial 

 grounds. Erom prehistoric mounds and ancient 

 village sites in the United States the only vegetable 

 products preserved are those which have been 

 charred by fire. From dry caves and cliff-dwell- 

 ings of southwestern United States, food-products 

 have been found in good condition, while from an- 

 cient graves of the arid coast region of Peru and 

 northern Chile the organic material is in a re- 

 markably perfect state of preservation. Not only 

 such staples as maize, gourds, beans and peanuts, 



but leaves of Erythroxylon coca, soft pulpy fruits, 

 including the lueuma, the chirimoya and various 

 starchy tubers have been collected. 



In addition to the fruits, seeds, grains, tubers, 

 roots and leaves, many of which have already been 

 recorded by Wittmack and others, beautiful repre- 

 sentations in terra-ootta of these and other veg- 

 etable products have also been unearthed, prin- 

 cipally in the vicinity of Trujillo and Chimbote, 

 Peru. Casts of maize, squashes, peanuts, etc., 

 occur on burial vases. Often the original model 

 has been reproduced so accurately that the vari- 

 eties are clearly discernible. 



The paper deals with actual specimens concern- 

 ing which there can be no doubt, dug up from 

 prehistoric graves and discovered on the sites of 

 ancient habitations. Among the most interesting 

 objects to be shown are specimens of the "al- 

 mond of Chachapoyas" {Caryocar amygdali- 

 forme) ; the balsam of Peru, found in a calabash 

 in a grave at Ancon; a ceremonial planting-stick 

 with an ear of maize attached, represented in 

 terra-cotta; a remarkable carving in stone from 

 the vicinity of Oaxaca, Mexico, representing ears 

 of maize; and specimens of maize from prehis- 

 toric graves of Chile, Argentina and Peru; from 

 various parts of the southern United States, in- 

 cluding mounds of the Mississippi valley, and 

 from ancient village sites farther north. In con- 

 nection with textiles, cotton cultivated by the an- 

 cient Peruvians and by the Indians of our own 

 southwest will be shown; and, among other fibers 

 those of various eurcseas, agaves and yuccas, of 

 tropical America and southwestern United States. 



The Puma Motive in Ancient Peruvian Art: 



Charles W. Mead. 



In the present state of our knowledge it is im- 

 possible to treat of the decorative art of the pre- 

 historic Peruvians otherwise than as a whole, and 

 no attempt has been made at a chronological se- 

 quence. The decorative motives most commonly 

 employed are from the human figure, birds, fish 

 and the puma, and these, together with such de- 

 signs as undoubtedly owe their origin to the tex- 

 tile art, form a large part of the decorations 

 found in Peruvian cloth and on the pottery ves- 

 sels. The object of this paper is to show to what 

 an extent the pimia figures in Peruvian art, and to 

 attempt the identification of some of the highly 

 conventionalized designs. 



The Bise of the Inca Empire: Philip A. Meajsts. 

 Explanatory introduction summarizing reasons 



