538 
still decline to come in to the reservations 
and keep up their old semi-nomadice life in 
the mountains. 
As to the social organization of the 
Heiltsuk it was found that the tribe con- 
tains four clans—the eagle, wolf, raven and 
killer whale. There is nothing correspond- 
ing to the phratries of tribes farther north, 
but the individual clans are strictly exogam- 
ous, and marriage is also forbidden with 
members of corresponding clans in certain 
other tribes. Descent is mixed, maternal 
and paternal, but preference is shown for 
the clan of the mother. In the case of a 
single child it almost invariably takes the 
maternal clan. There were formerly three 
social classes—nobility, common people and 
slaves. The nobility or chiefs were of dif- 
ferent ranks, higher position being obtained 
by means of the potlatch. A member of the 
lower classes, however, could never obtain 
nobility. 
A very considerable number of specimens 
were collected by the expedition which 
will materially increase the scientific value 
of the collections from the North Pacific 
coast in the American Museum of Natural 
History. The new material consists mainly 
of archeological collections from Kamloops, 
Lytton and Port Hammond; an ethnolog- 
ical collection from Spence’s Bridge, another 
one from Chilcotin Valley. From the 
northern part of the coast a very full col- 
lection of masks and carvings illustrating 
mythology of the Bella Coola was obtained. 
Another collection illustrates the arts and 
ceremonials of the Kwakiutl and of the 
Nootka. Finally the large collection of 
casts and photographs of Indians must be 
mentioned. 
Ethnology is deeply indebted to Dr. 
Jesup for inaugurating this important in- 
vestigation, which, we may hope, will help 
to settle finally a number of the most diffi- 
cult problems regarding the early history 
of mankind. 
SCIENCE. 
[N.S. Von. VI. No. 145. 
EXPERIMENTAL MORPHOLOGY.* 
In looking at the progress which has 
been made in the study of plant morphology 
I have been as much impressed with the 
different attitudes of mind toward the sub- 
ject during the past 150 years as by the 
advance which has taken place in methods 
of study and the important acquisitions to 
botanical science. These different view 
points have coincided to some extent with 
distinct periods of time. What Sachs in 
his ‘ History of Botany ’ calls the ‘New Mor- 
phology’ was ushered in near the middle of 
the present century by Von Mohl’s re- 
searches in anatomy, by Naegeli’s investi- 
gation of the cell and Schleiden’s history of 
the development of the flower. The lead- 
ing idea in the study of morphology during 
this period was the inductive method for 
the purpose of discerning fundamental prin- 
ciples and laws, not simply the establish- 
ment of individual facts, which was es- 
pecially characteristic of the earlier period 
when the dogma of the constancy of species 
prevailed. 
The work of the ‘herbalists’ had paved 
the way for the more logical study of plant 
members by increasing a knowledge of 
species, though their work speedily degen- 
erated into mere collections of material and 
tabulations of species with inadequate de- 
scriptions. Later the advocates of meta- 
morphosis and spiral growth had given an 
impetus more to the study of nature, though 
diluted with much poetry and too largely 
subservient to the imagination or idealistic 
notions. 
But it was reserved for Hoffmeister, 
whose work followed within three decades 
of the beginnings of this period, to add to the 
*Address of the Vice-President before Section G— 
Botany—of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, Detroit, 1897. 
} Bibliographical details will be appended when 
the address is published in the Proceedings of the As- 
sociation. 
