826 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 438. 



future time, a comparison of the fauna of this 

 region with that of the life of similar reefs in 

 Samoa or Tahiti would he highly instructive. 

 Surely there can be no place on our Atlantic 

 coast -which would give handsomer returns for 

 such an outlay. The only objection is the 

 relative inaccessibility of the Tortugas. 



David S. Jordan. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



SOME LITTLE-KNOWN" BASKET MATERIALS. 



Basket collectors have been much puzzled 

 over the identity of two materials which are 

 extensively used by some of the California 

 tribes. One of these forms the body surface 

 of most of the coiled baskets made by the 

 Indians inhabiting the lower slopes of the 

 Sierra from Fresno River south to the Kern. 

 These baskets are celebrated for excellence of 

 workmanship, beauty of form, elegance of 

 design and richness of material. The ma- 

 terial differs in tone and texture from that 

 used by the tribes north and south of the 

 region indicated. When fresh its color is 

 brownish-buff; with age it becomes darker 

 and richer. By careful selection a handsome 

 dappled effect is produced. The Indians told 

 me it was the root of a marsh plant which 

 they traveled long distances to procure. After 

 some difficulty I succeeded in obtaining speci- 

 mens, which were identified for me by Miss 

 Alice Eastwood, botanist of the California 

 Academy of Sciences, as Cladium mariscus. 

 The coil, around which the split Cladium 

 root is wound, consists of a bundle of stems 

 of a yellow grass, Epicampes rigens. The 

 black in the design is the beautiful root of 

 the ' bracken ' or ' brake fern,' Pteridium 

 aquilinum. The red is usually split branches 

 of the redbud, Cercis occidentalism with the 

 bark on, gathered after the fall rains when 

 the bark is red. The tribes making the Cla- 

 dium baskets are the Nims, Chukchancys, 

 Cocahebas, Wuksaches, Wiktchumnes, Tulares . 

 and perhaps one or two others. Besides these, 

 the root is sometimes used by certain squaws 

 of the Mewah tribe living north of the Fresno, 

 and by the Pakanepull and- j.Newooah i.tribes- 



living south of the Kern; but among these 

 its use is exceptional. 



Another material which has proved a 

 stumbling block to collectors is the red of the 

 design in the handsome baskets made by the 

 Kern Valley, JSTeewooah, and Panamint Sho- 

 shone Indians. This material is often called 

 ' cactus root,' but in my recent field work in 

 the region where it is used I discovered that 

 it is the unpeeled root of the tree yncca 

 (Yucca arborescens) . The tree yucca grows 

 in the higher parts of the Mohave Desert, 

 pushes over Walker Pass, and reaches dovsm 

 into the upper part of the valley of South 

 Fork of Kern. The so-called Tejon Indians 

 obtain it in Antelope Valley at the extreme 

 west end of the Mohave Desert. The yucca 

 root varies considerably in depth of color, so 

 that by careful selection some of the Indian 

 women produce beautiful shaded effects and 

 definite pattern contrasts. 



Some of the Panamint Shoshones inhabit- 

 ing the desolate desert region between Owens 

 Lake and Death Valley use, either in com- 

 bination with the yucca root or independ- 

 ently, the bright red shafts of the wing and 

 tail feathers of a woodpecker — ^the red-shafted 

 flicker. These same Indians use two widely 

 different materials for their black designs — 

 the split seed pods of the devil's horn, Mar- 

 tynia, and the root of a marsh bulrush, 

 Scirpus. The Martynia is a relatively coarse 

 material and when properly selected yields a 

 dead black. The Scirpus root is a fine deli- 

 cate material which, by burying in wet ashes, 

 is made to assume several shades or tones, 

 from blackish-brovyn to purplish-black, or 

 even lustrous black. 



In parts of the Colorado Desert in south- 

 eastern California the Coahuila Indians use 

 split strands from the leaf of the desert palm 

 (Neowashingtonia filameniosa) as a surface 

 material for their coiled baskets. The design 

 is usually black or orangfe-brown and is a rush 

 (Juncus). C. Hart Merriam. 



A NOTE ON PHRYNOSOMA. 



In ' The Cambridge Natural History,' Vol. 

 VIII., on ' Amphibia and Reptiles,' by Hans 

 Gadow (London, 1901), on p. 533, regarding 



