Directions for collecting specimens and information illustrating the aboriginal uses of plants / by Frederick V. Coville.

  • Frederick Vernon Coville
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Directions for collecting specimens and information illustrating the aboriginal uses of plants / by Frederick V. Coville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING SPECIMENS AND INFORMA¬ TION ILLUSTRATING THE ABORIGINAL USES OF PLANTS. By Frederick V. Covillk, Honorary Curator of the Department of Botany. GENERAL REMARKS. Information on the subject of aboriginal botany may, of course, be best obtained by actual observation and by conversation with individ¬ uals of those tribes among whom primitive uses of plants are still in vogue. In the United States at tbe present time nearly all of the native tribes are assembled on reservations, and are in charge of public agents who attend to their relations with the Government. In addition, most tribes are supplied with Government schools, in charge of teachers and subject to the inspection of a superintendent. In each tribe there are prominent men, either chiefs or medicine men, from whom, under favor¬ able circumstances, better information may be obtained than from the average individual. This is particularly true of the medicine men and women who are themselves expert in the practice of medicine, accord¬ ing to the Indian ideas, and are usually persons of exceptional keenness and knowledge, not only of the materials with which they work, but of the aboriginal products and usages as well. It is through these and other prominent individuals, Indian teachers and superintendents, and occasionally agents, that information is ordinarily most easily accessi¬ ble. In the absence, however, of such favorable opportunities the average Indian will be found capable of communicating a great deal of useful information. It must be borne in mind by the observer that actual observation conscientiously made, so as to reduce the possibility of error, is far more valuable than any amount of second-hand inform¬ ation, and that a single positive detailed record, accompanied by good specimens of the products under discussion, is of permanent and almost inestimable value to the history of aboriginal botany. It is such facts and materials that the observer should secure. Hearsay evidence is principally useful in suggesting to others lines of investigation. [3]