All the seeds with the exception of those of the leguminous plant are dead and their seed-coats rotten. The leguminous seeds are still hard and will be subjected to a germination test.[169]
For a specific and positive identification of these seeds it will be necessary either for a botanist to visit the region from which they came or to have at his disposal a complete collection of the plants of the vicinity. Under such conditions he could by process of exclusion identify the seeds with an amount of labor almost infinitely less than would be required in their identification by other means.
Very sincerely yours,
Frederick V. Coville, Botanist.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See "The Prehistoric Culture of Tusayan," American Anthropologist, May, 1896. "Two Ruins Recently Discovered in the Red Rock Country, Arizona," ibid., August, 1896. "The Cliff Villages of the Red Rock Country, and the Tusayan Ruins, Sikyatki and Awatobi, Arizona," Smithsonian Report for 1895.
[2] The reader's attention is called to the fact that this report is not intended to cover all the ruins in the section of Arizona through which the expedition passed; it is simply a description of those which were examined, with a brief mention of such others as would aid in a general comprehension of the subject. The ruins on the Little Colorado, near Winslow, Arizona, will be considered in a monograph to follow the present, which will be a report on the field work in 1896. If a series of monographs somewhat of this nature, but more comprehensive, recording explorations during many years in several different sections, were available, we would have sufficient material for a comprehensive treatment of southwestern archeology.
[3] It may be borne in mind that several other clans besides the Patki claim to have lived long ago in the region southward from modern Tusayan. Among these may be mentioned the Patuñ (Squash) and the Tawa (Sun) people who played an important part in the early colonization of Middle Mesa.
[4] Report upon the Indian Tribes, Pacific Railroad Survey, vol. iii, pt. iii, p. 14, Washington, 1856. The cavate dwellings of the Rio Verde were first described by Dr E. A. Mearns. Although it has sometimes been supposed that Coronado followed the trail along Verde valley, and then over the Mogollones to Rio Colorado Chiquito, Bandelier has conclusively shown a more easterly route.
[5] See mention of cliff houses in Walnut canyon in the Fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.