VOL. XI, PP. 61-65 APRIL 21, 1897 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE TECHNICAL NAME OF THE CAMAS PLANT. 

 BY FREDERICK V. COVILLE. 



One of the principal native food plants of several Indian 

 tribes on our Northwest coast and in the northern Rocky Moun 

 tains is the camas plant, a member of the family Liliaceae, bear 

 ing a raceme of blue flowers and having a starchy edible bulb. 

 It commonly passes under the technical name Camassia esculenta, 

 a name which, it now appears, cannot be maintained. 



In the year 1813 Ker, in the Botanical Magazine, plate 1574, 

 figured and described a ScUla esculenta, the plants on which it 

 was based having been grown at Fraser's nursery, London, from 

 stock imported into England by Thomas Nuttall. It is neces 

 sary at the outset to identify this plant of Ker's. 



From the description and the plate, no one would question 

 that the original Scilki esculenta is the plant commonly called 

 Camassia fraseri, but the supplementary statement made by Ker 

 on the strength of a communication from Pursh, that it serves 

 " as a principal article of food v to " certain Indians in the neigh 

 borhood of the [upper] Missouri River " throws doubt on this 

 identification, for this statement cannot apply to Camassia fraseri. 

 A knowledge of the origin of the plant sent to England by Nutt 

 all would settle the matter, for the ranges of Camassia fraseri and 

 C. esculenta are separated by a wide stretch of territory, the arid 

 Great Plains. Ker does not give the desired information, but 

 fortunately Nuttall himself, in his Genera of North American 

 Plants, published in 1818, says, page 219 : " In the spring of the 

 year 1810 I discovered this plant near the confluence of Huron 

 river [in the State of Ohio] and Lake Erie. I have since found 



13-BioL. Soc. WASH , Voi,. XI, 1807 (61) 



