IROQUOIS HERBALISM — FENTON 525 



demanded that the settlers rely on a greater number of native plants, or 

 Indian herbs, than were ever introduced into Europe to supplement 

 the few garden herbs which they brought with them. 



Species that the colonists had introduced for their gardens and 

 undesirable weeds unwittingly brought here were either traded or soon 

 escaped to the Indian country, where new uses were devised for them. 

 Both Lafitau and Loskiel agree that the Indians were eager to learn 

 the remedies of the white physicians, and because of the lack of 

 botanical literature among Indians one cannot decide what uses for 

 native plants were acquired from Europeans. Nevertheless, we can 

 be certain that specifics and formulae based on species that are known 

 to have been naturalized from Europe were devised during the contact 

 period. In 1748 Kalm observed mullein {Verhascv/ni thapsus L.), 

 which the Swedes called wild tobacco, growing around Philadelphia ; 

 and a half century later it had spread in great abundance to newly 

 cleared fields and burnt-over areas in remote parts of the country, 

 where sometimes not a plant was found in 100 miles.*^ Iroquois use of 

 mullein leaves in poultices for swellings and sores either was acquired 

 from the whites or dates from the eighteenth century. In the case of 

 Ghenopodiumi aTbuTn L. (lambs quarters, or pigweed), which Kalm 

 noted growing on dunghills, streets, and grain fields around Phila- 

 delphia in 1748, the Mohawks have commemorated its introduction by 

 naming it skanadam^i^m'we, "loves the village," because it grows along 

 paths and roads of settlements. A similar Iroquois name, deya'oowQ' 

 (S.), diyuhahg'wih (C), "covers the road," marks the naturalization 

 of broadleaved plantain {Plantago Tnajor L.). My Iroquois inform- 

 ants recommend it as a poultice for skin injuries and they would be 

 surprised to learn that their forebears had regarded it as an interloper. 

 Kalm, writing in 1748 of his visit to John Bartram, says : 



Bartram had found this plant in many places on his travels, but he did not know 

 whether it was an original American plant or whether the Europeans had brought 

 it orer. This doubt had its rise from the savages (who always had an extensive 

 knowledge of the plants of the country) pretending that this plant never grew 

 here before the arrival of the White Men. They therefore gave it a name which 

 signified the (Englishman's) foot, for they say that wherever a European had 

 walked, this plant grew in his footsteps.** 



Readiness of the Iroquois to expand their culture is moreover 

 apparent from the following adventive plants that were added to 

 their materia medica during the contact period : Yellow dock {Rimiex 

 crispus L.), bitter dock {R. obtusifoUus L.), heartweed {P. persicaria 

 L.), milk purslane (Euphorbia maculata L.), mallows {Malva 

 rotwndifolia L. and M. moschata L.), St. John's wort {Hypericy/rn 



*■'' Kalm, Peter, op. cit., p. 40 ; Pursh, Frederick, Flora Amerieae septenrionalls, 2 vols., 

 p. 142, London, 1814. 



*• Kalm, Peter, op. cit., p. 64, 



