294 Old Time Gardens 



these Maize, the distinctive product of the United 

 States, will ever link us with the vanishing Indian. 

 It will be noticed that only Puccoon, Cohosh, Pip- 

 sissewa, Hackmatack, and Yucca are names of flower- 

 ing plants ; of these Yucca is the only one generally 

 known. I am glad our stately native trees, Tupelo, 

 Hickory, Catalpa, bear Indian names. 



A curious example of persistence, when so much 

 else has perished, is found in the word " Kiskatomas," 

 the shellbark nut. This Algonquin word was heard 

 everywhere in the state of New York sixty years 

 ago, and is not yet obsolete in families of Dutch 

 descent who still care for the nut itself. 



We could very well have preserved many Indian 

 names, among them Hiawatha's 



" Beauty of the springtime, 

 The Miskodeed in blossom," 



I think Miskodeed a better name than Claytonia or 

 Spring Beauty. The Onondaga Indians had a sug- 

 gestive name for the Marsh Marigold, " It-opens- 

 the-swamps," which seems to show you the yellow 

 stars "shining in swamps and hollows gray." The 

 name Cowslip has been transferred to it in some 

 localities in New England, which is not strange 

 when we find that the flower has fifty-six English 

 folk-names ; among them are Drunkards, Crazy 

 Bet, Meadow-bright, Publicans and Sinners, Sol- 

 diers' Buttons, Gowans, Kingcups, and Buttercups. 

 Our Italian street venders call them Buttercups. In 

 erudite Boston, in sight of Boston Common, the 

 beautiful Fringed Gentian is not only called, but 



