COLOUR IN MY GARDEN 



little plant crowds about the rotting gate-posts and strag- 

 gles up the weed-claimed garden paths, providing still a 

 green welcome where the human one is lacking to the 

 searcher in old gardens and their precincts. 



Naturally many American plant names are associated 

 with the Indians. Thus we have a great number of such 

 as Squawroot, Indian-boys-and-girls, Indian Posy, Papoose- 

 root, Moccasin-flower, Indian Currant, Indian Pipe, Indian 

 Tobacco, and Indian Pink. Few real Indian names linger, 

 however, to "sound a note of the wilderness, a voice from 

 the 'house of ash and fir.' " This is a pity, for besides being 

 so truly of the soil, the Indian names are peculiarly agree- 

 able in sound and suggestion. Pipissewa, whose liquid 

 syllables someone has likened to the piping of a bird, and 

 Miscodeed (Spring Beauty) are two that should be saved 

 for posterity. Tamarack, Tupelo, Waahoo, Scuppernong, 

 Catawba, Chinkapin, Catalpa, Yucca, Dockmackie, and 

 Hickory are happily in fairly general use, but in Martha 

 Flint's "Garden of Simples" she gives these others which 

 might with great gain be added to our list of familiar plant 

 names : 



Cassena, or Youpon — Ilex cassine. 



Cohosh — Cimicifuga racemosa. 



Cushaw, Kershaw — Cucurbita. 



Dahoon — Ilex dahoon. 



Hackmatack — Larix americana, Spiraea tomentosa. 



Kinnikinnik — Cornus sericea. 



Macock — Cucurbuta. 



Maize — Zea Mays. 



Musquash — Cicuta maculata. 



845 



