Names of American Plants in Books on Kalm's Travels 



Compiled by W. L. McAtee 



Pehr Kalm (1716-1779) traveled in North America during 

 1748-1750 as an agricultural explorer for the Swedish Academy 

 of Sciences. He had been a student of Linnaeus and his collections 

 passing through his preceptor's hands furnished the basis for 

 numerous original descriptions of American plants. It is well 

 known that the genus Kahnia for the mountain laurel and related 

 species was named by Linnaeus for his protege. The high per- 

 centage (nearly 80) of the plants included in the present compila- 

 tion that was scientifically defined by that author emphasizes his 

 dominance of the taxonomy of eastern North American plants. 

 Kalm himself was a good botanist and is credited with the author- 

 ship of three recognized genera of American plants, namely, Lechea, 

 Gaultheria, and Polymnia. He spent much of his time in New 

 Sweden, now Delaware, southern New Jersey, and nearby areas, 

 but made excursions also to New York, in addition to an extended 

 trip through the Hudson Valley to Quebec. From what we know 

 of the early settlements, it seems likely that most of the Swedish 

 and English names Kalm reports were in use in the Philadelphia 

 region, the Dutch in the lower Hudson River Valley, and the 

 French in northern New York and Quebec. Most of the terms 

 in this list from the last two languages, however, are those employed 

 by translators. Localities specifically mentioned in connection 

 with the names are entered in parentheses in the following list as 

 are also certain remarks of interest. 



This paper has been prepared as a contribution to a glossary 

 of American plant names, not as an index to species mentioned 

 by Kalm. Its scope is restricted to vascular plants and is other- 

 wise specialized. European plants not naturalized in the United 

 States are omitted as are plants given only generic mention in the 

 works consulted ; a few even of those accompanied by scientific 

 names have proved unidentifiable. Names that are mere transla- 

 tions of the scientific terms and those that are descriptive phrases 

 rather than names also are excluded. The intent is to present each 

 name only in its indefinite nominative singular form but this has 

 been deviated from in the case of terms generally used in the plural. 

 Modern spellings are given in parentheses. 



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