MEW YORK 

 BOTAN'CAL 



TORREYA 



Vol. 37 September-October, 1937 No. 5 



Some local names of plants — VI 



W. L. AIcAtee 



The writer esteems it a satisfaction and a privilege to be 

 enabled again to contribute material toward a glossary of Amer- 

 ican plant names. Ever in search of bird appellations, his net 

 is out also for unusual plant designations and those included in 

 the present installment come from a wide variety of sources 

 that are indicated in the text except in the case of names per- 

 sonally gleaned. 



Examination of papers of Dr. B. S. Barton in the library of 

 the Pennsylvania Historical Society revealed that he made a 

 point of collecting local names of plants, and suggested that 

 his principal botanical works, now rather rare, would be good 

 sources of material in this field, a point that was verified by 

 consultation of a set of his publications in the Library of the 

 American Philosophical Society. Names from the Barton Jour- 

 nal additional to those in Lyon's valuable compilation (Plant 

 Names, 1907) are here included and designated by the sur- 

 name (Barton) in parentheses. 



Scattered vernaculars from old books that touch upon natu- 

 ral history also are given. Such works are sources of some of 

 the most interesting items. Some of the writers, considering the 

 state of information in their time, dealt rather fully with plants 

 and the names they used must be considered as the founda- 

 tion of American vernacular plant nomenclature. Among such 

 writings the following are exceptional for their periods: Wil- 

 liam Wood, New England's Prospect, 1634; Bernard Romans, 

 A concise natural history of east and west Florida, 1775; and 

 John Lee Williams, A view of west Florida, 1827. 



The names used in localities where the colonizing stock has 

 persisted down to our time have an interest of their own, and a 



* All of this series have been published in Torreya, No. 1 in Vol. 13: 225- 

 236, 1913; No. 2, 16: 235-242, 1916; No. 3, 20: 17-27, 1920; No. 4, 26: 1-10, 

 1926; and No. 5, 33: 81-86, 1933. 



93 



