TORREYA 



November, 1916. 

 Vol. 16 No. II 



SOME LOCAL NAMES OF PLANTS— 2* 



By W. L. McAtek 



Most of the local names recorded for the 82 chiefly specific 

 groups of plants herein listed are not given in botanical manuals 

 and standard glossaries. The few among them that are so in- -«■« 

 eluded are repeated for definite purposes. As in the previou# ' *' 

 list localities for all of the names are given. ' ^vm. 



The citation of places where used adds immensely to the 

 interest and value of a catalog of local cognomens. Among such 

 nicknames some are quaint or amusing, but some also are ex- 

 tremely apt. It would be well were many notoriously bookish 

 names discarded for some of those actually in vernacular use. 

 Among those in the following list, that of patches for Meibomia, 

 pickle grass for Salicornia, and slink-weed for Juniperus liori- 

 zontalis are particularly fitting. 



It is patent that single vernacular names sometimes are applied 

 to more than one botanical species. It is interesting therefore 

 to note that they also err at times in making too fine distinctions. 

 For instance, on Revels Id., Va., the staminate plant of Baccharis 

 halimifolia is known as salt water bush, and the pistillate plants 

 with their copious pappus as kinks bushes, and they are regarded 

 as distinct kinds. Again on Matinicus Island, Me., a plant of 

 Polygonum persicaria that has dark blotches on the centers of 

 the leaves is heart's-ease, and is recognized in the local pharma- 

 copeia; if the plant does not have dark blotches, then it is not 

 heart's-ease. t 



* No. I of this series was published in Torreya 13: 225-236. 1913. 



1 1 might add that on this island I heard the fungoid malformation of trees, 

 known as witches' broom, called hoorah's-nest. 

 [No. 10, Vol. 16 of Torreya, comprising pp. 211-234, "^^as issued 16 Nov., 1916.] 



235 



