June 24, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



253 



examples of such cases will be found in the following list. 

 Much is gained, however, if the word has been properly 

 assigned to the language to which it belongs. 



Another difficulty is due to orthography, especially that 

 used by the colonists, who, through a mishearing or mis- 

 apprehension of the strange sounds of a strange language, 

 wrote the same word in various forms, thus rendering its 

 interpretation a question of the ear rather than of the eye. 

 Good examples of this are afforded by the words Persim- 

 mon and Hickory. 



The following list is, perhaps, not complete. I have 

 omitted from it a few words that are found in books and 

 are thought to be Indian (apparently for no other reason 

 than that they are not English), but which require further 

 study. In a study of North American plant names, it must 

 not be forgotten that this country was settled by people of 

 various nationalities, who naturally applied to our plants 

 names derived from their own language. Among the 

 numerous examples of such names may be mentioned 

 Farkieberry, Fetterbush and Tupelo, a word that has 

 always been thought to be Indian. Some of these foreign 

 words have been so badly corrupted by English-speaking 

 people as to be unrecognizable at first sight. As examples 

 of such words I may mention Bilsted, Bonsemkrenia, Lash- 

 Horn, Snargel, Sangrel, Klimmeth, etc. It must not be 

 thought, then, that a word of uncouth appearance which 

 is not English, and which apparently does not belong to any 

 European language, is naturally North American Indian. 



Ajiole (Chlorogalum pomeridianum). — A name trans- 

 ferred to the plant from that of a saponaceous pulp which 

 is formed by bruising. the alkaline and mucilaginous bulb, 

 and which is used for washing clothes. The word is from 

 amolli, or hamolli, the Aztec name for soap. 



Atamasco (Zephyranthes Atamasco). — "The Indians in 

 Virginia do call it Attamusco " (Parkinson, Paradisus, p. 87). 

 The word means "stained with red,'' and alludes to the 

 color of the flowers. 



Camass (Camassia Fraseri). — A Chinook Jargon word, 

 with variants : Camas, Gammas, Quamash and Quamish. 

 The name is from Nootka (Wakashan) chamassish, "sweet- 

 tasted," alluding to the saccharine taste of the bulb when 

 cooked. 



Canchalagua (Erythraea venusta), and also a general 

 name for the various species of the genus in California, as 

 well as in Panama, Ecuador and Chili. The name is a 

 Spanish corruption of Araucanian (Chilian), cachan-laliuen, 

 meaning "pleurisy herb." 



Cashaw, or Cushaw (Cucurbita verrucosa). — The "Cu- 

 shaws," says Beverly {Hist. Virginia, ed. 1705, p. 27), "are 

 a kind of Pompion, of a bluish green color, streaked with 

 white, when they are fit for use. They are larger than the 

 Pompions, and have a long narrow neck." Beverly adds 

 that "perhaps this maybe the Ecushaw of J. Hariot"; and 

 Dr. J. H. Trumbull {Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, vi., 71) remarks 

 that "in Hariot's Virginia the name [Cushaw] is given as 

 Ecushaw." But these references are erroneous, since no 

 such word as Ecushaw occurs in Hariot's Briefe and true 

 report of the new found land of Virginia (1585). Neverthe- 

 less, in order to account for the name Cashaw, or Cushaw; 

 we must suppose the former existence of the Virginian 

 (Algonkin) word ecushaw, or escushaiv (properly askushaw ; 

 Cree, askisiw), which would mean "it is green," " unripe" ; 

 from the same root as the word Squash, q. v. Bartlett 

 {Diet, of Americanisms) notes that the word is sometimes 

 spelled Kershaw. 



Cassena (Ilex vomitoria) — From cassine (as spelled by the 

 French explorers of Florida in the sixteenth century), a 

 name in the language of the Timucua Indians (a family 

 long ago extinct) for an exhilarating beverage prepared 

 from the leaves of the plant. The word has the appearance 

 of having been borrowed, and modified by a prefix and 

 suffix, from the Muscogee name assi, " leaves," abbreviated 

 from assi lupulski, "little leaves." The Timucua borrowed 

 several terms from the Muskhogean dialects. 



New York. W. R. Gerard. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



Rhododendrons and Azaleas. 



THE Rhododendrons are now at their highest state of 

 perfection, and for many years there has not been 

 such a profusion of bloom as this season, doubtless owing 

 to the dry and warm summer of last year, which conduced 

 to the formation of flower-buds instead of the growth of the 

 plants. The public gardens and parks about London are 

 brilliant with Rhododendrons and Azaleas, and especially 

 Hyde Park, where, each year, a special feature is made of 

 the finest specimens of the best sorts from the famous Knap 

 Hill nurseries, in Surrey. This year Azaleas and Rhodo- 

 dendrons have mingled in bloom in a remarkable way, for 

 generally Azaleas are past their best before the Rhododen- 

 drons are fairly out. One hears divided opinions as to 

 their respective merits, and popular favor leans decidedly 

 toward Azaleas now that the great number of varieties 

 show so many subtle shades in their brilliant tints. But, 

 really, they should not be compared with each other, and 

 it is best to separate them, as is done at Kew, where in the 

 Azalea garden one can only have a distant glimpse of the 

 Rhododendrons. This principle should be followed whether 

 planting on a large or small scale. This week I was one 

 of the multitude who visited the famous Knap Hill nur- 

 series, where the display of Rhododendrons excels that to 

 be seen anywhere else in England. Here many acres of 

 these American plants make a sea of bloom, the variety and 

 brilliancy of which form a scene of indescribable beauty. 

 Each year I think it quite the most impressive floral sight I 

 have seen anywhere. But I went to Knap Hill especially 

 to see the novelties that are sure to appear each season in 

 such a vast collection, where systematic hybridizing is car- 

 ried out thoroughly. Having regard to the multitude of 

 splendid named varieties the standard of perfection is neces- 

 sarily a high one with Mr. Anthony Waterer. Every seed- 

 ling that does not. conform to his ideal is rejected, although 

 many persons might regard some of the rejected seedlings 

 worthy of a name on account of the color or some excep- 

 tionally fine feature. In his opinion the perfect Rhododen- 

 dron must first of all be of good constitution, with large 

 and broad foliage, which he generally secures by breeding 

 from the Catawbiense type. The flower-truss must be 

 massive and a perfect cone and the flowers large, of per- 

 fect form and with short foot-stalks, so as to hold them- 

 selves together and not lie injured by wind or rain. Then, 

 if the seedling conforms to all these conditions and proves 

 itself distinct in color from any known named variety it is 

 given a name. To any one with a less fastidious taste than 

 Mr. Waterer there are at least a score of new seedlings that 

 are well worthy of a name, but probably only a fourth of 

 that number will be so distinguished, and the others will be 

 sold as unnamed seedlings. Two of the seedlings were 

 named on the day of my visit. These were G. A. Sims and 

 Nancy Waterer. The first is quite the most brilliant hybrid 

 Rhododendron I have seen, and is almost of the same tint 

 as the original R. arboreum. It is almost needless to stale 

 that it has high qualities in size of truss and flower and 

 luxuriant foliage. Its color stands out the most striking 

 among a thousand others. The Nancy Waterer variety, on 

 the other hand, is remarkable for delicacy of tint, and is, 

 perhaps, now the finest of the white and spotted-flowered 

 class. It has a huge truss, and the immense flat flowers 

 show spreading petals of a pure warm white, the upper 

 petal adorned with a large and conspicuous blotch of rufous 

 tint. Both these superb varieties will, no doubt, be dis- 

 tributed this season. A seedling will probably be selected 

 to be named Persimmon, after the winner of this year's 

 Derby, it being Mr. Waterer's invariable custom to name a 

 Rhododendron after the winner of this classic race. It is a 

 good practice, as it fixes the date of a new variety. I be- 

 lieve the only exception to this custom was the year when 

 the horse Common won the Derby. It was, perhaps, 

 thought that the name might be misconstrued. 

 . Passing from the seedling-ground we were showed about 



