262 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 436. 



trees, and is rarely gregarious, is spread all over western 

 and central Europe, reaching southern Scandinavia on the 

 north and ascending the mountains of southern Europe and 

 northern Africa ; in Asia it ranges from the Mediterranean 

 to the temperate Himalayas, where it is common in the 

 north-western provinces up to elevations of ten or twelve 

 thousand feet above the sea, and where it appears to attain 

 its largest size, and to northern China and Manchuria. The 

 wood of this tree is strong, hard, flexible, elastic, easy to 

 split and very durable. These qualities make it valuable 

 to the manufacturer of bows, and no other wood which 

 has ever been tried for this purpose equals that of the Yew. 

 It is considered more valuable than that of any other 

 European tree for cabinet-making, and for this purpose it 

 is largely used for veneers. In India the Yew-tree is ven- 

 erated and the wood is burnt as incense, its branches are 

 carried in religious festivals, and the powdered bark is 

 employed medicinally. 



Stories of the poisonous properties of the Yew-tree have 

 been rife for more than two thousand years, and in Europe 

 numerous instances are cited of fatal results following the 

 medicinal use of the leaves, and of the death of animals 

 which had eaten them. There is no record, however, of any 

 evil results from the browsing on Yew leaves in the United 

 States ; in India domestic animals are said to be regu- 

 larly fed on Yew branches, and in Europe cases are 

 reported of animals which have been gradually accustomed 

 to a diet of Yew. The sweet, juicy red pulp which covers 

 the stones is palatable to most people and is eaten without 

 producing any ill effects ; and flour made from the seeds has 

 been successfully used in Europe to fatten poultry. It is 

 hardly possible that the different species of this homomorphic 

 genus can vary in toxic properties, or that the Old World 

 Yew is more poisonous in Europe than it is in India, and 

 the whole subject of the poisonous properties of the plants 

 of this genus needs more careful investigation than it has 

 received. 



In the decoration of European gardens Taxus baccata 

 has played an important part, especially during the seven- 

 teenth century, when, cut into all sorts of fantastic shapes, 

 it was the pride of French, Dutch and English gardens. 

 The Old World Yew is unsurpassed as a hedge plant, and 

 is still one of the most generally planted evergreens in 

 western and central Europe, where many abnormal forms 

 are cultivated, the most distinct of these being the Fastigi- 

 ate or Florence Court or Irish Yew, found many years ago 

 on an Irish mountain, the Dovaston or Weeping Yew, 

 and varieties with gold-colored or silvery leaves. The 

 readers of this journal are doubtless familiar with the ap- 

 pearance of the cultivated European Yew, with its com- 

 pact bushy juvenile habit and its more mature pyramidal 

 head, but in our illustration on page 265 of this issue they 

 can see the portrait of a wild Yew-tree, a venerable speci- 

 men growing on the upper slopes of an Algerian moun- 

 tain. Our illustration is from a photograph made by 

 Monsieur Maurice L de Vilmorin, of Paris, who has 

 obligingly placed it at our disposal. 



Plant Names of Indian Origin. — II. 



CATALPA.— This word was first used by Mark Catesby 

 (Nat. Hist. Carolina, Florida, etc., i., p. 49 ; 1745), who 

 gives no explanation of its origin or meaning. Speaking of 

 the Catalpa, he says : " This tree was unknown to the inhab- 

 itants of Carolina till I brought the seeds from the remoter 

 parts of the country." By the " remoter parts of the coun- 

 try " is probably meant Georgia, where the tree is indige- 

 nous, and into which Catesby made excursions while living 

 in Carolina, between 1722 and 1726. This was formerly a 

 part of the domain of the Muskhogeans. Believing that 

 the word was derived from one of the dialects of this family, 

 I submitted it to Mrs. A. E. W. Robertson, of Muscogee, 

 Indian Territory, who has a profound knowledge of the 

 Muscogee language, and who tells me that it is undoubt- 



edly from that dialect, and is a slight corruption of kuluhlpa, 

 meaning "winged head" — the name, to use her words, 

 referring to the "shape and marking of the flower, with its 

 winged border." From a supposition that the name was 

 derived from that of a tribe of South Carolina Indians, the 

 word was corrupted at an early period to Cataba and 

 Catawba. Patalpha, another corruption of the word, is 

 applied in the Eower Wabash and White River Valleys, 

 Indiana, to Catalpa speciosa. 



Chapote (Diospyros Texana). — From Mexican-Spanish 

 sapote, which is from Aztec tzapotl, a general name, in 

 composition, in that language, for sweet, fleshy fruits. 

 The name of the Mexican persimmon was tlillzapoll, mean- 

 ing " black fruit." 



Chia (Salvia Columbaria). — The Aztec name, according 

 to Molina ( Vocab. Mexic), for the "oily seeds" of some plant. 



Chicalote.---A popular name in southern California for 

 Argemone hispida. It is from Aztec chicalotl, meaning 

 "that which is spiny." 



Chinkapin, or Chinquapin (Castanea pumila). — "Many 

 goodly groves of Cliincomen-trees, with a huske like unto 

 a chesnut" (R. Hamor, in A true discourse 0/ the present 

 estate 0/ Virginia [about 1 6 14] ). The last syllable, men, in 

 the above word is an Algonkin inseparable suffix, meaning 

 " seed," "nut," or fruit." The erroneous change to pin, 

 a suffix meaning "root," was made at quite an early 

 period, as early, at least, as 1682. Captain Smith (Hist, of 

 Virginia, about 1606-8) and Strachey (Travaile i?ito Virginia, 

 about 16 10) give the name in the reduplicated form, 

 chechinquamin and chichinquamin. This renders the 

 meaning of the first part of the word a little doubtful ; but 

 I think that, of the two possible interpretations, " rattle- 

 nut" and "scratch fruit," the latter (which would refer to 

 the stiff spiny character of the involucre) is the more prob- 

 able. By the Pamlico Algonkins, further south, the fruit 

 was called sapummen (Hariot, 1585), which may, perhaps, 

 be regarded as the southern equivalent of sabinnin and 

 jabomin, "pierce-fruit," names in Cree and Odjibway, 

 respectively, for the prickly fruit of Ribes Cynosbati. 



Cinque (Triosteum perfoliatum). — A name of the plant 

 given by Clayton (Flora Virgin.). Rafinesque (Med. Flor., 

 ii., 269) speaks of the plant as the " Sincky of the Indians." 

 The name, except as a synonym in works on Materia 

 Medica, is probably obsolete. If Indian, it is an Algonkin 

 word, and either from sinnegeu, "it is stony," or an abbre- 

 viation of sinneganin, "stony seed," referring to the bony 

 character of the nutlets. 



Clamoun. — A name in Massachusetts for Kalmia latifolia, 

 thought to be of Indian origin. If so, it is a contraction of 

 kullamoun for kunnamoun, "spoon material." The wood, 

 which is soft when fresh, becomes hard and dense, 

 and was used by the aborigines for making spoons. 



Coakum (Phytolacca decandra). — This name, with its 

 variants Cocum and Cunicum, is a word of Indian (Taras- 

 can) origin, but not of Indian application. Rafinesque 

 (Med. Ft., ii., 25) says that the Phytolacca is the "Coa- 

 kum of northern tribes," and this statement has been 

 repeated. The "northern tribes" in this instance were 

 the colonists of Massachusetts, who formed the word 

 through a corruption of Mechoacan, an old pharmaceutical 

 name for a purgative root derived from the Mexican prov- 

 ince so called, and afterward extended to the roots of other 

 plants that had similar medicinal properties. Mechoacan 

 is a Tarascan word, meaning "fish-land." 



Cocash (Aster puniceus). — From Natick (Algonk. ) koko- 

 sliki, "it is very rough," a name referring to the hispid 

 character of the stems, which has given the plant one of 

 its popular names — that of the "rough-stemmed Aster." 

 The name was applied also by the Indians (and is still 

 applied) to Erigeron Philadelphicus, because of its rough, 

 hairy stems. 



Cohosh. — A name for several plants having similar medi- 

 cinal properties — namely, Cimicifuga, Caulophyllum and 

 Actaea. It is from cohosoo, meaning "it is spiny," or 

 "bristly" or "rough to the touch," the Indian (North- 



