July i, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



263 



eastern Algonkin) designation, not of the plants, but of 

 their medicinal rhizomes, which are of a more or less rough 

 and jagged nature when dry. 



Coonti. — A name usually appropriated to Zamia integri- 

 folia, but a general term among the Seminoles for bread 

 roots. There are several variants of the word, such -as 

 Coonta, Coontia and Koonitie. It is apparently from kdna 

 (kdn in composition), "ground," and ala, "under." 



Cuscatominy, with variants : Cruskatominy, Kiskitomas, 

 Kiskitomis, Kisky Thomas, Kiskytom and Kitkytom. — A 

 name in the vicinity of New York city (Long Island and 

 Staten Island) for the nut of Hickoria ovata. Dr. J. H. 

 Trumbull conjectures that the name alludes to the thinness 

 of the shell of the nut of the Shagbark Hickory, and that it 

 implies one that may be "cracked with the teeth." If this 

 is so, it is a corruption of a word that may be compared 

 with Abnaki (Algonk.) oosekooskadamen (contracted skoos- 

 kaddmen), " he crushes it with the teeth." 



Dahoon (Ilex Cassine) — a word first used by Catesby 

 (1722-6). It has been supposed to be Indian, but it cannot 

 now be referred to any language formerly spoken in the 

 southern states. 



Dockmackie (Viburnum acerifolium). — A wordof Mohegan 

 Algonk.) origin, meaning "it is cooling." "The oldest 

 Dutch settlers in Columbia County, New York," says Eaton 

 {Manual of Botany}, " tell us that the Indians in that vicinity 

 considered the external application of the leaves of the 

 Dockmackie as a sovereign remedy in every kind of inflam- 

 matory tumor." 



Dogachamus, or Dogackerme (Cornus circinata). — A cor- 

 ruption of Penobscot (Algonk.) damaganalikwimosi, "pipe- 

 stem bush." 



Hackmatack (Larix Americana). — A corruption (an ana- 

 gram, really) of tacamahac, an early name in Massachu- 

 setts for the same tree. The name has been transferred to 

 several other conifers, such as Thuya occidentalis, Pinus 

 contorta, P. Murrayana and Tuniperus communis. 



Hickok (Chrys'obalanus Icaco). — Through Carib-Span., 

 from ikakoo, the name of the plum-like fruit in the female 

 dialect of the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles. Cocoa, in the 

 name Cocoa-plum (Corker-plum in Florida), is a variant of 

 the word. 



Hickory. — This word, or rather the word of which it is 

 an abbreviation, was the name neither of a tree nor its 

 fruit, but of an emulsion prepared by the Virginia Algon- 

 kins from the moker-nut (Hickoria alba), and used as an 

 ingredient in their cookery. Strachey (Travaile into Virginia, 

 p. 129), speaking of the "walnuts "of the country, says, 

 after mentioning the black walnut and the butternut : 

 "The third sort is . exceeding hard-shelled and 



hath a passing sweet karnell ; this last kind the Indians 

 beat into pieces with stones, and putting them, shells and 

 all, into morters, mingling water with them, with long 

 woodden pestells pound them so long togither untill they 

 make a kind of mylke, or oylie liquor, which they call 

 powcohicora." This word (properly, pakohikore) means, 

 literally, " it is brayed." As a name for the emulsion so 

 called, it corresponds to the Englis-h expression "brayed- 

 stuff," or "that which is made by braying." The word is 

 from the root pak, " to strike," or " beat " ; whence also the 

 name Pecan, q. v. The changes which this word has 

 undergone up to the present, starting with it as the name 

 of a food preparation simply, are, chronologically, as fol- 

 lows : pokahiquara, pokahichory, pokerchicory, pokikerrie, 

 pockery, pohichery, peckikery, pieck-hickery, hickery, 

 hiquery, hickory, hiccory, hickorie and hiccora. The 

 orthography now adopted was first used in 1682, in An 

 Account of the Province of Carolina (reprinted in Force's 

 Tracts). 



The word hickory as a name, in what were formerly Span- 

 ish possessions, for a chocolate cup, is from Mex.-Span., 

 jicara (formerly xicara), a chocolate cup, from xicalli, the 

 Aztec name (1) for a small variety of gourd, and (2) for a 

 roundish cup or bowl used for drinking purposes. Hickory, 

 a name for several small species of Mamillaria, belongs to 



the language of the Tarahumari Indians, who inhabit the 

 Sierra Madre, near the frontiers of Mexico. 



W. 7?. Gerard. 



New York. 



Mycology in the Southern States. 



CONSIDERING the later development of botanical 

 study in this country, it is not a little singular that 

 the two earliest students of American fungi commenced 

 their labors in a single state, and that that state was North 

 Carolina. Schweinitz and Curtiss described their species 

 largely from the south. Their species, like many others of 

 that day, were very briefly described, and a very large 

 number of them have never been seen since their original 

 discovery; this arises from two conditions : (1) The inher- 

 ent difficulty of identifying the plants from the descrip- 

 tions, and even from the types, some of which are lost, and 



(2) the fact that very little field work has been done in the 

 southern tier of states since their time. 



If we should draw a line across the country along the 

 northern boundary of North Carolina the area south of that 

 line, made up of thirteen entire states and about two-fifths of 

 California, will represent about one-third of the United 

 States, exclusive of Alaska. Let us examine briefly into 

 the field work in mycology that has been accomplished in 

 this portion of our territory. Leaving North Carolina 

 where the two pioneers labored, and South Carolina, which 

 was later explored to a considerable extent by Ravenel, we 

 come to Florida, which has been lightly skimmed by a few 

 transient collectors, Dr. Martin, Calkins, Nash, the writer, 

 and the two enthusiastic workers at the subtropical labora- 

 tory, but not a tithe of its riches has been brought to light 

 and the region of its really tropical flora is even yet 

 untouched. From Alabama the late judge Peters and 

 Beaumont both contributed somewhat to the Berkeley and 

 Curtiss series, and later Professor Atkinson made consider- 

 able collections in the central eastern portion of the state 

 during the short time he was connected with the Alabama 

 Polytechnic Institute. 



In Mississippi, Professors Tracy and Earle, in the mo- 

 ments stolen from professional work, have brought out a 

 preliminary list of Mississippi fungi containing over 350 

 species, of which one-sixth were undescribed, and they have 

 already a large supplementary list ready for publication. 

 In Louisiana, Hale collected a few species in the early 

 days, and more recently Father Langlois has done a 

 highly creditable work in the collections he has made 

 largely in a single parish. From the vast state of Texas 

 what have we to represent its rich flora ? (1) A list of 149 

 species by M, C. Cooke, collected by Lindheimer, Wright 

 and Ravenel. (2) A partial bulletin from the experiment 

 station devoted to parasitic fungi, and including a list of 95 

 species, many of which are included in the preceding. 



(3) A brief review of the fungous flora of the state by 

 Ravenel, which incidentally mentions a few species. All and 

 only this from a state that probably supports a larger fungous 

 flora than any single state of the Union. In 1S91 the write) 

 spent a few hours in the city of Austin, and with a half hour 

 to spare strolled out to one of the arroyos within the city 

 limits. On this stroll, which was taken in a dry, unfavor- 

 able season, six species of fungi were gathered. Three 

 were new to science, and three represented rare and highly 

 interesting genera, two of which are unique and scarcely 

 represented in any of the larger herbaria. The incident is 

 unimportant in itself, except as it shows what quantities of 

 material are in store for those who commence the explora- 

 tion of this almost unknown territory. 



Until the last three years southern California has been a 

 terra incognita in mycology, but during that time Professor 

 McClatchie has made a highly creditable commencement 

 in the region about his institute. 



From the remaining states in this southern tier, Georgia, 

 Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona, no sys- 

 tematic field work has ever been done, and probably two 

 hundred species would cover our knowledge of their aggie- 



