July 15, iS 



Garden and Forest. 



283 



tive from a verbal root, and the inanimate participial suffix 

 k. The name alludes to the hard rind or shell {hack). 

 Strachey gives the diminutive form macauqs as the name for 

 grape-stone, or plum-stone, and maucauqwins (" little mau- 

 cauq ") as the name for a bell, the European bell probably 

 having been likened by the Indians to a gourd rattle. 



May-pop. — A name for the fruit of Passifiora incarnata ; 

 altered from maycock (obsolete), a corruption of Powhatan 

 (Algonk. ) maracock, "a fruict by the naturalls so called " 

 (Strachey). Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull thinks that inas- 

 much as our P. incarnata is so like P. edulis, the home of 

 which is in Brazil, that botanists have been unable clearly 

 to distinguish between the two, "we may infer that the 

 fruit and its name were originally derived from the same 

 South American source" {Atner. Jour. Sci., xxvi., 130). 

 According to this view, maracock would be ultimately 

 from the Tupi name mburucuia (meaning " fruit of a vine "), 

 which Marcgrav wrote maracuia and murucuia, and which 

 was adopted in the form merecoya by the Caribs of the 

 Lesser Antilles, by way of which the fruit, with its Tupi- 

 Carib name, would have reached the country of the Algon- 

 kins before the arrival of the Europeans. 



Mesquite (Prosopis juliflora). — There are many variants 

 of this word, such as Meskit, Mesquit, Mezquit, Mezquite, 

 etc. The name is, through Mexican-Spanish, from Aztec, 

 mizquitt, which, according to Hernandez (Rerum Jlfed. Nov. 

 Hispan. Tlies.), was originally the name of the sweet edi- 

 ble pod. The word cannot be referred to any Aztec root, 

 and may have been borrowed, possibly, from Araucanian 

 mizqui, or Kechua misqui, both meaning "honey," or 

 anything "sweet" (one of the English names of the tree 

 is Honey-pod.) — The name, with various qualifying adjuncts, 

 has been applied to several grasses that abound on the 

 prairies among the Mesquite-trees. 



Nopal (Opuntia Engelmanni). — A Mexican-Spanish name 

 for the plant in Texas, from nopalli, a term generic in Aztec 

 for Cactus-plants. 



Nendo, or Nondo (Ligusticum actseifolium). — A name 

 said by early writers to be from the language of the Vir- 

 ginia Indians. The statement is somewhat indefinite, as 

 there were several different Indian languages spoken in the 

 extensive territory known under the general name of Vir- 

 ginia. The word cannot now be traced. 



Papaw, or Pawpaw (Asimina triloba). — A name, says Dr. 

 Gray in his North American Genera, doubtless given to the 

 fruit from a fancied resemblance in its appearance or taste 

 to the true Papaw of tropical America, the name of which 

 is, through Spanish, from Taino (Carib of Hayti) ababa'i. 



Pecan (Hicoria Pecan). — Pagan or pakan, signifying 

 that which is " struck " or " pounded ' with an instrument 

 in order to crack it, is the Algonkin general term for hard- 

 shelled nuts. To the Illinois Indians, the fruit of H. 

 Pecan was the pakan par excellence. From them the early 

 French settlers in Illinois and Louisiana borrowed the 

 word in the form pacane, whence the English name of the 

 nut. 



Pembina (Viburnum oxycoccus). — A French-Canadian 

 corruption of Cree (Algonk.) nipimindn, meaning "water- 

 berry." 



Persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana). — This name, from the 

 time of the earliest settlers, has been variously spelled : 

 pushemin, pichamin, pessemmin, putchamin, puchamine, 

 parsemena, persimena, pissmien, putchimon, pitchumon, 

 phishimon, persimon, possimon, pishamin, parsimmon and 

 persimmon. The last-mentioned orthography, the one now 

 adopted, was first used in 1669 by Shrigley. As stated 

 under the word Chinquapin, the suffix men means " fruit." 

 The prefix, varied push, pers, puch, poss, etc., is susceptible 

 of several interpretations, but 1 think that it can be safely 

 referred to the Algonkin root pos, varied dialectically to 

 pash and pes, meaning primarily "to penetrate," whence 

 the twofold meaning of "to fill up" and "to choke." The 

 word would thus, in its original form, have meant " choke- 

 fruit," a very apposite name in view of the nature of the 

 berries, which, when not fully ripe, are, as Strachey ob- 



serves, "harsh and choakie, and furre in a man's mouth 

 like allam." 

 New York. W. R. Gerard. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Rigidella immaculata. — A group of seedling plants of 

 this interesting Irid is now in flower in a sunny greenhouse 

 at Kevv. Although introduced into cultivation by Hartweg 

 over fifty years ago from the mountains of Guatemala, it 

 does not appear to have won favor as a garden plant, not- 

 withstanding the rich color and elegant form of its flowers. 

 In habit the plants suggest Tigridias, the leaves being 

 erect, ensiform and plaited ; the scapes are a yard high, 

 branched, with clusters of green folding spathes from which 

 are pushed the drooping rich crimson flowers composed of 

 a campanulate cup an inch long and three reflexed seg- 

 ments nearly as long again as the cup. The flowers are 

 fugitive, but they succeed each other rapidly. Only two 

 species of Rigidella are known, the other being R. flam- 

 mea, a native of Mexico, which, according to Mr. Baker, is 

 larger in flower than R. immaculata. To cultivators of 

 choice bulbous plants this plant may be recommended on 

 account of the form and brilliant color of its flowers. 



Iris Robinsoniana. — A figure of this, the largest of all 

 species of Iris, was published in Garden and Forest, vol. 

 iv., p. 352, from a plant flowered at Kew in that year. The 

 same plant is now in flower again. It bears twelve spikes, 

 each about eight feet high, the first flowers opening on May 

 2 1st. More than one thousand flowers had been devel- 

 oped since that time, the highest number open on any one 

 day being 1 13 on June 13th. The flowers last only one 

 day, but there are some open every day. Each flower is 

 about four inches across, pure white with blotches of golden 

 yellow at the base of the three largest segments. Even 

 when not in flower this Iris is as ornamental as the New 

 Zealand Flax, Phormium tenax. It rarely flowers under 

 cultivation. I attribute its present floriferousness to its 

 having been lifted in March last and replanted in fresh soil, 

 the check thus given, no doubt, having induced the devel- 

 opment of flower-scapes. The species is a native of Lord 

 Howe's Island. It requires a sunny position in a warm 

 greenhouse and plenty of water at all times. 



Marica ccerulea. — This is by far the handsomest of the 

 dozen species of Marica admitted by Mr. Baker, but it is 

 rarely met with in cultivation. At Kew it is grown along 

 with the Agaves in a warm, sunny greenhouse, where it is 

 planted out in gravelly soil. Here it forms a tuft of ensi- 

 form leaves a yard long, and in early summer develops 

 numerous scapes five feet long, bearing clusters of flowers 

 near the apex. These open in slow succession ; they are 

 four inches in diameter and of a rich blue color with lines 

 of yellow, brown and white at the base of the outer seg- 

 ments. On some days the display of flowers is rich and 

 delightful. I believe this species is naturalized in Jamaica, 

 and, according to Mr. Baker, it has been found in west 

 tropical Africa, although it is a native of tropical America. 

 When grown in pots it is not nearly as satisfactory as when 

 planted in a bed of gravelly soil, as above described ; at any 

 rate, I have never seen it anywhere so happy and floriferous 

 as in the succulent house at Kew. 



Iris Sibirica. — All the forms of this Iris are easily culti- 

 vated, and they flower most freely in early summer. At Kew 

 they are most effective when planted in masses on the mar- 

 gin of the lake, the moisture at the root evidently being to 

 their liking. A few roots planted as an experiment three 

 years ago have now become large clumps, which this 

 month have been perfect sheafs of rich lilac-blue flowers. 

 The white variety, called flexuosa, is rare in cultivation 

 now, although one of the oldest of garden plants. 



Iris K/empferi. — We have at last succeeded with this 

 plant, a bed, or rather bog, about six yards square in one 

 corner of a lake being- crowded with large beautiful flowers. 



