PENN SYLVAN IA-GERM AN NAMES OF TREES 
3 
women employed the berries of sassafras trees against pain by washing the 
aching parts with a solution obtained bv boiling the berries in water. The 
bark of this tree was formerly used by the women in dying worsted a fine 
lasting orange color which is said not to have faded in the sun. The early 
settlers also gathered the flowers which were carefully dried in the shade to 
serve as a substitute for tea. 
Hamamelidaceae 
Suess Gumme Sweet gum Liquidambar styraciflua Linn. 
Wasser Beech Sycamore Platanus occidentalis Linn. 
This tree has a very confusing list of Pennsylvania-German names. The 
wood of sycamore has a rather close resemblance to that of beech, and since 
the tree is generally found along streams it is. often called wasser Beech. The 
German, however, corrupted the word to wasser Pitsch, and from this it was 
still further misnamed until today it is frequently called wasser Pitcher. The 
German ear is not very keen in detecting clearly certain aspirants, as for in¬ 
stance the b and p or d and t, and it is therefore easy to sec how the word 
became corrupted from beech to Pitch and later to Pitcher. The term was¬ 
ser Pitches has a local usage and is not likely to find favor even among the 
most careless users of Pennsylvania-German plant names. It is also occa¬ 
sionally referred to as bolle Baum or knoep Baum, but these also arc only 
local names. 
Locus 
Honig Locus 
Ahorn 
Leguminosae 
Locust 
Honey Locust 
Aceraceae 
Red maple 
Robinin pseudacacla Linn. 
Gleditsia trlacanthos 
Acer rubrum Linn. 
The red maple is one of the most common native species of eastern Pennsyl¬ 
vania, and it is seldom that any other name except maple is given to this 
tree. Occasionally one hears the word rother or feld Ahorn. The silver 
maple so generally cultivated is sometimes called spitz-blaettriger Ahorn. 
Gaeuls Kesten 
Linde 
Hundsholz 
Gumme Baum 
Hippocastanaceae 
Horse chestnut 
Tiliaceae 
Linden 
Cornaceae 
Dogwood 
Black gum 
Ebenaceae 
Aesculus hippocastanum Linn. 
Tilia americana Linn. 
Cornus florida Linn. 
Nyssa sylvatica Marsh. 
Sparveln Persimmon Diospyros virginiana Linn. 
The generic name of this tree is derived from dios, divine, and pyros, 
pear; resemblance of the fruit. The high German name for this tree is 
Dattelpflaume, a term which does not seem to have come into use in this 
country. Dattel is the German word for date, and pflaume for plum. 
Oleacae 
Aesche American ash Fraxinus americana Linn. 
The popular high German name is usually written Esche, derived from 
the original Teutonic word Ask-oz. The Pennsylvania Germans have not 
as yet generally distinguished the several species of ashes native to eastern 
Pennsylvania, except that the ordinary white ash (Fraxinus americana 
Linn ) is occasionally referred to as weiser Aesche in order to distinguish it 
from the wasser Aesche, which is the black ash (Fraxinus nigra Marsh.), a 
species generally found in low swampy situations. 
Caprifoliaceae 
Swartzer Huller Black elder Sambucus canadensis Linn. 
