Garden and forest [Volume 9, Issue 436]

Garden and Forest.

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 venerated 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 regularly 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 seventeenth 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 Fastigiate 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 appearance of the cultivated European Yew, with its compact 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 specimen growing on the upper slopes of an Algerian mountain. 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.
ATALPA.-This word was first used by Mark Catesby
(Nat. Hist. Carolzna, Florida, etc., i., p. 49; I745), who
gives no explanation of its origin or meaning. Speaking of
the Catalpa, he says: " This tree was unknown to the inhabitants of Carolina till I brought the seeds from the remoter
parts of the country." By the "remoter parts of the country" is probably meant Georgia, where the tree is indigenous, and into which Catesby made excursions while living

in Carolina, between 1722 and I726. 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 ku/zihlpa,
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 Lower 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 lil/zapotl, meaning "black fruit."
CHIA (Salvia Columbariae).-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 chicaloll, meaning
"that which is spiny."
CHINKAPIN, or CHINQUAPIN (Castanea pumila). —"Many
goodly groves of Chincomen-trees, with a huske like unto
a chesnut" (R. Hamor, in A true discourse of the present
estate of Virginia [about 1614]). 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 I682. Captain Smith (Hist. of
Virginia, about I606-8) and Strachey ( Iravale inlo Virginia,
about i6io) 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, "rattlenut" and "scratch fruit," the latter (which would refer to
the stiff spiny character of the involucre) is the more probable. By the Pamlico Algonkins, further south, the fruit
was called sapummen (Hariot, 1585), which may, perhaps,
be regarded as the southern equivalent of sabomin 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 abbreviation of sinnegemin, "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 (Tarascan) origin, but not of Indian application. Rafinesque
(Med. Fl., ii., 25) says that the Phytolacca is the "Coakum 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 province 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.) kokoshki, "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 medicinal properties-namely, Cimicifuga, Caulophyllum and
Actaea. It is from cohosoo, meaning "it is spiny," or
"bristly" or "rough to the touch," the Indian (North

262

[NUMBER 436.