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© 2004 by CRC Press 492 Florida Ethnobotany different from Europeans and Americans. Each series of symptoms is identified with a name as in our system, but their nomenclature involves an animistic worldview. Among the diseases they recognize, Persea has been used to treat ‘‘Bear Sickness’’ (fever, headache, thirst, constipation, and blocked urination), ‘‘Bird Sickness’’ (diarrhea, vomiting, appetite loss), ‘‘Buzzard Sickness’’ (vomiting in children), ‘‘Cat Sickness’’ (nausea), ‘‘Dead People’s Sickness’’ (grief, cough, appetite loss, vomiting; sometimes the same as ‘‘Ghost Sickness’’), ‘‘Deer Sickness’’ (numb, painful limbs and joints), ‘‘Fire Sickness’’ (fever and body aches), ‘‘Ghost Sickness’’ (grief, cough, appetite loss, vomiting, dizziness, staggering, sometimes the same as ‘‘Dead People’s Sickness’’), ‘‘Hog Sickness’’ (unconsciousness), ‘‘Mist Sickness’’ (eye disease, fever, chills), ‘‘Opossum Sickness’’ (appetite loss and drooling in babies), ‘‘Otter Sickness’’ (diarrhea and vomiting), ‘‘Raccoon Sickness’’ (diarrhea in babies), ‘‘Rainbow Sickness’’ (fever, stiff neck, backache), ‘‘Scalping Sickness’’ (severe headache, backache, low fever), ‘‘Sun Sickness’’ (eye disease, headache, high fever, diarrhea), ‘‘Thunder Sickness’’ (fever, dizziness, headache, diarrhea), ‘‘Turkey Sickness’’ (dizziness or ‘‘craziness’’), and ‘‘Wolf Sickness’’ (vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea). Additionally, red bay has been used to treat sickness caused by adultery, including headache, body pains, and ‘‘crossed fingers.’’ As an aphrodisiac, the leaves are sung over to attain the love of a particular girl. If the aphrodisiac has worked, the leaves may be rubbed on the mother’s body during protracted labor. Sometimes red bay is even considered a panacea where the leaves are used for everything and can be added to any medicine. As a psychological aid, the leaves are used to cure fear in babies caused by dreams about raccoons or opossums. In addition, an infusion of leaves may be used to steam and bathe the body of an ‘‘insane’’ person. The plant may be burned to work the same cure. There are also particular ceremonial applications. A decoction is taken as an emetic by doctors to strengthen their medicine. That may be the use at any time, or particularly when a death has occurred. The leaves are used as emetics during funeral ceremonies, carried by every member of the burial party, placed on top of casket, and burned to keep the soul of the recently departed from returning home. Leaves are also added to food after a recent death. Some recognize a wetland form as a distinct species, calling it P. palustris. The Creeks have used the root of that form as a ‘‘hydrogogue’’ and alterant. The decoction is considered diaphoretic in ‘‘fevers of all descriptions’’ by the Choctaws (Bushnell 1909). Persea is notorious for having poisonous compounds although it provides food and medicine for humans and other animals. The red bay and its variations contain an array of essential oils, including camphor, cineol, eucalyptol, and p-cymene (Tucker et al. 1997). Those, and probably other chemicals yet to be identified, are responsible for the tight evolutionary relationship between the spicebush swallowtail butterflies and members of the Lauraceae. The spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus) and the Palamedes swallowtail (P. palamedes) are among the few insects that can detoxify or sequester the poisons, and they specialize on Persea (cf. Lederhouse et al. 1992, Carter and Feeny 1999). There are perhaps 200 tropical Asian and American species in Persea (Mabberley 1997). Many of them are part of local pharmacopoeias, but none is as famous as the avocado. Although most people know that species as the primary ingredient passed down from the Aztecs almost without change in the recipe for guacamole (Coe 1994), few realize that it is also medicinal. The leaves and other parts contain a variety of toxic compounds that are dangerous to vertebrates if consumed in quantity (Hargis et al. 1989, Grant et al. 1991, McKenzie and Brown 1991, Stadler et al. 1991, Burger et al. 1994, Oelrichs et al. 1995). In spite of the toxic chemicals in the leaves, Latin Americans regularly use them in small quantities as a spice. They give foods an anise flavor (Hearon 1993). Those same compounds show potential as insecticides (Oberlies et al. 1998) and give some protection against Giardia (Ponce-Macotela et al. 1994). Avocado and other species in the genus show considerable dietary and medicinal potential (Zanobi et al. 1974, Meade et al. 1980, Mohan and Kekwick 1980, De-Oliveira et al. 1985, Ballot et al. 1987, Ma et al. 1989, Sheldon et al. 1990, Guevara et al. 1994, Eccleston and Harwood 1995, Kimura et al. 1995, Koua et al. 1998, Castro et al. 1999, Chiapella et al. 2000, Domergue et al. 2000, Kim et al. 2000, Kruthiventi and Krishnaswamy 2000, Caballero- George et al. 2001, Hashimura et al. 2001, Kawagishi et al. 2001, Kut-Lasserre et al. 2001, Schlemper et al. 2001, Stucker et al. 2001, Lequesne et al. 2002). Therefore, their congener P. borbonia is showing the same patterns as its relatives. In spite of its extreme importance among indigenous people in the southeastern United States, red bay has never appeared in the journal Economic Botany (Kaplan 2001). Although modern southern culture owes as much to the Creeks as any group of people, their botanical heritage has been slighted (Hudson 1976). The Creeks and their relatives the Seminoles were aware of all the bays. Bartram ([1791] 1958) told us Creeks called P. borbonia the eto miko, and Magnolia grandiflora was
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 493 tolochlucco (big bay). By the 1950s, the Seminoles had shortened those names to to:li and to:lhátkí (white bay, M. virginica). What will be remembered in the next 200 years? Phalaris (Greek phalaris, phaleris, used by Dioscorides, fl. A.D. 40 /80, for some kind of grass; presumably from phalaros, having a patch of white or crest, alluding to the inflorescence) alpiste (French) canaria (Italian); canary-grass (‘‘canary,’’ referring to the Canary Islands or Canariae Insula [Isles of Dogs], a name used by Pliny, A.D. 23 /79); kanarigras (kanari, canary, gras, grass, Norwegian) Glanzgras (glanz, shiny, gras, grass, German) phalaride (French) reed-grass (a name most often used for Phragmites) ror-flen (ror, reed, flen= ?, Swedish) scagliola (Italian) strandror (strand, seashore, rør, reed, Norwegian) Phalaris caroliniana (of Carolina) baabkam [papkam] (pl., baahpakam) (‘‘it has a grandfather,’’ Akimel O’odham [Pima]; Rea’s informants could not give him a reason for the name; he speculated it must be an ancient poetic allusion) Carolina canary-grass [canarygrass] may-grass [maygrass] (‘‘May-grass’’ was in use by 1830, but applied to Panicum latifolium; apparently applied to Phalaris ca. 1974, originally by archaeologists) Europeans knew at least three species of Phalaris when they arrived in the New World. Reed canarygrass (P. arundinacea) and Harding grass (P. aquatica L.) were grown for hay, while seeds of canary grass (P. canariensis) were eaten by people. There are about 20 species in Phalaris, with 7 native to Europe (Mabberley 1997). Phalaris caroliniana was named by Walter in 1788, and now grows from Florida to California and Mexico, north to Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Oregon. May-grass is a starchy-seeded annual grass whose grains (caryopses) are dominant in Middle and Late Woodland archaeological sites (Crites and Terry 1984, Asch and Asch 1985). The grains have been associated with people in Illinois, dating 17009/70 B.P. in one site and 14009/70 B.P. at another site. It was already an important cultivated food in Kentucky in 1000 B.C. Fritz (2000b) concluded that it was a domesticated crop by 3000 B.P. Moerman (1998) found the species being used only by the Gila River Pima, based on a report by Amadeo Rea. Subsequently, Rea (1997) provided more information on may-grass use. While reading through a 1908 report by Frank Russell, Rea noticed an unidentified grass the O’odham had called papkam. He realized that it was what modern people call baabkam. Russell wrote, ‘‘The heads are tied in bunches and dried in the sun. They are then shelled, screened, the seeds parched, ground on the metate, and eaten in pinole. They are ‘not sweet.’’’ One of Rea’s O’odham friends had told him the seeds were once eaten but did not taste good. These grasses are another member of the Eastern Agricultural Complex that was abandoned when maize agriculture became widespread. Phaseolus (From Greek phaseolos, a little boat, light vessel, referring to the similarity between the pod and the craft; used by Dioscorides, fl. A.D. 40 /80, for what Agnes Arber identified as Vigna unguiculata, cf. Meyer et al. 1999; known as faseolus or phaseolus to Romans) Phaseolus polystachios. From Britton and Brown 1897. Phaseolus polystachios (many-spiked) [thicket, wild] bean [vine] sacsac (Delaware) Phaseolus vulgaris (common) acayotle (maybe from acatl, cane, etl, bean, Náhuatl, recorded by Humboldt fide Hedrick 1919)
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