See quotations.
1751. The Phytolacca is known to almost every one in America by the name of Poke-weed.—A N.Y. physician in the Gentleman’s Magazine for July: quoted in the Mass. Spy, May 24, 1809. [A detailed description follows.]
1756. This plant [Poke-weed] is a native of Jamaica, and commonly found in all the cooler hills and mountains of the island, where it grows very luxuriantly.—P. Browne, ‘Jamaica,’ 232. (N.E.D.)
1787. Quere, whether the weed, vulgarly called poke weed, and another called henbane, do not contain qualities noxious to insects, and may not be used with as great prospect of success as the elder?—American Museum, i. 135/2 (Feb.).
1832. Poke, an abbreviation of Pocum, and frequently called Cocum, and erroneously Garget.—Williamson, ‘History of Maine,’ i. 128 (Hallowell). (Italics in the original.)
