vehicles are going next, online. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span 3. >> be part of our campaign 2014 coverage. get video clips of key moments, debate previews from our politics team. c-span is bringing you over 100 senate, house, and governor debates. you can instantly share your reactions. ofattle for control congress. stay in touch and engage by following us on twitter and liking us on facebook. >> each week, "american artifacts" takes you to museums and historic places. from the founding of the united states, george washington encouraged the creation of a botanic garden in the nation's capital that would inspire and educate citizens on plants and

their uses. this vision was realized in the 1820's. congress created the u.s. botanic garden on the capitol grounds. the most recent addition, the national garden, features plants of the mid-atlantic, including a rose garden and regional garden. the plant curator explains the history and the indigenous plants used by native americans, colonials, and others. >> everybody, welcome to the national garden. this is the most recent garden on our property that opened in 2006. it is really a wonderful place to look at native plants but that is not where the garden got its start. this garden got its beginning when the rose became our national floral emblem in the 1980's.

shortly after that, the senate wives' committee began looking for a place to commemorate the rose. they noted a piece of land a little less than three acres -- it had some grass, a few trees, but nothing formal. they began privately raising money to build a garden on this site. it took quite a few years. fundraising began in the 1990's and eventually in 2006 it opened. there was a design competition held for different elements of the garden and the company was hired to tie them all together, leaving one very large space in the middle that we see right here, the heart of the national garden, the regional native plant garden. my name is bill mclachlan, i have worked here since 1986. 19 years as a gardener, since garden.a curator of the

i oversee our plant content, and i have to say that native plants are specialty of mine and i am happy to show you around. as we enter the regional gardens, you are actually walking on a pathway that has one half on either side. the reason we chose to portray it as two different soils is because washington, d.c. lies on the fall line. it is a rough divide between piedmont to the north and west that is rocky and hilly, and then to the east lies the coastal plain, the flat soil that is a combination of material brought from the rivers and eastward, and and overlaid with marine deposits over time. very loose and sandy, different from the hard soil of the piedmont. some of the coastal plants that we show -- the wax myrtle. if you go north you will find

more bayberry, its deciduous cousin. both are famous for making waxy fruits. they got their names from early colonial use. there was no electricity back then so the wax fruits were boiled, the wax would come to the top of the pot and they would use it to make candles. this is a source of light in our early colonial days. very aromatic and sometimes it is even used to create pungent seasoning in some dishes. sort of a bay leaf substitute. wax myrtle and bayberry is very important. it also smells pleasant, and the bayberry candle became a standard associated with new england, perhaps. there are lots of goldenrods native in the united states but this one is called "odora."

the odor part of it comes from the fact that the foliage smells of licorice. this is made into an herbal tea and was exported in the 1800's even to china. it has got a little bit of history because that is when the revolution -- the boston tea party, americans looked for native sources for herbal beverages and this was one of the favorites. they were copying the native americans. they used it to get down harsher medicinal teas. another plant i love talking about -- this is witch hazel. this shrub can become a small tree in our eastern deciduous woods. many of you are familiar with it from the drug store. this is a very mild astringent that has been used for a long time. it is the primary center for production of witch hazel it is in connecticut. about 90% of the world output is from connecticut. it has an economic use. it is also an intriguing plant. there are seedpods developing during the summer and also

flower buds being developed at the same time. these flower buds will keep developing and open right around the fall, when leaves begin dropping. this is a striking plant for colonists to see blooming at a very odd time of year. they imbued it with all these properties -- one of which is the belief that twigs from this plants make good dowsing rods. you could find water underground with this player. witch hazel probably also was -- with this plant. witch hazel probably also was used in bewitching and then it bloomed in off-season. in early fall, if the weather is dry, the leaves will turn brown and if you are in a wooded dominated by witch hazel -- you will hear pops like gunshots. that's a seed being forcibly

expelled. it has a propulsive mechanism for distributing its seeds. a great plant for a shady backyard where you don't want something too large. we talked about the goldenrod that was used for tea. this is another plant that was used very widely for tea, new jersey tea. in latin, we call it "america nus." there are lots of other plants from the southwest but this is the sole representative in the mid-atlantic. this is unusual in that it grows in the mountains as well as the coastal plains and covers all the regions. the leaves were very tasty tea, a beautiful looking tea that very much looks like black tea from asia. the only bummer is, it has no caffeine. while it was tasty it didn't

quite have the effect that some people were looking for in tea. one of the visitors you will enjoy looking at -- it looks a little bit out of place. the pawpaw is in a family called the custard apple. we can see some fruit setting in it right now. they are on their way. they look a little bit like blunt bananas and there are many common names, one of which is "indiana banana." pawpaw, while it is really tasty and the pulp can make anything from ice cream, you won't find it in the average supermarket because it bruises very easily. and it has to ripen on the plant. it has limited commercial potential. this is something to go look for at your local farmers market. .ere in the mid-atlantic area

this is north america's largest fruiting plant, the pawpaw. you will notice that we are in rocky areas. then on our right is the water feature. this whole garden was made with the idea that it wouldn't be overly irrigated. plants that are up on higher ground are plants you would expect to find in upland situations. they do not need a lot of water. a great example of that is the small tree, called the common hop tree or wafer ash tree. the little waferlike fruits but -- that it makes are attractive enough, but they were used as a substitute for making homemade brews back in colonial times. it was used as a hops substitute. it has the name hop tree. a lot of people find this plant to be unexpected here. i think it looks good along the boardwalk. this is a native bamboo. most people think of bamboos as asian plants.

there are three or four species here in eastern north america. this one goes by the common name river cane. it flows along river ways up into the ohio and mississippi river valleys. it is now down to a very small percentage of its original holding. american colonizers tended to follow the same track that native americans did. they would often turn the land for crop growing. we did the same thing afterwards and by the 1930's a lot of the lands these cane breaks grew on had disappeared. this tree is more familiar to people that are walking barefoot. there is that ouch moment. oftentimes what they are stepping on one of these.

these are sweetgum. they can exude a nice amber sap and native american children would chip the bark of this tree and wait for the sap to harden and then harvest it for chewing. it is in the same family as witch hazel so it has a bit of astringency. what i like is its dramatic fall color. fall color is not to be taken for granted. people line up for miles at skyline drive to see fall color. they are seeing something special. only eastern north america and eastern asia have mass displays of fall color and i think that is probably why a lot of our trees are very popular worldwide. we looked at the goldenrod that is used to brew tea. most people think of goldenrod as road plants, for the

roadside, and many of them are too aggressive for gardens. but they actually run the gamut. this species hails from north carolina and was thought to be extinct for a long time. it was noted in herbarium records, and it was not rediscovered until quite recently. sweet gum is definitely not the only north american plant with great fall color. this is one of the shadblow -- it has quite a few common names. a multi-stemmed shrub or small tree. very tasty, blueberry like fruit after spring flowers. we have this planted on low ground. it can get ample moisture. a little bit above it we have the tree service area -- one interesting thing about the common name for this plant, "shadblow" is a locally common name, because these trees tended to bloom and had their flowers

shatter around the time the shad run up the potomac river. "service berry" supposedly comes from the fact that where it grows in the far north its blooms signify the time for burial of those who had died over the winter. the flowering of the tree happened to coincide with the time the ground thawed. this is the black oak. it was an important plant in colonial times. you will notice where the bark is starting to crack, a little bit of a tan orange color beneath. that always reminds me that the product that was made from the bark of this tree was called quercitron, the latin name for "the tree itself." it was a very important leather tanning agent, very acidic and high in tannic acid.

they were the primary agents for tanning leather until more modern times. not everyone loves persimmons, our native persimmons in particular, but i think they are fantastic trees. they are just starting to develop now. after a few frosts it becomes edible. before that, it is really a stringent. it is a favored fruit of wildlife, possums and raccoons. those are the animals that disperse it. the leaves can be brewed into a very nutritious tea that is high in different vitamins. it is in the ebony family, and a lot of the ebonies we know are used in woodworking. this native plant often has a little more practical use -- they were used in drivers and golf clubs. and for billiard cues. we are going to be entering an area of the garden that is all

coastal plains soil. all the plants and here are the kind of things you would expect to see in the coastal plains. acid soil. blueberries, white cedar, pine, those are the kinds of things that dominate the coastal plains. this is loblolly pouring -- pine. this is not the most favorite pine but it is one of the most economically important plants in the mid-atlantic states. this is the source of most of the pine lumber you will see at your stores, the type you have got to look down to make sure -- -- to make sure it is not w arped a little bit. it is a very fast-growing tree, sometimes called oldfield pine. it is one of the first to come into abandoned farm fields. fast growing, and the timber

people like it because you can get a turn on it in 30 or 40 years. certainly not the finest of the pine trees in my view. as you go further south into the coastal plain from virginia to texas, you will find very commonly this little holly. so itcalled "vomitoria," does not have a lovely latin name. in the landscape trade they tend to call it yeopine. these plants were made into a drink by the native americans. colonists who first observed using it, nicknamed it the black drink and they mistakenly associated it with a purging ritual, which native americans did with many teas or even plain water. what they were doing was using a beverage that was already familiar. this was the only safe source of this was the only safe source of caffeine in the southeast.

they had stumbled on the one plant that could give them a little bit of a caffeine boost, so they tended to use it before important meetings and hunts, when you needed greater mental acuity. it is a great ornamental, like most hollies. the females will make a fruit. instead of turning a solid red, this one makes a beautiful translucent fruit that just lights up in the low sun of the autumn and river. -- winter. a great plant for feeding birds, a great history of native american use. its use is mirrored in south america. something that is more familiar to us today -- yerba maté. we have included one willow as a representative of all of them. they have a history of human use that is wonderful. this is the original source for aspirin. you sometimes see the herbal remedy as a headache cure. i don't recommend it because in

willow there are lots of different compounds. aspirin takes one effective compound out of willow, and does not bother your stomach as much. north american indians discovered that use. so it is a natural analgesic. we looked at the loblolly pine , which grows very quickly on any piece of land, but the longleaf pine is probably the most elegant pine in the southeast. very long needles, easy to be exported. as far north as new york city for mental pieces during the winter holidays. for mantlepieces during the winter holidays. but it has much greater history than that. this tree was the centerpiece for the naval stores industries. it was tapped for its sap which was then boiled down into

turpentine and rosin. these really help to build navies. a very important tree. the practice of tapping the tree in the woodlands is exhibited here. we have a stump. that is what we call cat-faced. it was once standing up and it has been notched into. a tin collection cup was placed below. that is where the sap gathered and was poured into kettles and boiled. this was a very common practice, especially in north carolina and cities like wilmington and savannah, georgia are where they are today as a result of this industry. while they shifted out to this timber to supply things like the british navy, the southeast had a real industry. even today you can find logs

that were sent downriver, submerged underwater for a hundred years and still perfectly good today because of a high resin content of this tree. the industry, particularly in north carolina, utilized poor labor forces. they tended to walk on the would barefoot. the amounts of tar and pitch meant that things stuck to their feet. the name carolina tar heel probably comes from the practice of harvesting from this tree. this really delicate and that is blooming is called toothache grass. "arimaticum,", comes from the fact that if you dig around the roots you will find it has a really pleasant, citrusy orange scent. if you chew on the roots your mouth will go numb. native americans had a few plants they would use if they had very bad toothaches, which i

imagine were pretty common, and this is one of them. the united states botanic garden is a rather unique institution in washington. while most people assume that to are part of the smithsonian, we are actually part of the capitol complex. we are administered by the architect of the capitol. you come out to to this garden and you will see not only plants that change through the season, so you have spring ephermals early in the year. in the summer, it is burdened and plush, a counterpoint to the rest of the city. in the fall, the fall colors in the late blooming with fantastic fall foliage. it's my favorite season in this garden. [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this weekend on the c-span networks, tonight at 10:00, the women of color empowerment conference. sunday evening at 8:00, the maker and daughter of robert f kennedy, rory kennedy, on her latest film, "last days of vietnam." live coverage of the texas book festival in austin continues. c-spanican history tv on 3, tonight at 8:00, the modernization of businesses and households in the and -- in the 20th century, and its impact on society. and ronald reagan's 1964 "a time ." let using" speech know what you think about the programs you are watching. e-mail us.