Dear K.O.,
You are not the only reader who is puzzled by this strange word. However, I have an answer for you.

There are many places in Louisiana that have names of Indian origin. The Choctaw Indians -- the most significant Native American group to move into Louisiana during the European period -- used the words "bog" or "bok" which meant bayou or creek or river. Also, in their language, "chitto" meant big. So, Bogue Chitto means big bayou or river. Likewise, the Choctaw word "falaya" meant long, so we get long river.

As you probably know, the Bogue Falaya flows through St. Tammany Parish and joins the Tchefuncte River, and the Bogue Chitto flows through Washington and St. Tammany parishes and empties into the Pearl River.

It was a great day in April 2001 when U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu participated in a signing ceremony to celebrate the purchase of 700 acres intended for the Bogue Chitto State Park in Washington Parish.

I remember going canoeing and tubing in both of these "bogues." It was great fun!

Hey Blake,
Are any of our palm trees native to New Orleans, or all they all imports? I've heard that Harrah's Casino paid $10,000 apiece for their palm trees. True? Does the city pay that much for the trees for major avenues?
-- Jerry Speir

Dear Jerry,
None of our beautiful palms are indigenous to the area. Every single one of them has to be imported, some from as far away as California. And as you have noticed, they don't come cheap.

There is a member of the palm family that is native to Louisiana and widely distributed in the South -- the palmetto. They can have trunks of 6 to 8 feet and 1- to 3-feet-wide fan-shaped leaves. But these little guys are not the ones that are going to be used to turn the Big Easy into a tropical paradise. No Siree. We are going to have some really splendid trees with fancy names, just like the ones around Harrah's.

Now, Old Blake is not known for his gardening expertise, but I do know that the palms are a cold-hardy variety called Phoenix Dactylifera "Medjool."

Back in 1999, Harrah's trucked in 59 towering palms each weighing 8,500 pounds. These beauties came from a commercial date farm near the Arizona-California border and cost a whopping $6,500 each. It was a massive project to dig up the 26-foot trees, water them, load them on trucks, drive them across the country on I-10, and then lower them into their new beds about 24 hours later.

Just recently, the board of the Downtown Development District (DDD) decided to plant 88 35-foot-tall Medjool palms in the neutral ground along a 17-block stretch of Canal Street. Planting of these palms will cost $1,064,000. And that doesn't include the irrigation system, which will add an additional $166,000 to the bill.

The DDD had at one time intended to plant 220 of the pricey palms in the granite sidewalks planned for the area between the river and Claiborne Avenue. At a cost of $10,000 for each tree, including planting, there were a lot of folks who objected to the tab to the taxpayers that topped $2 million.

Most critics complained that since the trees were not native, perhaps they don't belong. However, the Jesuits introduced the Canary Island date palm to the city about 200 years ago. And there used to be, until the 1970s, palms on Canal Street.

Being tropical creatures, the palms don't like the cold, and a hard freeze that lasts for days can destroy them. But the Medjools are reputed to be more cold-hardy than the Canary Island palms and a better bargain as well. A Canary Island palm of 20 feet could cost $1,000 a foot while a Medjool of the same height can sell for $5,000. Our trees will be at least that tall.