Chapter 28

[139]Arum, L. (Gerard, p. 381). The New-England species “differ,” as our author says, “from all the kinds” in the Old World.[140]None of the species, presumably here meant, are common to America and Europe. Our author’s white violet isViola blanda, Willd.[141]All our true honeysuckles (“woodbinde, or honisuckles,”—Gerard, p. 891;Caprifolium, Juss.) are distinct from those of Europe; but what the author meant here is uncertain.[142]Convallaria, L.;Polygonatum, Tourn.;Smilacina, Desf. Many botanists have referred our smaller Solomon’s seal to the nearly akinC. multifloraof Europe; but Dr. Gray (Manual, p. 466) pronounces the former a distinct American species. The second of Josselyn’s species is the “Polygonatum Virginianum, or Virginian’s Salomon’s seale” of Johnson’s Gerard (p. 905), and also of Morison (Hist.,cit. L.), and earliest described and figured by Cornuti asP. Canadense, &c., which isSmilacina stellata, (L.) Desf.; peculiar to America. The third is set down by our author, at p. 56, among the “plants proper to the country;” and Wood (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.) mentions it among eatable wild fruits, by the same name. It is probablySmilacina racemosa, (L.) Desf.,—a suggestion which I owe to my friend Rev. J. L. Russell’s notes upon Josselyn’s plants, in Hovey’s Magazine (March, April, and May, 1858); papers which were published after the manuscript of this edition had passed from the hands of the editor,—and is also confined to this continent.[143]Geranium, L. The first isG. Carolinianum, L., which nearly resembles Gerard’s dove’s-foot (p. 938); the second isG. Robertianum, L., common to us and Europe; and the third (Gerard, p. 940)—which cannot beG. dissectum—was meant, it is likely to be taken for synonymous with the fourth, or raven’s-claw,—doubtless our lovelyG. maculatum, L., which belongs to that group of species which the old botanists distinguished by the common nameGeranium batrachioides, or crow-foot geranium, which flowers in May, and is of well-known value in medicine; and the “knobby” root, attributed to Josselyn’s third kind, favors this opinion.[144]The genusPotentilla, L., in general, is perhaps intended by cinque-foil; and although our author probably confounded the common and variablePotentilla Canadensis, L., with the nearly akinP. reptansandP. verna, L., of Europe, yet the larger part of our New-England species are, with little doubt, common to both continents. What Josselyn referred toTormentilla, L.,—a genus not now separated fromPotentilla,—was probably a state ofP. Canadensis, which resemblesP. reptans, L., as remarked above (and was, indeed, mistaken for it by Cutler,—l. c., p. 453), as this doesTormentilla reptans, L.[145]Geum strictum, Ait.,—not found in England, but European (Gray, Man., p. 116),—is indicated by the author’s phrase; and see the Voyages, p. 78, for his opinion of its medicinal virtue.[146]Fragaria vesca, L. (the common wood-strawberry of Europe), is native here, according to Oakes (Catal. Verm., p. 12), “especially on mountains;” and I have even gathered it, but possibly naturalized, on the woody banks of Fresh Pond in Cambridge. Our more common strawberry was not separated from the European by Linnæus, but is now reckoned a distinct species. “There is likewise strawberries in abundance,” says Wood (New-England’s Prospect,l. c.),—“very large ones; some being two inches about. One may gather half a bushel in a forenoon.”—“This berry,” says Roger Williams (Key, in Hist. Coll., vol. iii. p. 221), “is the wonder of all the fruits growing naturally in those parts. It is of itself excellent; so that one of the chiefest doctors of England was wont to say, that God could have made, but God never did make, a better berry. In some parts, where the natives have planted, I have many times seen as many as would fill a good ship, within few miles’ compass. The Indians bruise them in a mortar, and mix them with meal, and make strawberry-bread.” Gookin also speaks of Indian-bread.—Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 150.[147]The two plants here intended, and supposed by the author to correspond with the “wild angelica” and “great wilde angelica” of Gerard (pp. 999-1000), may perhaps be taken for the same which Cornuti (Canad. Pl. Hist., pp. 196-200), thirty years before, had designated as new,—Josselyn’sAngelica sylvestris minorbeingAngelica lucida Canadensisof Cornuti, which isA. lucida, L. (and probably, as the French botanist describes the fruit as “minus foliacea vulgaribus,” alsoArchangelica peregrina, Nutt.); and hisAngelica sylvestris majorbeingA. atropurpurea Canadensisof Cornuti, orA. atropurpurea, L.[148]Smyrnium aureum, L. (golden Alexanders), now separated from that genus, was mistaken, it is quite likely, forS. olusatrum, L. (true Alexanders), to which it bears a considerable resemblance.—Gerard, p. 1019.[149]Achillea millefolium, L. Oakes has marked this as introduced (Catal. Vermont, p. 17): but it appeared to our author, in 1672, to be indigenous; and Dr. Gray reckons it among plants common to both hemispheres.—Statistics of Amer. Flora, in Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xxiii. p. 70. The author’s reference is to common yarrow.—Gerard, p. 1072.[150]Aquilegia Canadensis, L. As elsewhere, the author probably means here only that the genus is common to both continents.[151]At p. 56, both of these are set down among the “plants proper to the country.” The first, to follow Gerard (p. 1108), isChenopodium botrys, L.,—a native of the south of Europe, and considered as an introduced species here. It has reputation in diseases of the chest.—Wood & Bache, Dispens., p. 213. Josselyn’s oak of Cappadocia (Gerard, p. 1108) is an American species,—Ambrosia elatior, L. Cutler says of it (l. c., p. 489), “It has somewhat the smell of camphire. It is used in antiseptick fomentations.”[152]Galium aparine, L. (Gerard,edit. cit., p. 1122), common to America and Europe.—Compare Gray, Man., p. 170.[153]The “Filix mas, or male ferne,” of Gerard,edit. cit., p. 1128 (for, says he, of the “divers sorts of ferne ... there be two sorts, according to the old writers,—the male and the female; and these be properly called ferne: the others have their proper names”), is the collective designation of four species ofAspidium; of which all, according to Pursh, and certainly three, are natives of both continents,—AA. cristatum,Filix mas,Filix fæmina, andaculeatum, Willd. “Filix fæmina(female ferne, or brakes,)” of Gerard,l. c.isPteris aquilina, L.; also common to us and Europe. The otherFilicesmentioned by our author areOphioglossum vulgatum, L. (p. 42); andAdiantum pedatum, L. (p. 55).[154]Oxalis corniculata, L. (Gerard, em., p. 1202), common to Europe and America.[155]Ulmus, L. There are no species common to America and Europe.[156]See the Voyages, p. 69, where the author has it “the line-tree, with long nuts: the other kind I could never find.” The former wasTilia Americana, L.,—a species peculiar to America.[157]See p. 48; and Voyages, p. 69. None of our species are found in Europe.[158]The plant intended is doubtless the same with that spoken of in the Voyages, p. 80.—“Rosa solis, sundew, moor-grass. This plant I have seen more of than ever I saw in my whole life before in England,” &c. Both our common New-England species ofDroseraare also natives of Europe.[159]“Differing much from those in England. One sort of them bears a most beautiful flower” (p. 56, where it is rightly placed among plants “proper to the country”). The author refers here, doubtless, toApios tuberosa, Moench. (ground-nut of New England), which was raised at Paris, from American seeds, by Vespasian Robin, and figured from his specimens by Cornuti (Canad., p. 200) in 1635; but it was celebrated, ten years earlier, in “Nova Anglia,”—a curious poem by the Rev. William Morrell, who came over with Capt. Robert Gorges in 1623, and spent about a year at Weymouth and Plymouth, publishing his book in 1625 (repr. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 125, &c.),—as follows:—“Vimine gramineo nux subterranea suavisSerpit humi, tenui flavo sub cortice, pinguiEt placido nucleo nivei candoris ab intra,Melliflua parcos hilarans dulcedine gustus,Donec in æstivum Phœbus conscenderit axem.His nucleis laute versutus vescitur Indus:His exempta fames segnis nostratibus omnisDulcibus his vires revocantur victibus almæ.”[160]See p. 52and Voyages (pp. 70, 81) for other notices ofFungi; and Voyages, p. 81, for the only mention ofAlgæ.[161]Female pimpernell (Gerard, em., p. 617),—Anagallis arvensis, γ, Sm.;A. cærulea, Schreb.,—but scarcely differing, except in color, from the scarlet pimpernel, which has long (“in clayey ground,”—Cutler,l. c., 1785) been an inhabitant of the coasts of Massachusetts Bay, though doubtless introduced.[162]Hepatica triloba, Chaix. (Anemone hepatica, L.), common to Europe and America; occurring occasionally with white flowers.—Gerard, em., p. 1203.[163]Rubus, L. The red raspberry of this country is hardly other than an American variety of the European (R. Idæus, var. strigosus, caule petiolis pedunculis calyceque aculeato-hispidissimis, Enum. Pl. Agri Cantab, 1843, Ms.); upon which see Gray (Man., p. 121; and Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81).R. triflorus, Richards., is also very near to, and was once considered the same as, the EuropeanR. saxatilis, L. The rest of our New-England raspberries and blackberries appear to be specifically distinct from those of Europe. The cloud-berry, mentioned at p. 60, is there set down among plants proper to the country; and may therefore not be the true cloud-berry (Gerard, p. 1273), orRubus chamæmorus, L., which is common to both continents.[164]The New-England gooseberries are peculiar to this country. The author no doubt intendsRibes hirtellum, Michx. (Gray, Man., p. 137); as see further his Voyages, p. 72.[165]Cratægus, L. But the species are peculiar to this country, as Josselyn implies with respect to the haws which he notices. These, no doubt, includedC. tomentosa, L., Gray; and perhaps, also,C. coccinea, L. Wood says, “The white thorn affords hawes as big as an English cherry; which is esteemed above a cherry for his goodness and pleasantness to the taste.”—New-England’s Prospect, chap. v. At page 72 of his Voyages, the author mentions “a small shrub, which is very common; growing sometimes to the height of elder; bearing a berry like in shape to the fruit of the white thorn; of a pale, yellow colour at first, then red (when it is ripe, of a deep purple); of a delicate, aromatical tast, but somewhat stiptick,”—which may bePyrus arbutifolia, L. Higginson (New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 119) speaks of our haws almost as highly as Wood.[166]Great toad-flax (Gerard, em., p. 550);Linaria vulgaris, Moench. Compare De Candolle (Geog. Bot., vol. ii. p. 716) for a sketch of the American history of this now familiar plant, which the learned author cannot trace before Bigelow’s date (Fl. Bost., edit. 1) of 1814. But it is certainly Cutler’s “snapdragon; ... blossoms yellow, with a mixture of scarlet; common by roadsides in Lynn and Cambridge” (l. c., 1785): though he strangely prefixes the Linnæan phrase forAntirrhinum Canadense, L.; and there seems no reason to doubt that Josselyn may very well have seen it in 1671.[167]Gerard, p. 653 (Teucrium, L.). The author may have intended to reckon the genus only. Our species is peculiar to this continent.[168]The designation is uncertain. The old botanists gave the nameAuricula muris, or mouse-ear, to species ofMyosotis,Draba,Hieracium, andGnaphalium. Josselyn’s plant may most probably beAntennaria plantaginifolia, Hook. (mouse-ear of New England), which is very near toA. dioicaof Europe.—Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81.[169]Quercus alba, L.;Q. rubra, L.; andQ. tinctoria, Bartr. Wood’s account of the oaks (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) is similar. In his Voyages, p. 61, Josselyn gives us “the ordering of red oake for wainscot. When they have cut it down and clear’d it from the branches, they pitch the body of the tree in a muddy place in a river, with the head downward, for some time. Afterwards they draw it out; and, when it is seasoned sufficiently, they saw it into boards for wainscot; and it will branch out into curious works.”[170]Juniperus communis, L.; common to both continents. But the author did not probably distinguish from itJ. Virginiana, L.; which is frequent, and often dwarfish, near the sea.[171]Salix, L.; the genus only meant here, it is likely.[172]Daphne Laureola, L. (Gerard, p. 1404), with which Josselyn may have consideredKalmia angustifolia, L., in some sort allied. The latter has long been known in New England as dwarf or low laurel.[173]Myrica Gale, L. (Gerard, p. 1414); common to Europe and America.[174]Sambucus, L. OurS. Canadensis, L. differs very little from the common elder of Europe, except, as our author in his Voyages says (p. 71), in being “shrubbie,” and in not having “a smell so strong.”—Cf.DC.Prodr., vol. ii. p. 322;Gerard, p. 1421. The other North-American elder (S. pubens, Michx.) is at least equally near to the EuropeanS. racemosa, L., according to Prof. Gray.[175]“There is a sort of dwarf-elder, that grows by the sea-side, that hath a red pith. The berries of both”—that is, of this and of the true elder mentioned above—“are smaller than English elder; not round, but corner’d.”—Voyages, p. 71. Gerard’s dwarf-elder (p. 1425) isSambucus ebulus, L. Josselyn’s may have been aViburnum; for this genus was confused withSambucusby the elder botanists. Wood (New-England Prospect, chap. v.) speaks of—“Small eldern, by the Indian fletchers sought;”—which was perhaps arrow-wood, orViburnum dentatum, L.[176]Alnus, Tourn. One of the three New-England species (A. incana, Willd.) is common to Europe and America. Another (A. serrulata, Willd.) “bears so great a resemblance,” says F. A. Michaux, to the common European alder (A. glutinosa, Willd.) “in its flowers, its seeds, its leaves, its wood, and its bark, as to render a separate figure unnecessary; the only difference observable between them” being “that the European species is larger, and has smaller leaves.”—Sylva, vol. ii. p. 114. Compare Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 83.A. viridis, our third species, is common to Europe and this country.[177]Corylus, L. Our species, which are peculiar to America, are both indicated: the “filberd, ... with hairy husks upon the nuts,” beingC. rostrata, Ait. (beaked hazel); and that “setting hollow from the nut,”—that is, larger than the nut.—C. Americana, Wangenh. (common hazel).[178]Carya, Nutt. In the Voyages, p. 69, the author speaks of the “walnut, which is divers: some bearing square nuts; others like ours, but smaller. There is likewise black walnut, of precious use for tables, cabinets, and the like” (Juglans nigra, L.). “The walnut-tree,” continues Josselyn, “is the toughest wood in the countrie, and therefore made use of for hoops and bowes; there being no yews there growing. In England, they made their bowes usually of witch-hasel” (that is, witch-elm,—Ulmus montana, Bauh., Lindl.; as see Gerard, p. 1481: butCarpinus, “in Essex, is called witch-hasell,”—ib.), “ash, yew, the best of outlandish elm; but the Indians make theirs of walnut.” This was hickory, and what Wood says belongs doubtless to the same. He calls it “something different from the English walnut; being a great deal more tough and more serviceable, and altogether heavy. And whereas our guns, that are stocked with English walnut, are soon broken and cracked in frost,—being a brittle wood,—we are driven to stock them new with the country walnut, which will endure all blows and weather; lasting time out of mind.” After speaking favorably of the fruit, he adds (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. vi.), “There is likewise a tree, in some parts of the country, that bears a nut as big as a pear,”—the butternut, doubtless (Juglans cinerea, L.). Josselyn has told us (p. 48) of the oil which the Indians managed to get from the acorns of the white oak. Roger Williams (Key,l. c., p. 220) says our native Americans made “of these walnuts ... an excellent oil, good for many uses, but especially for the anointing of their heads.” Michaux (Sylva, vol. i. p. 163) says the Indians used the oil of the butternut, and also (p. 185) of the shag-bark, “to season their aliments.” Williams adds (l. c.), “Of the chips of the walnut-tree—the bark taken off—some English in the country make excellent beer, both for taste, strength, colour, and inoffensive opening operation.”[179]Castanea vesca, Gaertn.; common to Europe and America. Our chestnut is considered to differ from the European only as an American variety of a species common to both continents might be expected to. “The Indians have an art of drying their chestnuts, and so to preserve them in their barns for a dainty all the year.”—R. Williams,l. c.[180]Neither Wood nor R. Williams makes mention of it. The younger Michaux considered our beech distinct from the European; but Mr. Nuttall makes it only a variety of it; while Prof. Gray puts both trees in his list of “very close representative species.”—Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81.[181]Fraxinus, L. Our species are peculiar to this continent. I cannot account for Wood’s saying, “It is different from the ash of England; being brittle and good for little, so that walnut is used for it.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. vi.[182]Sorbus, L. (Gerard, p. 1473). Our mountain-ash (S. Americana, Willd.) is quite near to the quicken, or mountain-ash of the north of Europe (S. aucuparia, L.); but hardly, perhaps, to be reduced to an American variety of it, as the elder Michaux (Fl. Amer., vol. i. p. 290) proposed. Compare Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 82.[183]Except the small white birch (B. populifolia, Ait.), which Mr. Spach reduces to a variety of the EuropeanB. alba, L.,—in which he is sustained by Prof. Gray (Man., p. 411),—and the dwarf-birch (B. nana, L.) of our alpine regions, all our species are peculiar to this continent.—See the author’s Voyages, p. 69, for another mention of the birches.[184]Populus, L. Our species are peculiar to the country, as the author’s remark suggests. Wood (l. c.) notices “the ever-trembling asps.”[185]“The plumbs of the country be better for plumbs than the cherries be for cherries. They be black and yellow; about the bigness of damsons; of a reasonable good taste.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.Prunus maritima, Wangenh. (beech-plum), andP. Americana, Marsh. (wild yellow plum), are no doubt here intended; as also, it is likely, by Josselyn, who, it is evident, in this place had only the genus in mind as “common with us in England.”—See p. 61for the author’s mention of the “wild cherry.”[186]Portulaca oleracea, L. (Gerard, p. 521). “In cornfields. It is eaten as a pot-herb, and esteemed by some as little inferior to asparagus.”—Cutler;Account of Indigenous Vegetables(1785),l. c., p. 447. Considered to have been introduced here; but our author enables us to carry back the date of its introduction, without reasonable doubt, to the first settlement of the country. “Purslain, Mr. Glover says, is also very common in Virginia, and troublesome too, to the tobacco-planters.” Sir Philip Skippon to Ray, Feb. 11, 1675-6, in Ray Society’s Corresp. of John Ray, p. 121. Mr. Nuttall regarded the species as indigenous on the plains of the Missouri; but this plant, “too closely resembling the common purslane,” according to Prof. Gray (Man., p. 64), has been separated as specifically distinct by Dr. Engelmann.[187]Genista tinctoria, L. (Genistella tinctoria,—greenweed, or dyers’ weed; Gerard, p. 1316). “We shall not need to speake of the use that diers make thereof,” says the latter. Our author could hardly have been mistaken about so well-known a plant as this; which he probably met with in one of his visits to the neighborhood of Boston,—long the only American station for it. There is a tradition that it was introduced here by Gov. Endicott; which may have been some forty years before Josselyn finished his herborizing,—enough to account for its naturalization then. It was long confined to Salem (“pastures between New Mills and Salem,”—Cutler,l. c., 1785); but occurred to me sparingly, in 1841, on the shores of Cambridge Bay, and also on roadsides in Old Cambridge. “Woad-seed” is set down, in a memorandum of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, before February, 1628, to be sent to New England (Mass. Col. Rec., vol. i. p. 24); and thoughIsatis tinctoria, L., is true woad,Reseda luteola, L. (wold, or weld), and ourGenista(woadwaxen), have, it is said (Rees’s Cycl.,in loco), been known “in English herbals under that name.”[188]“Current-bushes are of two kinds,—red and black. The black currents, which are larger than the red, ... are reasonable pleasant in eating.”—Voyages, p. 72. Our black currant isRibes floridum, Herit.,—considered by Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 291) only a variety ofR. nigrum, L., the true black currant of the gardens; and our red currant, which I have gathered in the White Mountains,—far below the region ofR. rigens, Michx., the more common red currant there,—appears to be undistinguishable fromR. rubrum, L. (the red currant of gardens); unless, possibly, as an American variety of it. This is probablyR. albinervium, Michx. (Fl., vol. i. p. 110; Pursh, Fl., vol. i. p. 163).[189]Polyporus, Mich., sp.—In his Voyages, p. 70, the author speaks of “a stately tree growing here and there in valleys, not like to any trees in Europe; having a smooth bark, of a dark-brown colour, the leaves like great maple in England called sycamor; but larger,”—which may bePlatanus occidentalis, L. (button-wood). And Wood enables us to add one more to this early account of the genera of plants, which we possess, common to the Old World. He tells us (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) “the hornbound tree is a tough kind of wood, that requires so much pains in riving as is almost incredible; being the best to make bowls and dishes, not being subject to crack or leak. This tree growing with broad-spread arms, the vines twist their curling branches about them; which vines afford great store of grapes,” &c. This was our American hornbeam (Carpinus Americana, L.). And the same author again alludes to it, in verse, as—“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns;Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse,Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”A pleasant enough illustration of what taught classical husbandry,—“ulmis adjungere vites.”—Georg., i. 2.[190]See also the Voyages, p. 73. “It is almost incredible,” says Higginson (New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 118), “what great gaine some of our English planters have had by our Indian corne. Credible persons have assured me,—and the partie himselfe avouched the truth of it to me,—that, of the setting of thirteen gallons of corne, hee hath had encrease of it 52 hogsheads; every hogshead holding seven bushels, of London measure: and every bushell was by him sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 18 shillings. And so, of this 13 gallons of corne, which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made about 327 pounds of it the yeere following, as by reckoning will appeare; where you may see how God blessed husbandry in this land. There is not such greate and plentifull eares of corne, I suppose, any where else to bee found but in this countrey; because, also of varietie of colours,—as red, blew, and yellow, &c.: and of one corne there springeth four or five hundred.” Roger Williams (Key,l. c., pp. 208, 221) has some interesting particulars of the Indian use of their corn. According to him, the Indianmsickquatash(that is succotash, as we call it now) was “boiled corn whole,” andnawsaump, a kind of meal pottage unparched. From this the English call their samp; which is the Indian corn beaten and boiled, and eaten, hot or cold; with milk or butter,—which are mercies beyond the natives’ plain water, and which is a dish exceeding wholesome for the English bodies.[191]Acorus Calamus, L.; common to Europe and America. In his Voyages, p. 77, the author drops properly, in mentioning this, the injurious prefix. It seems that our New-England forefathers used the leaves to cover their cold floors, as they had used rushes at home; and, according to Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 159), the pleasant smell of the plant has recommended it, in like manner, “for strewing on the floor of the cathedral at Norwich, on festival days.”[192]Allium Canadense, L., probably.—See also p. 55, note 4.[193]“Knaves’-mustard (for that it is too bad for honest men).”—Gerard, p. 262. The “New-England mustard,” which was like it, may beLepidium Virginicum, L.; which, having “a taste like common garden-cress, or peppergrass” (Bigel., Fl. Bost.,in loco), perhaps attracted the first settlers.[194]The “many flowers,” with reflexed sepals, perhaps refer this to our noble American Turk’s-cap (Lilium superbum, L.), rather than to the yellow lily (L. Canadense, L.).[195]See p. 81.[196]“They take theirwuttammauog,—that is, a weak tobacco,—which the men plant themselves, very frequently. Yet I never see any take so excessively as I have seen men in Europe; and yet excess were more tolerable in them, because they want the refreshing of beer and wine, which God had vouchsafed Europe.”—R. Williams,Key,l. c., p. 213. And, in another place, the same writer says that tobacco is “commonly the only plant which men labour in” (he is speaking of the Indians); “the women managing all the rest” (p. 208). Wood, in his list of Indian words (New-Eng. Prospect,ad ult.), spells the Indian word, above given,ottommaocke,—(perhaps both are comparable with “wuttahimneash, strawberries” Williams,l. c., p. 220), and “weetimoquat, it smells sweet” (Vocab. of Narraganset Lang., in Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 82);og,ock, andash, being all plural terminations; between which and “the noun in the singular one or more consonants or vowels are frequently interspersed” (ibid., vol. iii. p. 222, note); andoquat, from the context, the verbal; and the root appearing possibly the same,—and also defines it as tobacco. There is much other testimony that the New-England savages were found using “tobacco” (as Mourt’s Relation,l. c., p. 230; and Winslow’s Relation,l. c., p. 253); but our author’s text, above, appears to distinguish the true herb, “not much planted,” from “a small kind calledpooke,” which “the Indians make use of.” And again, more clearly, in his Voyages, we have to the same effect: “the Indians in New England use a small, round-leafed tobacco, called by them or the fishermenpoke. It is odious to the English.... Of marchantable ... tobacco, ... there is little of it planted in New England; neither have they” (both clauses appear to refer to the English) “learned the right way of curing of it.” This “marchantable tobacco” was no doubt mainlyNicotiana tabacum, L.; but the other kind, the weak tobacco,—cultivated, as Williams tells us, by the Indians, and recognized as tobacco by the English,—was not, as Wood says (N. E. Prospect,l. c.), colt’s-foot, butNicotiana rustica, L. (the yellow henbane of Gerard’s Herbal, p. 356), well known to have been long in cultivation among the American savages, and now a naturalized relic of that cultivation in various parts of the United States. The name,poke, orpooke,—if it be, as is supposable, the same with “puck, smoke,” of the Narraganset vocabulary of R. Williams (Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 84),—was perhaps always indefinite, and, since Cutler’s day, has been applied in New England to the green hellebore (Veratrum viride, Ait.); but this was not, it is evident, the poke of the first settlers. The name is also given toPhytolacca decandra, L. (theskokeof Cutler), and the hellebore apparently distinguished from this as Indian poke; but the application of the name to the former, at least, probably had its origin among the whites.[197]The figure sufficiently exhibitsSarracenia purpurea, L.[198]“Live-for-ever. It is a kind of cud-weed.... It growes now plentifully in our English gardens.... The fishermen, when they want” (that is, lack) “tobacco, take this herb; being cut and dryed.”—Voyages, p. 78; where the author adds the peculiar medicinal virtues of the plant, which are the same as those assigned by Gerard (p. 644) to the genus. Compare, as to this, Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1334. The species intended by Josselyn is our everlasting (Antennaria margaritacea(L.) Br.), described by Gerard, and figured by Johnson in his edition of the former (p. 641), and first published by Clusius (Gnaphalium Americanum, Rar. Pl. Hist., vol. i. p. 327) in 1601. Clusius had it from England, says Johnson. The dried herb, used by the fishermen instead of tobacco, and no doubt called by thempoke, may have been mistaken by Wood for colt’s-foot, the leaves of which were “smoked by the ancients in pulmonary complaints; ... and, in some parts of Germany, are at the present time said to be substituted for tobacco.”—Wood and Bache,Dispens., p. 1401.Cornus sericea, L.,—“called by the natives squaw-bush” (Williamson’s Hist. Maine, vol. i. p. 125), and by the western Indianskinnikinnik(Gray, Man., p. 161); furnished, in its inner bark (on the medicinal properties of which, see especially Rees’s Cycl., Amer. ed.,in loco), a substitute forNicotiana,—very widely approved among the native Americans. The name, Indian tobacco, given toLobelia inflata, L. (the emetic-weed of Cutler,l. c., p. 484; who “first attracted to it the attention of the profession”), by the whites, is in some connections confusing, and might well be displaced by wild tobacco, which is also in popular use.[199]Œnothera biennis, L. (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 475),—known to Europeans, according to Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 493), as early as 1614; but first described and figured by Prosper Alpinus, in his posthumousDe Pl. Exoticis, p. 325, t. 324,cit.L. Johnson says that Parkinson gave it the English name of tree-primrose, which it still keeps. It is “vulgarly known by the name of scabish (a corruption, probably of scabious)” in the country.—Bigel. Fl. Bost.,in loco. Josselyn describes the plant in his Voyages, p. 78.[200]Adiantum pedatum, L.—The EuropeanA. Camillus veneris, L., long used as a pectoral (thesirop de capillaireof French shops being made of it), is, according to Messrs. Wood and Bache (Dispens., p. 1290), “feebler” than our species, which Josselyn recommends.[201]See pp. 67, 68.[202]Johnson’s Gerard, p. 183: which is perhapsAllium magicum, L.; for which ourA. tricoccum, Ait., may have been mistaken.—See also p. 54of this; note.[203]Epilobium angustifolium, L. (rosebay willow-herbe of Gerard by Johnson); which last figures it at p. 477: common to Europe and America; but some botanists have, like Josselyn, reckoned the American plant “proper to the country.”[204]Helianthus, L. (Gerard, p. 751), a genus peculiar to America; called “American marygold” in the Voyages (p. 59), where it is set down among the more striking of our New-England flowers.At p. 82of this book, the author gives a cut of the “marygold of America,” which he describes. It is probably the second one above mentioned, and perhapsH. strumosus, L., Gray. The other kind, with “black seeds,” was probablyH. divaricatus, L.[205]See p. 47. The earth-nuts of Gerard (p. 1064) are species ofBulbocastanumof authors.[206]Not clear to me. But, taking the alleged virtues and the station into account, our author may mean here the rather striking American sea-rocket (Cakile Americana, Nutt.); which, it is likely, occurred to him. Spurge-time(p. 43)also grows on “sea-banks.”

[139]Arum, L. (Gerard, p. 381). The New-England species “differ,” as our author says, “from all the kinds” in the Old World.

[140]None of the species, presumably here meant, are common to America and Europe. Our author’s white violet isViola blanda, Willd.

[141]All our true honeysuckles (“woodbinde, or honisuckles,”—Gerard, p. 891;Caprifolium, Juss.) are distinct from those of Europe; but what the author meant here is uncertain.

[142]Convallaria, L.;Polygonatum, Tourn.;Smilacina, Desf. Many botanists have referred our smaller Solomon’s seal to the nearly akinC. multifloraof Europe; but Dr. Gray (Manual, p. 466) pronounces the former a distinct American species. The second of Josselyn’s species is the “Polygonatum Virginianum, or Virginian’s Salomon’s seale” of Johnson’s Gerard (p. 905), and also of Morison (Hist.,cit. L.), and earliest described and figured by Cornuti asP. Canadense, &c., which isSmilacina stellata, (L.) Desf.; peculiar to America. The third is set down by our author, at p. 56, among the “plants proper to the country;” and Wood (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.) mentions it among eatable wild fruits, by the same name. It is probablySmilacina racemosa, (L.) Desf.,—a suggestion which I owe to my friend Rev. J. L. Russell’s notes upon Josselyn’s plants, in Hovey’s Magazine (March, April, and May, 1858); papers which were published after the manuscript of this edition had passed from the hands of the editor,—and is also confined to this continent.

[143]Geranium, L. The first isG. Carolinianum, L., which nearly resembles Gerard’s dove’s-foot (p. 938); the second isG. Robertianum, L., common to us and Europe; and the third (Gerard, p. 940)—which cannot beG. dissectum—was meant, it is likely to be taken for synonymous with the fourth, or raven’s-claw,—doubtless our lovelyG. maculatum, L., which belongs to that group of species which the old botanists distinguished by the common nameGeranium batrachioides, or crow-foot geranium, which flowers in May, and is of well-known value in medicine; and the “knobby” root, attributed to Josselyn’s third kind, favors this opinion.

[144]The genusPotentilla, L., in general, is perhaps intended by cinque-foil; and although our author probably confounded the common and variablePotentilla Canadensis, L., with the nearly akinP. reptansandP. verna, L., of Europe, yet the larger part of our New-England species are, with little doubt, common to both continents. What Josselyn referred toTormentilla, L.,—a genus not now separated fromPotentilla,—was probably a state ofP. Canadensis, which resemblesP. reptans, L., as remarked above (and was, indeed, mistaken for it by Cutler,—l. c., p. 453), as this doesTormentilla reptans, L.

[145]Geum strictum, Ait.,—not found in England, but European (Gray, Man., p. 116),—is indicated by the author’s phrase; and see the Voyages, p. 78, for his opinion of its medicinal virtue.

[146]Fragaria vesca, L. (the common wood-strawberry of Europe), is native here, according to Oakes (Catal. Verm., p. 12), “especially on mountains;” and I have even gathered it, but possibly naturalized, on the woody banks of Fresh Pond in Cambridge. Our more common strawberry was not separated from the European by Linnæus, but is now reckoned a distinct species. “There is likewise strawberries in abundance,” says Wood (New-England’s Prospect,l. c.),—“very large ones; some being two inches about. One may gather half a bushel in a forenoon.”—“This berry,” says Roger Williams (Key, in Hist. Coll., vol. iii. p. 221), “is the wonder of all the fruits growing naturally in those parts. It is of itself excellent; so that one of the chiefest doctors of England was wont to say, that God could have made, but God never did make, a better berry. In some parts, where the natives have planted, I have many times seen as many as would fill a good ship, within few miles’ compass. The Indians bruise them in a mortar, and mix them with meal, and make strawberry-bread.” Gookin also speaks of Indian-bread.—Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 150.

[147]The two plants here intended, and supposed by the author to correspond with the “wild angelica” and “great wilde angelica” of Gerard (pp. 999-1000), may perhaps be taken for the same which Cornuti (Canad. Pl. Hist., pp. 196-200), thirty years before, had designated as new,—Josselyn’sAngelica sylvestris minorbeingAngelica lucida Canadensisof Cornuti, which isA. lucida, L. (and probably, as the French botanist describes the fruit as “minus foliacea vulgaribus,” alsoArchangelica peregrina, Nutt.); and hisAngelica sylvestris majorbeingA. atropurpurea Canadensisof Cornuti, orA. atropurpurea, L.

[148]Smyrnium aureum, L. (golden Alexanders), now separated from that genus, was mistaken, it is quite likely, forS. olusatrum, L. (true Alexanders), to which it bears a considerable resemblance.—Gerard, p. 1019.

[149]Achillea millefolium, L. Oakes has marked this as introduced (Catal. Vermont, p. 17): but it appeared to our author, in 1672, to be indigenous; and Dr. Gray reckons it among plants common to both hemispheres.—Statistics of Amer. Flora, in Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xxiii. p. 70. The author’s reference is to common yarrow.—Gerard, p. 1072.

[150]Aquilegia Canadensis, L. As elsewhere, the author probably means here only that the genus is common to both continents.

[151]At p. 56, both of these are set down among the “plants proper to the country.” The first, to follow Gerard (p. 1108), isChenopodium botrys, L.,—a native of the south of Europe, and considered as an introduced species here. It has reputation in diseases of the chest.—Wood & Bache, Dispens., p. 213. Josselyn’s oak of Cappadocia (Gerard, p. 1108) is an American species,—Ambrosia elatior, L. Cutler says of it (l. c., p. 489), “It has somewhat the smell of camphire. It is used in antiseptick fomentations.”

[152]Galium aparine, L. (Gerard,edit. cit., p. 1122), common to America and Europe.—Compare Gray, Man., p. 170.

[153]The “Filix mas, or male ferne,” of Gerard,edit. cit., p. 1128 (for, says he, of the “divers sorts of ferne ... there be two sorts, according to the old writers,—the male and the female; and these be properly called ferne: the others have their proper names”), is the collective designation of four species ofAspidium; of which all, according to Pursh, and certainly three, are natives of both continents,—AA. cristatum,Filix mas,Filix fæmina, andaculeatum, Willd. “Filix fæmina(female ferne, or brakes,)” of Gerard,l. c.isPteris aquilina, L.; also common to us and Europe. The otherFilicesmentioned by our author areOphioglossum vulgatum, L. (p. 42); andAdiantum pedatum, L. (p. 55).

[154]Oxalis corniculata, L. (Gerard, em., p. 1202), common to Europe and America.

[155]Ulmus, L. There are no species common to America and Europe.

[156]See the Voyages, p. 69, where the author has it “the line-tree, with long nuts: the other kind I could never find.” The former wasTilia Americana, L.,—a species peculiar to America.

[157]See p. 48; and Voyages, p. 69. None of our species are found in Europe.

[158]The plant intended is doubtless the same with that spoken of in the Voyages, p. 80.—“Rosa solis, sundew, moor-grass. This plant I have seen more of than ever I saw in my whole life before in England,” &c. Both our common New-England species ofDroseraare also natives of Europe.

[159]“Differing much from those in England. One sort of them bears a most beautiful flower” (p. 56, where it is rightly placed among plants “proper to the country”). The author refers here, doubtless, toApios tuberosa, Moench. (ground-nut of New England), which was raised at Paris, from American seeds, by Vespasian Robin, and figured from his specimens by Cornuti (Canad., p. 200) in 1635; but it was celebrated, ten years earlier, in “Nova Anglia,”—a curious poem by the Rev. William Morrell, who came over with Capt. Robert Gorges in 1623, and spent about a year at Weymouth and Plymouth, publishing his book in 1625 (repr. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 125, &c.),—as follows:—“Vimine gramineo nux subterranea suavisSerpit humi, tenui flavo sub cortice, pinguiEt placido nucleo nivei candoris ab intra,Melliflua parcos hilarans dulcedine gustus,Donec in æstivum Phœbus conscenderit axem.His nucleis laute versutus vescitur Indus:His exempta fames segnis nostratibus omnisDulcibus his vires revocantur victibus almæ.”

“Vimine gramineo nux subterranea suavisSerpit humi, tenui flavo sub cortice, pinguiEt placido nucleo nivei candoris ab intra,Melliflua parcos hilarans dulcedine gustus,Donec in æstivum Phœbus conscenderit axem.His nucleis laute versutus vescitur Indus:His exempta fames segnis nostratibus omnisDulcibus his vires revocantur victibus almæ.”

“Vimine gramineo nux subterranea suavis

Serpit humi, tenui flavo sub cortice, pingui

Et placido nucleo nivei candoris ab intra,

Melliflua parcos hilarans dulcedine gustus,

Donec in æstivum Phœbus conscenderit axem.

His nucleis laute versutus vescitur Indus:

His exempta fames segnis nostratibus omnis

Dulcibus his vires revocantur victibus almæ.”

[160]See p. 52and Voyages (pp. 70, 81) for other notices ofFungi; and Voyages, p. 81, for the only mention ofAlgæ.

[161]Female pimpernell (Gerard, em., p. 617),—Anagallis arvensis, γ, Sm.;A. cærulea, Schreb.,—but scarcely differing, except in color, from the scarlet pimpernel, which has long (“in clayey ground,”—Cutler,l. c., 1785) been an inhabitant of the coasts of Massachusetts Bay, though doubtless introduced.

[162]Hepatica triloba, Chaix. (Anemone hepatica, L.), common to Europe and America; occurring occasionally with white flowers.—Gerard, em., p. 1203.

[163]Rubus, L. The red raspberry of this country is hardly other than an American variety of the European (R. Idæus, var. strigosus, caule petiolis pedunculis calyceque aculeato-hispidissimis, Enum. Pl. Agri Cantab, 1843, Ms.); upon which see Gray (Man., p. 121; and Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81).R. triflorus, Richards., is also very near to, and was once considered the same as, the EuropeanR. saxatilis, L. The rest of our New-England raspberries and blackberries appear to be specifically distinct from those of Europe. The cloud-berry, mentioned at p. 60, is there set down among plants proper to the country; and may therefore not be the true cloud-berry (Gerard, p. 1273), orRubus chamæmorus, L., which is common to both continents.

[164]The New-England gooseberries are peculiar to this country. The author no doubt intendsRibes hirtellum, Michx. (Gray, Man., p. 137); as see further his Voyages, p. 72.

[165]Cratægus, L. But the species are peculiar to this country, as Josselyn implies with respect to the haws which he notices. These, no doubt, includedC. tomentosa, L., Gray; and perhaps, also,C. coccinea, L. Wood says, “The white thorn affords hawes as big as an English cherry; which is esteemed above a cherry for his goodness and pleasantness to the taste.”—New-England’s Prospect, chap. v. At page 72 of his Voyages, the author mentions “a small shrub, which is very common; growing sometimes to the height of elder; bearing a berry like in shape to the fruit of the white thorn; of a pale, yellow colour at first, then red (when it is ripe, of a deep purple); of a delicate, aromatical tast, but somewhat stiptick,”—which may bePyrus arbutifolia, L. Higginson (New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 119) speaks of our haws almost as highly as Wood.

[166]Great toad-flax (Gerard, em., p. 550);Linaria vulgaris, Moench. Compare De Candolle (Geog. Bot., vol. ii. p. 716) for a sketch of the American history of this now familiar plant, which the learned author cannot trace before Bigelow’s date (Fl. Bost., edit. 1) of 1814. But it is certainly Cutler’s “snapdragon; ... blossoms yellow, with a mixture of scarlet; common by roadsides in Lynn and Cambridge” (l. c., 1785): though he strangely prefixes the Linnæan phrase forAntirrhinum Canadense, L.; and there seems no reason to doubt that Josselyn may very well have seen it in 1671.

[167]Gerard, p. 653 (Teucrium, L.). The author may have intended to reckon the genus only. Our species is peculiar to this continent.

[168]The designation is uncertain. The old botanists gave the nameAuricula muris, or mouse-ear, to species ofMyosotis,Draba,Hieracium, andGnaphalium. Josselyn’s plant may most probably beAntennaria plantaginifolia, Hook. (mouse-ear of New England), which is very near toA. dioicaof Europe.—Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81.

[169]Quercus alba, L.;Q. rubra, L.; andQ. tinctoria, Bartr. Wood’s account of the oaks (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) is similar. In his Voyages, p. 61, Josselyn gives us “the ordering of red oake for wainscot. When they have cut it down and clear’d it from the branches, they pitch the body of the tree in a muddy place in a river, with the head downward, for some time. Afterwards they draw it out; and, when it is seasoned sufficiently, they saw it into boards for wainscot; and it will branch out into curious works.”

[170]Juniperus communis, L.; common to both continents. But the author did not probably distinguish from itJ. Virginiana, L.; which is frequent, and often dwarfish, near the sea.

[171]Salix, L.; the genus only meant here, it is likely.

[172]Daphne Laureola, L. (Gerard, p. 1404), with which Josselyn may have consideredKalmia angustifolia, L., in some sort allied. The latter has long been known in New England as dwarf or low laurel.

[173]Myrica Gale, L. (Gerard, p. 1414); common to Europe and America.

[174]Sambucus, L. OurS. Canadensis, L. differs very little from the common elder of Europe, except, as our author in his Voyages says (p. 71), in being “shrubbie,” and in not having “a smell so strong.”—Cf.DC.Prodr., vol. ii. p. 322;Gerard, p. 1421. The other North-American elder (S. pubens, Michx.) is at least equally near to the EuropeanS. racemosa, L., according to Prof. Gray.

[175]“There is a sort of dwarf-elder, that grows by the sea-side, that hath a red pith. The berries of both”—that is, of this and of the true elder mentioned above—“are smaller than English elder; not round, but corner’d.”—Voyages, p. 71. Gerard’s dwarf-elder (p. 1425) isSambucus ebulus, L. Josselyn’s may have been aViburnum; for this genus was confused withSambucusby the elder botanists. Wood (New-England Prospect, chap. v.) speaks of—“Small eldern, by the Indian fletchers sought;”—which was perhaps arrow-wood, orViburnum dentatum, L.

“Small eldern, by the Indian fletchers sought;”—

which was perhaps arrow-wood, orViburnum dentatum, L.

[176]Alnus, Tourn. One of the three New-England species (A. incana, Willd.) is common to Europe and America. Another (A. serrulata, Willd.) “bears so great a resemblance,” says F. A. Michaux, to the common European alder (A. glutinosa, Willd.) “in its flowers, its seeds, its leaves, its wood, and its bark, as to render a separate figure unnecessary; the only difference observable between them” being “that the European species is larger, and has smaller leaves.”—Sylva, vol. ii. p. 114. Compare Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 83.A. viridis, our third species, is common to Europe and this country.

[177]Corylus, L. Our species, which are peculiar to America, are both indicated: the “filberd, ... with hairy husks upon the nuts,” beingC. rostrata, Ait. (beaked hazel); and that “setting hollow from the nut,”—that is, larger than the nut.—C. Americana, Wangenh. (common hazel).

[178]Carya, Nutt. In the Voyages, p. 69, the author speaks of the “walnut, which is divers: some bearing square nuts; others like ours, but smaller. There is likewise black walnut, of precious use for tables, cabinets, and the like” (Juglans nigra, L.). “The walnut-tree,” continues Josselyn, “is the toughest wood in the countrie, and therefore made use of for hoops and bowes; there being no yews there growing. In England, they made their bowes usually of witch-hasel” (that is, witch-elm,—Ulmus montana, Bauh., Lindl.; as see Gerard, p. 1481: butCarpinus, “in Essex, is called witch-hasell,”—ib.), “ash, yew, the best of outlandish elm; but the Indians make theirs of walnut.” This was hickory, and what Wood says belongs doubtless to the same. He calls it “something different from the English walnut; being a great deal more tough and more serviceable, and altogether heavy. And whereas our guns, that are stocked with English walnut, are soon broken and cracked in frost,—being a brittle wood,—we are driven to stock them new with the country walnut, which will endure all blows and weather; lasting time out of mind.” After speaking favorably of the fruit, he adds (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. vi.), “There is likewise a tree, in some parts of the country, that bears a nut as big as a pear,”—the butternut, doubtless (Juglans cinerea, L.). Josselyn has told us (p. 48) of the oil which the Indians managed to get from the acorns of the white oak. Roger Williams (Key,l. c., p. 220) says our native Americans made “of these walnuts ... an excellent oil, good for many uses, but especially for the anointing of their heads.” Michaux (Sylva, vol. i. p. 163) says the Indians used the oil of the butternut, and also (p. 185) of the shag-bark, “to season their aliments.” Williams adds (l. c.), “Of the chips of the walnut-tree—the bark taken off—some English in the country make excellent beer, both for taste, strength, colour, and inoffensive opening operation.”

[179]Castanea vesca, Gaertn.; common to Europe and America. Our chestnut is considered to differ from the European only as an American variety of a species common to both continents might be expected to. “The Indians have an art of drying their chestnuts, and so to preserve them in their barns for a dainty all the year.”—R. Williams,l. c.

[180]Neither Wood nor R. Williams makes mention of it. The younger Michaux considered our beech distinct from the European; but Mr. Nuttall makes it only a variety of it; while Prof. Gray puts both trees in his list of “very close representative species.”—Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 81.

[181]Fraxinus, L. Our species are peculiar to this continent. I cannot account for Wood’s saying, “It is different from the ash of England; being brittle and good for little, so that walnut is used for it.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. vi.

[182]Sorbus, L. (Gerard, p. 1473). Our mountain-ash (S. Americana, Willd.) is quite near to the quicken, or mountain-ash of the north of Europe (S. aucuparia, L.); but hardly, perhaps, to be reduced to an American variety of it, as the elder Michaux (Fl. Amer., vol. i. p. 290) proposed. Compare Gray, Statistics, &c.,l. c., p. 82.

[183]Except the small white birch (B. populifolia, Ait.), which Mr. Spach reduces to a variety of the EuropeanB. alba, L.,—in which he is sustained by Prof. Gray (Man., p. 411),—and the dwarf-birch (B. nana, L.) of our alpine regions, all our species are peculiar to this continent.—See the author’s Voyages, p. 69, for another mention of the birches.

[184]Populus, L. Our species are peculiar to the country, as the author’s remark suggests. Wood (l. c.) notices “the ever-trembling asps.”

[185]“The plumbs of the country be better for plumbs than the cherries be for cherries. They be black and yellow; about the bigness of damsons; of a reasonable good taste.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.Prunus maritima, Wangenh. (beech-plum), andP. Americana, Marsh. (wild yellow plum), are no doubt here intended; as also, it is likely, by Josselyn, who, it is evident, in this place had only the genus in mind as “common with us in England.”—See p. 61for the author’s mention of the “wild cherry.”

[186]Portulaca oleracea, L. (Gerard, p. 521). “In cornfields. It is eaten as a pot-herb, and esteemed by some as little inferior to asparagus.”—Cutler;Account of Indigenous Vegetables(1785),l. c., p. 447. Considered to have been introduced here; but our author enables us to carry back the date of its introduction, without reasonable doubt, to the first settlement of the country. “Purslain, Mr. Glover says, is also very common in Virginia, and troublesome too, to the tobacco-planters.” Sir Philip Skippon to Ray, Feb. 11, 1675-6, in Ray Society’s Corresp. of John Ray, p. 121. Mr. Nuttall regarded the species as indigenous on the plains of the Missouri; but this plant, “too closely resembling the common purslane,” according to Prof. Gray (Man., p. 64), has been separated as specifically distinct by Dr. Engelmann.

[187]Genista tinctoria, L. (Genistella tinctoria,—greenweed, or dyers’ weed; Gerard, p. 1316). “We shall not need to speake of the use that diers make thereof,” says the latter. Our author could hardly have been mistaken about so well-known a plant as this; which he probably met with in one of his visits to the neighborhood of Boston,—long the only American station for it. There is a tradition that it was introduced here by Gov. Endicott; which may have been some forty years before Josselyn finished his herborizing,—enough to account for its naturalization then. It was long confined to Salem (“pastures between New Mills and Salem,”—Cutler,l. c., 1785); but occurred to me sparingly, in 1841, on the shores of Cambridge Bay, and also on roadsides in Old Cambridge. “Woad-seed” is set down, in a memorandum of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, before February, 1628, to be sent to New England (Mass. Col. Rec., vol. i. p. 24); and thoughIsatis tinctoria, L., is true woad,Reseda luteola, L. (wold, or weld), and ourGenista(woadwaxen), have, it is said (Rees’s Cycl.,in loco), been known “in English herbals under that name.”

[188]“Current-bushes are of two kinds,—red and black. The black currents, which are larger than the red, ... are reasonable pleasant in eating.”—Voyages, p. 72. Our black currant isRibes floridum, Herit.,—considered by Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 291) only a variety ofR. nigrum, L., the true black currant of the gardens; and our red currant, which I have gathered in the White Mountains,—far below the region ofR. rigens, Michx., the more common red currant there,—appears to be undistinguishable fromR. rubrum, L. (the red currant of gardens); unless, possibly, as an American variety of it. This is probablyR. albinervium, Michx. (Fl., vol. i. p. 110; Pursh, Fl., vol. i. p. 163).

[189]Polyporus, Mich., sp.—In his Voyages, p. 70, the author speaks of “a stately tree growing here and there in valleys, not like to any trees in Europe; having a smooth bark, of a dark-brown colour, the leaves like great maple in England called sycamor; but larger,”—which may bePlatanus occidentalis, L. (button-wood). And Wood enables us to add one more to this early account of the genera of plants, which we possess, common to the Old World. He tells us (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) “the hornbound tree is a tough kind of wood, that requires so much pains in riving as is almost incredible; being the best to make bowls and dishes, not being subject to crack or leak. This tree growing with broad-spread arms, the vines twist their curling branches about them; which vines afford great store of grapes,” &c. This was our American hornbeam (Carpinus Americana, L.). And the same author again alludes to it, in verse, as—“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns;Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse,Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”A pleasant enough illustration of what taught classical husbandry,—“ulmis adjungere vites.”—Georg., i. 2.

“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns;Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse,Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”

“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns;

Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse,

Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”

A pleasant enough illustration of what taught classical husbandry,—“ulmis adjungere vites.”—Georg., i. 2.

[190]See also the Voyages, p. 73. “It is almost incredible,” says Higginson (New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 118), “what great gaine some of our English planters have had by our Indian corne. Credible persons have assured me,—and the partie himselfe avouched the truth of it to me,—that, of the setting of thirteen gallons of corne, hee hath had encrease of it 52 hogsheads; every hogshead holding seven bushels, of London measure: and every bushell was by him sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 18 shillings. And so, of this 13 gallons of corne, which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made about 327 pounds of it the yeere following, as by reckoning will appeare; where you may see how God blessed husbandry in this land. There is not such greate and plentifull eares of corne, I suppose, any where else to bee found but in this countrey; because, also of varietie of colours,—as red, blew, and yellow, &c.: and of one corne there springeth four or five hundred.” Roger Williams (Key,l. c., pp. 208, 221) has some interesting particulars of the Indian use of their corn. According to him, the Indianmsickquatash(that is succotash, as we call it now) was “boiled corn whole,” andnawsaump, a kind of meal pottage unparched. From this the English call their samp; which is the Indian corn beaten and boiled, and eaten, hot or cold; with milk or butter,—which are mercies beyond the natives’ plain water, and which is a dish exceeding wholesome for the English bodies.

[191]Acorus Calamus, L.; common to Europe and America. In his Voyages, p. 77, the author drops properly, in mentioning this, the injurious prefix. It seems that our New-England forefathers used the leaves to cover their cold floors, as they had used rushes at home; and, according to Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 159), the pleasant smell of the plant has recommended it, in like manner, “for strewing on the floor of the cathedral at Norwich, on festival days.”

[192]Allium Canadense, L., probably.—See also p. 55, note 4.

[193]“Knaves’-mustard (for that it is too bad for honest men).”—Gerard, p. 262. The “New-England mustard,” which was like it, may beLepidium Virginicum, L.; which, having “a taste like common garden-cress, or peppergrass” (Bigel., Fl. Bost.,in loco), perhaps attracted the first settlers.

[194]The “many flowers,” with reflexed sepals, perhaps refer this to our noble American Turk’s-cap (Lilium superbum, L.), rather than to the yellow lily (L. Canadense, L.).

[195]See p. 81.

[196]“They take theirwuttammauog,—that is, a weak tobacco,—which the men plant themselves, very frequently. Yet I never see any take so excessively as I have seen men in Europe; and yet excess were more tolerable in them, because they want the refreshing of beer and wine, which God had vouchsafed Europe.”—R. Williams,Key,l. c., p. 213. And, in another place, the same writer says that tobacco is “commonly the only plant which men labour in” (he is speaking of the Indians); “the women managing all the rest” (p. 208). Wood, in his list of Indian words (New-Eng. Prospect,ad ult.), spells the Indian word, above given,ottommaocke,—(perhaps both are comparable with “wuttahimneash, strawberries” Williams,l. c., p. 220), and “weetimoquat, it smells sweet” (Vocab. of Narraganset Lang., in Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 82);og,ock, andash, being all plural terminations; between which and “the noun in the singular one or more consonants or vowels are frequently interspersed” (ibid., vol. iii. p. 222, note); andoquat, from the context, the verbal; and the root appearing possibly the same,—and also defines it as tobacco. There is much other testimony that the New-England savages were found using “tobacco” (as Mourt’s Relation,l. c., p. 230; and Winslow’s Relation,l. c., p. 253); but our author’s text, above, appears to distinguish the true herb, “not much planted,” from “a small kind calledpooke,” which “the Indians make use of.” And again, more clearly, in his Voyages, we have to the same effect: “the Indians in New England use a small, round-leafed tobacco, called by them or the fishermenpoke. It is odious to the English.... Of marchantable ... tobacco, ... there is little of it planted in New England; neither have they” (both clauses appear to refer to the English) “learned the right way of curing of it.” This “marchantable tobacco” was no doubt mainlyNicotiana tabacum, L.; but the other kind, the weak tobacco,—cultivated, as Williams tells us, by the Indians, and recognized as tobacco by the English,—was not, as Wood says (N. E. Prospect,l. c.), colt’s-foot, butNicotiana rustica, L. (the yellow henbane of Gerard’s Herbal, p. 356), well known to have been long in cultivation among the American savages, and now a naturalized relic of that cultivation in various parts of the United States. The name,poke, orpooke,—if it be, as is supposable, the same with “puck, smoke,” of the Narraganset vocabulary of R. Williams (Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 84),—was perhaps always indefinite, and, since Cutler’s day, has been applied in New England to the green hellebore (Veratrum viride, Ait.); but this was not, it is evident, the poke of the first settlers. The name is also given toPhytolacca decandra, L. (theskokeof Cutler), and the hellebore apparently distinguished from this as Indian poke; but the application of the name to the former, at least, probably had its origin among the whites.

[197]The figure sufficiently exhibitsSarracenia purpurea, L.

[198]“Live-for-ever. It is a kind of cud-weed.... It growes now plentifully in our English gardens.... The fishermen, when they want” (that is, lack) “tobacco, take this herb; being cut and dryed.”—Voyages, p. 78; where the author adds the peculiar medicinal virtues of the plant, which are the same as those assigned by Gerard (p. 644) to the genus. Compare, as to this, Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1334. The species intended by Josselyn is our everlasting (Antennaria margaritacea(L.) Br.), described by Gerard, and figured by Johnson in his edition of the former (p. 641), and first published by Clusius (Gnaphalium Americanum, Rar. Pl. Hist., vol. i. p. 327) in 1601. Clusius had it from England, says Johnson. The dried herb, used by the fishermen instead of tobacco, and no doubt called by thempoke, may have been mistaken by Wood for colt’s-foot, the leaves of which were “smoked by the ancients in pulmonary complaints; ... and, in some parts of Germany, are at the present time said to be substituted for tobacco.”—Wood and Bache,Dispens., p. 1401.Cornus sericea, L.,—“called by the natives squaw-bush” (Williamson’s Hist. Maine, vol. i. p. 125), and by the western Indianskinnikinnik(Gray, Man., p. 161); furnished, in its inner bark (on the medicinal properties of which, see especially Rees’s Cycl., Amer. ed.,in loco), a substitute forNicotiana,—very widely approved among the native Americans. The name, Indian tobacco, given toLobelia inflata, L. (the emetic-weed of Cutler,l. c., p. 484; who “first attracted to it the attention of the profession”), by the whites, is in some connections confusing, and might well be displaced by wild tobacco, which is also in popular use.

[199]Œnothera biennis, L. (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 475),—known to Europeans, according to Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 493), as early as 1614; but first described and figured by Prosper Alpinus, in his posthumousDe Pl. Exoticis, p. 325, t. 324,cit.L. Johnson says that Parkinson gave it the English name of tree-primrose, which it still keeps. It is “vulgarly known by the name of scabish (a corruption, probably of scabious)” in the country.—Bigel. Fl. Bost.,in loco. Josselyn describes the plant in his Voyages, p. 78.

[200]Adiantum pedatum, L.—The EuropeanA. Camillus veneris, L., long used as a pectoral (thesirop de capillaireof French shops being made of it), is, according to Messrs. Wood and Bache (Dispens., p. 1290), “feebler” than our species, which Josselyn recommends.

[201]See pp. 67, 68.

[202]Johnson’s Gerard, p. 183: which is perhapsAllium magicum, L.; for which ourA. tricoccum, Ait., may have been mistaken.—See also p. 54of this; note.

[203]Epilobium angustifolium, L. (rosebay willow-herbe of Gerard by Johnson); which last figures it at p. 477: common to Europe and America; but some botanists have, like Josselyn, reckoned the American plant “proper to the country.”

[204]Helianthus, L. (Gerard, p. 751), a genus peculiar to America; called “American marygold” in the Voyages (p. 59), where it is set down among the more striking of our New-England flowers.At p. 82of this book, the author gives a cut of the “marygold of America,” which he describes. It is probably the second one above mentioned, and perhapsH. strumosus, L., Gray. The other kind, with “black seeds,” was probablyH. divaricatus, L.

[205]See p. 47. The earth-nuts of Gerard (p. 1064) are species ofBulbocastanumof authors.

[206]Not clear to me. But, taking the alleged virtues and the station into account, our author may mean here the rather striking American sea-rocket (Cakile Americana, Nutt.); which, it is likely, occurred to him. Spurge-time(p. 43)also grows on “sea-banks.”

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