Chapter 29

[207]“French beans; or, rather, American beans. The herbalists call them kidney-beans, from their shape and effects; for they strengthen the kidneys. They are variegated much,—some being bigger, a great deal, than others; some white, black, red, yellow, blue, spotted: besides yourBonivis, andCalavances, and the kidney-bean that is proper to Ronoake. But these are brought into the country: the other are natural to the climate.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 73-4. R. Williams (Key,l. c., p. 208) givesmanusquussedashas the Indian word for beans. Cornuti (whose book, indeed, is not confined to Canadian plants; though, on the other hand, he was sometimes ill informed of the true locality of his specimens; as in the case ofAsclepias Cornuti, Decsne, which he published asA. Syriaca) figures and describes, at pp. 184-5,Phaseolus multiflorus, L.; and this may possibly have been raised from seeds procured by French missionaries from the Canadian savages: butP. vulgaris, L., our well-known bush-bean, is doubtless what Josselyn has mainly in view, as cultivated by the native Americans.[208]“Askutasquash,—their vine-apples,—which the English, from them, call squashes: about the bigness of apples of several colours.”—R. Williams,Key, &c.,l. c., p. 222. “In summer, when their corn is spent,isquotersquashesis their best bread; a fruit much like a pumpion.”—Wood,New-Eng. Prospect, part 2, chap. vi. The late Dr. T. W. Harris made the ill-understood edible gourds a special object of study, and devoted particular attention to the ascertaining of the kinds cultivated by the American savages; but his papers have not as yet seen the light. The warted squash (Cucurbita verrucosa, L.) and the orange-gourd (C. aurantium, Willd.)—the fruit of which last is of the size and color of an orange, and “more tender than the common pompion” (Loudon, Encycl. Pl.)—are perhaps, in part, intended by our author.[209]“Pompions and water-mellons, too, they have good store,” says our author (Voyages, p. 130); and again, at p. 74 of the same, “The water-melon is proper to the countrie. The flesh of it is of a flesh-colour; a rare cooler of feavers, and excellent against the stone.” The water-melon (Cucurbita citrullus, L.) is “the only medicine the common people use in ardent fevers,” in Egypt (Loudon,l. c.).Cucurbita pepo, L. (Gr. πέπων; Low Dutch,pepoen,pompoen; Fr.,pompone), is our English pompion, or pumpkin. At p. 91, Josselyn speaks of pompions “proper to the country.” Compare Gerard’s chapter “of melons, or pompions” (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 918), where are two Virginian sorts; and see “the ancient New-England standing dish,”at p. 91of this book. The evidence appears to be sufficient, that our savages had in cultivation, together with their corn and tobacco,—and, like these, derived originally from tropical regions,—several sorts of what we call squashes, some kinds of pompion, and also water-melons; and, Graves’s letter (New-England Plantation,l. c., p. 124) adds, musk-melons. See further, especially, Champlain (Voy. de la Nouv. France,passim) and L’Escarbot (Hist. de la Nouv. France, vol. ii. p. 836). Mr. A. De Candolle (Geogr. Bot., vol. ii. pp. 899, 904) disputes the American origin of the edible gourds, but does not appear to have examined all the early authorities for their cultivation by the savages before the settlement of this country. Such cultivation appears to be made out, and to indicate that these vegetables have probably been known, from very remote antiquity, in the warmer parts of America. But this does not touch the difficult question of origin; and it may still appear that the gourds are equally ancient in Europe, and derived, both here and there, from Asia (De Cand.,l. c.); such derivation being explainable, in the case of America, by old migrations from Asia through Polynesia.—Pickering,Races of Man, chap. 17.[210]Johnson’s Gerard, p. 528; where the same plant is also called “jagged or rose penniwoort,” and is probably what our author intendsat p. 43of this. It was no doubt our prettySaxifraga Virginiensis, Michx., which Josselyn had in view. In his Voyages, p. 80, he assigns to it the medicinal virtues which Gerard attributes to the great navel-wort, or wall-pennywort (Cotyledon umbilicus, Huds.).[211]Convolvulus sepium, L. (great bind-weed) is exceedingly like toC. Scammonia, L., the inspissated juice of which is the officinal scammony; and is common to Europe and North America. Gerard’s bryony of Peru (p. 872-3), to which Josselyn refers, is, whatever it be, not found here. Compare Cutler’s remarks onC. sepium(Account of Veg., &c.,l. c., p. 416).Mechoacan, “called ... Indian briony, or briony, or scammony of America,” from the Caribbee Islands, &c., is described in Hughes, Amer. Physitian (1672), p. 94; and see Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 424, note.[212]Rosa Carolina, L. (Carolina rose), probably.—See Cutler’s observations,l. c., p. 451. Higginson also notices “single damaske roses, verie sweete.”—New-Eng. Plantation,l. c., p. 119. Our Carolina rose is said to be common in English shrubberies.[213]See also Voyages, p. 72. Our author is the earliest authority that I have met with for this name; and his plant, which is placed among those “proper to the country,” may very well be what has long been called sweet-fern in New England,—Comptonia asplenifolia(L.) Ait.; still used in “molasses beer,” and medicinal in the way mentioned.—Emerson,Trees and Shrubs of Mass., p. 226.[214]See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 77. The first of the two plants which the author mentions here is probablyAralia nudicaulis, L. (wild sarsaparilla); and the other,A. hispida, Michx. The last, which is what is spoken of in the Voyages, has been recommended for medicinal properties by Prof. Peck.—Wood and Bache,Dispens., p. 116.[215]“Attitaash(whortleberries), of which there are divers sorts; sweet, like currants; some opening, some of a binding nature.Sautaashare these currants dried by the natives, and so preserved all the year; which they beat to powder, and mingle it with their parched meal, and make a delicate dish which they callsautauthig, which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English.”—R. Williams,Key, &c.,l. c., p. 221. The fruitful and wholesome American whortleberries, or bilberries, were, it is likely, a very pleasant discovery to our forefathers. It was, no doubt, those species that we call blueberries which they made most of, and particularly the low blueberry (Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum, Lam.) and the swamp-blueberry (V. corymbosum, L.). From these the common black whortleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa, Torr. and Gray) differs no less in quality than in structure.Sa’té(comparesautaash, above), in Rasles Dict. of the Abnaki Language,l. c., p. 450, is rendered “frais, sans etre secs; lorsq’ils s’t secs, sikisa’tar.”[216]The cloud-berry—Rubus chamæmorus, L. (Gerard, p. 1420)—is found in some parts of the subalpine region of the White Mountains; and Mr. Oakes detected it at Lubec, on the coast of Maine. It is common to both continents; and perhaps, therefore, as our author gives his cloud-berry a place in this division of his book, he may have meant something else.[217]Rhus, L.; the species differing, as our author repeats in his Voyages (p. 71), “from all the kinds set down in our English herbals.” Wood (N. Eng. Prospect, chap, v.) calls it “the dear shumach.” Josselyn’s account of the virtues of our species, here, and especially in the Voyages (l. c.), agrees so well with what Gerard says of the properties of the European tanner’s sumach (R. coriaria, L.), that the latter may very likely have, in part, suggested the former. But see Cutler,l. c., p. 427.[218]“The cherry-trees yield great store of cherries, which grow on clusters like grapes. They be much smaller than our English cherry; nothing near so good, if they be not fully ripe. They so furr the mouth, that the tongue will cleave to the roof, and the throat wax hoarse with swallowing those red bullies (as I may call them); being little better in taste” (that is, than bullaces). “English ordering may bring them to an English cherry; but they are as wild as the Indians.”—New-England’s Prospect, chap. v. The choke-cherry (Cerasus Virginiana(L.) DC.) and the wild cherry (C. serotina(Ehrh.) DC.) are meant.[219]Pinus Strobus, L. (white pine). “Of the body the English make large canows of 20 foot long, and two foot and a half over; hollowing of them with an adds, and shaping of the outside like a boat.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 64; where is more concerning the use of this tree in medicine. “I have seen,” says Wood, “of these stately, high-grown trees, ten miles together, close by the river-side; from whence, by shipping, they might be conveyed to any desired port.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.[220]Abies balsamea(L.) Marsh, (balsam-fir). “The firr-tree is a large tree, too; but seldom so big as the pine. The bark is smooth, with knobs, or blisters, in which lyeth clear liquid turpentine,—very good to be put into salves and oyntments. The leaves, or cones, boiled in beer, are good for the scurvie. The young buds are excellent to put into epithemes for warts and corns. The rosen is altogether as good as frankincense.... The knots of this tree and fat-pine are used by the English instead of candles; and it will burn a long time: but it makes the people pale” (Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 66); besides being, as Wood says (l. c., speaking of the pine), “something sluttish.” But Higginson says they “are very usefull in a house, and ... burne as cleere as a torch.”—New-Eng. Plantation,l. c., p. 122.[221]Larix Americana, Michx. (Larch; “taccamahac,” Cutler;tamarack;hackmatack.) “Groundsels, made of larch-tree, will never rot; and the longer it lyes, the harder it growes, that you may almost drive a nail into a bar of iron as easily as into that.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 68. “The turpentine that issueth from the cones of the larch-tree (which comes nearest of any to the right turpentine) is singularly good to heal wounds, and to draw out the malice (or thorn, as Helmont phrases it) of any ach; rubbing the place therewith, and throwing upon it the powder of sage-leaves.”—Ibid., p. 66.[222]Abies nigra, Poir. (black or double spruce), and probably alsoA. alba, Michx. (white or single spruce). “At Pascataway there is now a spruce-tree, brought down to the water-side by our mass-men, of an incredible bigness, and so long that no skipper durst ever yet adventure to ship it; but there it lyes and rots.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 67.[223]Abies Canadensis(L.), Michx. (hemlock spruce). Beside the coniferous trees here set down, our author mentions in his Voyages (p. 67) “the white cedar, ... a stately tree, and is taken by some to be tamarisk.” This, which is probably our white cedar (Cupressus thyoides, L.), he says “the English saw into boards to floor their rooms; for which purpose it is excellent, long-lasting, and wears very smooth and white. Likewise they make shingles to cover their houses with, instead of tyle. It will never warp.” Wood (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.) makes mention of a “cedar-tree, ... a tree of no great growth; not bearing above a foot and a half, at the most; neither is it very high.... This wood is more desired for ornament than substance; being of colour red and white, like eugh; smelling as sweet as juniper. It is commonly used for ceiling of houses, and making of chests, boxes, and staves.” This seems likely to have been the AmericanArbor vitæ(Thya occidentalis, L.); also called white-cedar.—Compare Emerson, Trees and Shrubs of Mass., pp. 96, 100. For mention of the juniper,seeante, p. 49.[224]See p. 81; andante, p. 54.[225]Sassafras officinale, Nees. “This tree growes not beyond Black Point, eastward.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 68. Michaux (Sylva, vol. ii. p. 144) says, “The neighbourhood of Portsmouth ... may be assumed as one of the extreme points at which it is found towards the north-east;” but, according to Mr. Emerson (Trees and Shrubs of Mass., p. 322), it is “found as far north as Canada,” though ... “there a small tree.”[226]Vaccinium macrocarpum, Ait. Our author seems not to have known the European cranberry (V. oxycoccus, L., the marish-wortes, or fenne-berries, of Gerard, p. 1419); which is also found in our cold bogs, especially upon mountains. This is called by Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), “far superior to the foreignV. macrocarpon;” but, from Gerard’s account, it should appear that it was formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according to Josselyn) here, by both Indians and English. Linnæus speaks of the European fruit in much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of Lapland, where he says, “Baccæ hæ a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non vocantur, nec facile ab aliis nationibus, cum nimis acidæ sint” (Fl. Lapp., p. 145): but corrects this in a paper on the esculent plants of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without animation, “Harum vero cum saccharo præparata gelatina, quid in mensis nostris jucundius?” (Amæn. Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry was probably the “sasemineash—another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in fresh waters all the winter; excellent in conserve against fevers”—of R. Williams, Key,l. c., p. 221.—CompareMasimin, rendered [fruits] “rouges petits.”—Rasles’ Dict.,Abnaki,l. c., p. 460.[227]Wood says the “vines afford great store of grapes, which are very big, both for the grape and cluster; sweet and good. These be of two sorts,—red and white. There is likewise a smaller kind of grape which groweth in the islands” (that is, of Massachusetts Bay), “which is sooner ripe, and more delectable; so that there is no known reason why as good wine may not be made in those parts, as well as Bordeaux in France; being under the same degree.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v. “Vines,” says Mr. Graves (in New-Eng. Plantation, Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 124) “doe grow here, plentifully laden with the biggest grapes that ever I saw. Some I have seene foure inches about.”—“Our Governour,” adds Higginson, “hath already planted a vineyard, with great hope of encrease.”—New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 119.Vitis Labrusca, L. (fox-grape),—for some principal varieties of which, see Emerson,l. c., p. 468,—furnished, probably, most of the sorts known favorably to the first settlers; butV. æstivalis, Michx. (summer grape), also occurs on our seaboard.[228]Pyrola, L., emend. (Gerard, p. 408). All but one of our species are common also to Europe.[229]Goodyera pubescens(Willd.), R. Br., is plainly meant by the author; and the common name of the plant—rattlesnake plantain—still preserves the memory of its supposed virtues as a wound-herb. It seems, by the next page, that Josselyn tried to carry living specimens to England; but they “perished at sea.” The putting this among thePyrolæ(as if by some confusion ofGoodyerawithChimophila maculata) was a bad mistake.[230]See p. 55; where the author refers to his figures of two kinds of “Pyrola” of which this must be one. The Voyages (p. 202) also make mention of an adventure of a neighbor of Josselyn’s, who, “rashly wandering out after some stray’d cattle, lost his way; and coming, as we conceived by his Relation, near to the head-spring of some of the branches of Black-Point River or Saco River, light into a tract of land, for God knows how many miles, full of delfes and dingles and dangerous precipices, rocks, and inextricable difficulties, which did justly daunt, yea, quite deter him from endeavouring to pass any further.” And this account may quite possibly relate to the same occasion of our author’s getting acquainted with his “elegant plant.” Plukenet (Amalth., p. 94; Phytogr., tab. 287, f. 5) mistakenly refers Josselyn’s “sufficiently unhappy figure” to hisFilix Hemionitis dicta Maderensis; which isAdiantum reniforme, L.[231]“There is a plant, likewise,—called, for want of a name, clowne’s wound-wort, by the English; though it be not the same,—that will heal a green wound in 24 hours, if a wise man have the ordering of it.”—Voyages, p. 60.Verbena hastata, L. (blue vervain), is perhaps, notwithstanding the author’s disclaimer, what he had in view. This is certainly different from the common, once officinal, vervain of Europe (V. officinalis, L.),—on the virtues of which, as a wound-herb, see Gerard, p. 718; but yet more so from true clown’s all-heal (Gerard, p. 1005), which isStachys palustris, L. As to other medicinal properties of our vervains, compare Cutler,l. c., p. 405,—where they are said to have been used by the surgeons of our army in the Revolutionary War,—and Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1403.[232]Symplocarpus fœtidus(L.) Salisb. (skunk-cabbage). Our author’s appears to be the first figure and account of this curious plant, which he rightly places among such “as are proper to the country, and have no name.” Cutler’s description, in 1785 (Account of Indig. Veg.,l. c., pp. 407-9),—which is followed by the remark, that “the fructification so essentially differs from all the genera of this order, it must undoubtedly be considered as a new genus,”—was the next contribution of importance, and so continued till Dr. Bigelow’s elaborate history;—Amer. Med. Bot., vol. ii. p. 41, pl. xxiv. Josselyn’s “sprig” of a horse-tail might perhaps be added to hisFilices, at p. 47, note 2, 3.[233]Impatiens fulva, Nutt, (touch-me-not; balsam). Wilson says this plant “is the greatest favorite with the humming-bird of all our other flowers. In some places where these plants abound, you may see at one time ten or twelve humming-birds darting about, and fighting with and pursuing each other.”—Amer. Ornithol.,by Brewer, p. 120. As to Josselyn’s note on its use in medicine by the Indians, compare Wood and Bache, Disp., p. 1345. A kix, or kex, or kexy,—used in the expression, “hollow as a kix,”—is a provincialism, in various parts of England, for hemlock; “the dry, hollow stocks of hemlock” (whence Webster’s query,—Fr.,cique; Lat.cicuta); and also of cow-parsley, according to Holloway (Dict. of Provincialisms): that is to say, secondarily, any hollow-stemmed plant like hemlock. Gerard’s figure ofImpatiens noli tangere, L., the European balsam,—of which the earlier botanists considered our species to be varieties,—is so poor, and the plant so rare in Britain, that it is perhaps little wonder that our author took the showy American balsam to be quite new.[234]Mulgedium leucophœum, DC. (Gray, Manual, p. 241). This fine plant is peculiar to America.[235]Nabalus albus(L.) Hook. (Snake-weed): the genus peculiar to America.[236]Chelone glabra, L. (snake-head). Plukenet quotes this figure underDigitalis Verbesinæ foliis, &c. (Amalth., p. 71; Mant., p. 64); which is referred by Linnæus toGerardia pedicularis, L. Plukenet has himself figured our plant, and but little better than Josselyn, in Phytogr., t. 348, fig. 3. The genus is peculiar to America.[237]Upon this figure, Plukenet founds hisSolanum quadrifolium Nov’ Anglicanum, flore lacteo polycoccum(Amalth., p. 195); clearly taking the plant, as Josselyn did, for “a kind ofHerba Paris” (Paris quadrifolia, L.), which isSolanum quadrifolium bacciferumof Bauhin (Pin., p. 167,cit.L.). The plant is doubtlessCornus Canadensis, L. (dwarf-cornel; bunch-berry); and it certainly resembles the figure ofHerb Paris, given by Gerard (p. 405), much more than that ofCornus suecica, L. (European dwarf-cornel, p. 1296),—a shrub ill understood by the old botanists.[238]Helianthus, L., sp. (sun-flower); a genus peculiar to America. The species is perhapsH. strumosus, L. (Gray, Man., p. 218).—See p. {56}of this book; note.[239]The importance of this list has been already spoken of. Its value depends on its having been drawn up by a person of familiarity with some of the botanical writers of his day, as part of a botanical treatise; and the (in this case) not unfair presumption that the names cited are meant to be accurate. Mr. A. De Candolle (Geogr. Botanique, vol. ii. p. 746) appears to be unacquainted with any authority for the naturalized plants of the Northern States earlier than the first edition of theFlorulaof Dr. Bigelow, in 1814. The treatise of Cutler extends this limit to 1785; and that of Josselyn, so far as it goes, to 1672.[240]Doubtful. Gerard’s couch-grass, p. 23, appears to beHolcus mollis, L.,—“the true couch-grass of sandy soils” in England; and English agricultural writers reckon yet other grasses of this name, beside the well-knownTriticum repens, L.[241]Gerard, p. 276,—Capsella Bursa Pastoris(L.), Moench. “Cornfields, and about barns,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Naturalized.[242]Gerard, p. 290,—Taraxacum Dens Leonis, Desf.; looked, to our author, like a new-comer. Dr. Gray (Man., p. 239; and comp. Torr, and Gray, Fl., vol. ii. p. 494) regards it as “probably indigenous in the north,” but only naturalized in other regions. “Grass land,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.[243]Gerard, p. 278,—Senecio vulgaris, L.; one of theadventivenaturalized plants, as defined by Mr. De Candolle (l. c., vol. ii. p. 688; and Gray, Man. Bot., pref., p. viii.), according to the evidence of Dr. Darlington (Fl. Cestr., p. 152), and Gray,l. c.It has long been a common weed in eastern New England.[244]Sonchus, L.S. oleraceus, L., as understood by Linnæus, was no doubt intended: but this is now taken to include two species, both recognized in this country (Gray,l. c., p. 241); between which there is no evidence to authorize a decision.[245]Thegenera Chenopodium, L., andAtriplex, L., were much confused in Josselyn’s day; and his wild orach may belong to either. Gerard’s wild orach is in partAtriplex patula, L. (p. 326); but the first species to which he gives this name (p. 325) isChenopodium polyspermum, L. The latter is a rare,adventivemember of our Flora (Gray,l. c., p. 363); and the former is, according to Bigelow (Fl. Bost., ed. 3, p. 401), the well-known orach of our salt-marshes: but Dr. Gray now refers this (Man., p. 365) to the nearly alliedA. hastata, L. This plant, in either case, is reckoned truly common to both continents. It is possible that Josselyn intended it.[246]Garden nightshade (Gerard, p. 339);Solanum nigrum, L. “Common among rubbish,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Naturalized.[247]Common stinging-nettle, or great nettle (Gerard, p. 706),—Urtica dioica, L.[248]Field-mallow (Gerard, p. 930),Malva sylvestris, L., and wild dwarf-mallow (ibid.),M. rotundifolia, L., are the only sorts likely to have been in view. The latter was, I doubt not, intended; and the former,adventiveonly with us, may also have occurred at any period after the settlement.[249]“It is but one sort, and that is broad-leaved plantain” (Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188). Broad-leaved plantain (Gerard, p. 419),—Plantago major, L.; one of the most anciently and widely known of plants, and inhabiting, at present, all the great divisions of the earth. An account, similar to our author’s, of the name given to it by the American savages, is found in Kalm’s Travels. “Mr. Bartram had found this plant in many places on his travels; but he did not know whether it was an original American plant, or whether the Europeans had brought it over. This doubt had its rise from the savages (who always had an extensive knowledge of the plants of the country) pretending that this plant never grew here before the arrival of the Europeans. They therefore gave it a name which signifies the Englishman’s foot; for they say, that, where a European had walked, there this plant grew in his footsteps.”—Kalm’s Travels into North America, by Forster, vol. i. p. 92. But Dr. Pickering considers it possible, that, in North-west America at least, the plantain was introduced by the aborigines (Races of Man, pp. 317, 320): and, uncertain as this is admitted to be, the old vulgar names of the plant in Northern languages—asWegerichandWegetrittof the German,WeegbladandWeegbreeof the Dutch,Veibredof the Danish, andWeybredof old English, all pointing to the plantain’s growing on ways trodden by man—suggest, perhaps, a far older supposed relation between this plant and the human foot than that mentioned above; and thus favor the derivation of the original Latin name (as old as Pliny, H. N., vol. xxv. 8, in § 39) fromplanta, the sole of the foot,—whether because the plantain is always trodden on, or, taking the terminationgoinplantago, as some philologists take it, to signify likeness (as doubtless inlappago,mollugo,asperugo; but this signification does not appear so clear in some other words with the like ending), because its leaves resemble the sole of the foot in flatness, breadth, marking, and so on. The possible derivation from planta, a plant, “per excellentiam, quasi plantam præstantissimam” (Tournef., Inst., vol. i. p. 128), though less open to question than that of Linnæus (“planta tangenda,” Phil. Bot., § 234), is certainly less significant than the other; which, with the statements (independent, so far as appears, of each other) of Josselyn and Kalm, if these may be relied on, seems to point to a very ancient co-incidence of thought, not unworthy of attention. Something else of the same sort is to be found in R. Williams, where he says (Key,l. c., p. 218) that the Massachusetts Indians called the constellation of the Great Bearmosk, orpawkunnawaw; that is, the bear.[250]Gerard, p. 353,—Hyoscyamus niger, L.Adventiveonly: having “escaped from gardens to roadsides,” according to Dr. Gray (Man., p. 340); but “common amongst rubbish and by roadsides,” in 1785 (Cutler,l. c.), and perhaps long known on the coasts of Massachusetts Bay.[251]Broad-leaved wormwood, “our common and best-knowne wormwood” (Gerard, p. 1096),—Artemisia absynthium, L. “Roadsides and amongst rubbish,” 1785,—Cutler,l. c.Omitted by Bigelow, and not very frequent.[252]Gerard, p. 388. If this is to be taken forRumex acutus, Sm. (Fl. Brit.), which seems not to be certain, it is now referable toR. conglomeratus, Murr., which is “sparingly introduced” with us, according to Gray (Man., p. 377). But it is more likely that Josselyn hadR. crispus, L. (curled dock), in view: which is, I suppose, the “varietie” of sharp-pointed dock, “with crisped or curled leaves,” of Johnson’s Gerard, p. 387; and is the only mention of the species by those authors.[253]Gerard, p. 389,—Rumex Patientia, L. This and the next were garden pot-herbs of repute: and, at p. 90, our author brings them in again as such; telling us that bloodwort grows “but sorrily,” but patience “very pleasantly.” This may very likely have crept out of some garden: but the great water-dock (R. Hydrolapathum, Huds.) is, says Gerard, “not unlike to the garden patience” (p. 390); and Dr. Gray says the same of the American variety of the former.—Man., p. 377.[254]Gerard, p. 390,—Rumex sanguineus, L., “sown for a pot-herb in most gardens” (Gerard); and so our author,p. 90. Linnæus took it to be originally American: but it is common in Europe; and Dr. Gray marks the American plant as naturalized. Dr. Torrey indicated the species as occurring about New York in 1819 (Catal. Pl., N.Y.); but New-England botanists do not appear to have recognized it. Josselyn’s plant was perhaps the offcast of some garden.[255]Gerard, p. 404.—Comparep. 42of this; where our author more correctly reckons it among plants truly common to Europe and America.[256]“Common knot-grasse” (Gerard, p. 565),—Polygonum aviculare, L. Common to all the great divisions of the earth, and reckoned indigenous in America.—De Cand. Geogr. Bot., vol. i. p. 577;Gray, Man., p. 373.[257]There are many chickweeds in Gerard; but that most likely to have been in the author’s view here is the universally known common chickweed,—the middle or small chickweed of Gerard, p. 611. This was “common in gardens and rich cultivated ground” in 1785.—Cutler, l. c.Few plants have spread so widely over the earth asStellaria media.[258]Great comfrey (Gerard, p. 806),—Symphytum officinale, L.: also in the list of garden herbs at p. 90. “Sometimes found growing wild,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Not admitted by Dr. Bigelow (Fl. Bost.), but included by Dr. Gray as anadventive.—Man., p. 320.[259]Gerard, p. 757,—Maruta cotula(L.), DC.; a naturalized member of our Flora, now become a very common ornament of roadsides; where Cutler notices it, also, in 1785.[260]“Great burre-docke, or clott-burre” (Gerard, p. 809),—Lappa major, Gaertn. “About barns,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.[261]“White-floured mullein” (Gerard, p. 773),—perhapsVerbascum Lychnitis, L.; which isadventivein some parts of the United States (Gray, Man., p. 283), but is not otherwise known to have made its appearance in New England. Great mullein (V. Thapsus, L.) was “common” in Cutler’s time. The moth-mullein (V. Blattaria, L.) he only knew “by roadsides in Lynn” (l. c., p. 419). Other plants referable to this list of naturalized weeds are “wild sorrel,”p. 42;Polygonum Persicaria, p. 43; St. John’s wort, speedwell, chickweed, male fluellin, cat-mint, and clot-bur,p. 44; yarrow, and oak of Jerusalem,p. 46; pimpernel, and toadflax,p. 48; and wild purslain, and woad-waxen,p. 51. See also spearmint, and ground-ivy,p. 89; and elecampane, celandine, and tansy,p. 90.[262]The earliest, almost the only account that we have of the gardens of our fathers, after they had settled themselves in theirNewEngland, and had tamed its rugged coasts to obedience to English husbandry. What with their garden beans, and Indian beans, and pease (“as good as ever I eat in England,” says Higginson in 1629); their beets, parsnips, turnips, and carrots (“our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England,” says the same reverend writer); their cabbages and asparagus,—both thriving, we are told, exceedingly; their radishes and lettuce; their sorrel, parsley, chervil, and marigold, for pot-herbs; and their sage, thyme, savory of both kinds, clary, anise, fennel, coriander, spearmint, and pennyroyal, for sweet herbs,—not to mention the Indian pompions and melons and squanter-squashes, “and other odde fruits of the country,”—the first-named of which had got to be so well approved among the settlers, when Josselyn wrote in 1672, that what he calls “the ancient New-England standing dish” (we may well call it so now!) was made of them; and, finally, their pleasant, familiar flowers, lavender-cotton and hollyhocks and satin (“we call this herbe, in Norfolke, sattin,” says Gerard; “and, among our women, it is called honestie”) and gillyflowers, which meant pinks as well, and dear English roses, and eglantine,—yes, possibly, hedges of eglantine(p. 90 note),—surely the gardens of New England, fifty years after the settlement of the country, were as well stocked as they were a hundred and fifty years after. Nor were the first planters long behindhand in fruit. Even at his first visit, in 1639, our author was treated with “half a score very fair pippins,” from the Governor’s Island in Boston Harbor; though there was then, he says (Voyages, p. 29), “not one apple tree nor pear planted yet in no part of the countrey but upon that island.” But he has a much better account to give in 1671: “The quinces, cherries, damsons, set the dames a work. Marmalad and preserved damsons is to be met with in every house. Our fruit-trees prosper abundantly,—apple-trees, pear-trees, quince-trees, cherry-trees, plum-trees, barberry-trees. I have observed, with admiration, that the kernels sown, or the succors planted, produce as fair and good fruit, without graffing, as the tree from whence they were taken. The countrey is replenished with fair and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a magistrate in Connecticut Colony), at the Captain’s messe (of which I was), aboard the ship I came home in, that he made five hundred hogsheads of syder out of his own orchard in one year.”—Voyages, p. 189-90. Our barberry-bushes, now so familiar inhabitants of the hedgerows of Eastern New England, should seem from this to have come, with the eglantines, from the gardens of the first settlers. Barberries “are planted in most of our English gardens,” says Gerard.[263]Portulaca oleracea,; L. β.sativa, L. (garden purslain). The wild variety is also reckoned by our author, in his list of plants, common to us and the Old World (p. 51).[264]See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188.[265]Vicia Faba, Willd., of which the Windsor bean is a variety. The author compares it,at p. 56, with kidney-beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.), called Indian beans by the first settlers, who had them from the savages, to the advantage of the last-mentioned sort; which probably soon drove the other out of our gardens.—Compare Cobbett’s American Gardener, p. 105.[266]Gerard, p. 75,—Avena nuda, L.; derived from common oats (A. sativa, L.) according to Link; and also (in Gerard’s time, and even later) in cultivation. It was called pillcorn, or peelcorn, because the grains, when ripe, drop naked from the husks. But is it not possible that our author’sSilpee(comparable withapee, a leaf;toopee, a root;ahpee, a bow, in the Micmac language,—Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi., pp. 20, 24) was really the American name of the well-known water-oats, or Canada rice,—Zizania aquatica, L.; the deciduous grains of which are said to afford “a very good meal” (Loudon, Encycl., p. 788), with the qualities of rice?—SeeBigel., Fl. Bost., edit. 3, p. 369. This has long been used by our savages; but I have not met with any mention of it in the early writers. The “standing dish in New England” has its interest, if it were really made of Canada rice.

[208]“Askutasquash,—their vine-apples,—which the English, from them, call squashes: about the bigness of apples of several colours.”—R. Williams,Key, &c.,l. c., p. 222. “In summer, when their corn is spent,isquotersquashesis their best bread; a fruit much like a pumpion.”—Wood,New-Eng. Prospect, part 2, chap. vi. The late Dr. T. W. Harris made the ill-understood edible gourds a special object of study, and devoted particular attention to the ascertaining of the kinds cultivated by the American savages; but his papers have not as yet seen the light. The warted squash (Cucurbita verrucosa, L.) and the orange-gourd (C. aurantium, Willd.)—the fruit of which last is of the size and color of an orange, and “more tender than the common pompion” (Loudon, Encycl. Pl.)—are perhaps, in part, intended by our author.

[209]“Pompions and water-mellons, too, they have good store,” says our author (Voyages, p. 130); and again, at p. 74 of the same, “The water-melon is proper to the countrie. The flesh of it is of a flesh-colour; a rare cooler of feavers, and excellent against the stone.” The water-melon (Cucurbita citrullus, L.) is “the only medicine the common people use in ardent fevers,” in Egypt (Loudon,l. c.).Cucurbita pepo, L. (Gr. πέπων; Low Dutch,pepoen,pompoen; Fr.,pompone), is our English pompion, or pumpkin. At p. 91, Josselyn speaks of pompions “proper to the country.” Compare Gerard’s chapter “of melons, or pompions” (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 918), where are two Virginian sorts; and see “the ancient New-England standing dish,”at p. 91of this book. The evidence appears to be sufficient, that our savages had in cultivation, together with their corn and tobacco,—and, like these, derived originally from tropical regions,—several sorts of what we call squashes, some kinds of pompion, and also water-melons; and, Graves’s letter (New-England Plantation,l. c., p. 124) adds, musk-melons. See further, especially, Champlain (Voy. de la Nouv. France,passim) and L’Escarbot (Hist. de la Nouv. France, vol. ii. p. 836). Mr. A. De Candolle (Geogr. Bot., vol. ii. pp. 899, 904) disputes the American origin of the edible gourds, but does not appear to have examined all the early authorities for their cultivation by the savages before the settlement of this country. Such cultivation appears to be made out, and to indicate that these vegetables have probably been known, from very remote antiquity, in the warmer parts of America. But this does not touch the difficult question of origin; and it may still appear that the gourds are equally ancient in Europe, and derived, both here and there, from Asia (De Cand.,l. c.); such derivation being explainable, in the case of America, by old migrations from Asia through Polynesia.—Pickering,Races of Man, chap. 17.

[210]Johnson’s Gerard, p. 528; where the same plant is also called “jagged or rose penniwoort,” and is probably what our author intendsat p. 43of this. It was no doubt our prettySaxifraga Virginiensis, Michx., which Josselyn had in view. In his Voyages, p. 80, he assigns to it the medicinal virtues which Gerard attributes to the great navel-wort, or wall-pennywort (Cotyledon umbilicus, Huds.).

[211]Convolvulus sepium, L. (great bind-weed) is exceedingly like toC. Scammonia, L., the inspissated juice of which is the officinal scammony; and is common to Europe and North America. Gerard’s bryony of Peru (p. 872-3), to which Josselyn refers, is, whatever it be, not found here. Compare Cutler’s remarks onC. sepium(Account of Veg., &c.,l. c., p. 416).Mechoacan, “called ... Indian briony, or briony, or scammony of America,” from the Caribbee Islands, &c., is described in Hughes, Amer. Physitian (1672), p. 94; and see Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 424, note.

[212]Rosa Carolina, L. (Carolina rose), probably.—See Cutler’s observations,l. c., p. 451. Higginson also notices “single damaske roses, verie sweete.”—New-Eng. Plantation,l. c., p. 119. Our Carolina rose is said to be common in English shrubberies.

[213]See also Voyages, p. 72. Our author is the earliest authority that I have met with for this name; and his plant, which is placed among those “proper to the country,” may very well be what has long been called sweet-fern in New England,—Comptonia asplenifolia(L.) Ait.; still used in “molasses beer,” and medicinal in the way mentioned.—Emerson,Trees and Shrubs of Mass., p. 226.

[214]See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 77. The first of the two plants which the author mentions here is probablyAralia nudicaulis, L. (wild sarsaparilla); and the other,A. hispida, Michx. The last, which is what is spoken of in the Voyages, has been recommended for medicinal properties by Prof. Peck.—Wood and Bache,Dispens., p. 116.

[215]“Attitaash(whortleberries), of which there are divers sorts; sweet, like currants; some opening, some of a binding nature.Sautaashare these currants dried by the natives, and so preserved all the year; which they beat to powder, and mingle it with their parched meal, and make a delicate dish which they callsautauthig, which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English.”—R. Williams,Key, &c.,l. c., p. 221. The fruitful and wholesome American whortleberries, or bilberries, were, it is likely, a very pleasant discovery to our forefathers. It was, no doubt, those species that we call blueberries which they made most of, and particularly the low blueberry (Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum, Lam.) and the swamp-blueberry (V. corymbosum, L.). From these the common black whortleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa, Torr. and Gray) differs no less in quality than in structure.Sa’té(comparesautaash, above), in Rasles Dict. of the Abnaki Language,l. c., p. 450, is rendered “frais, sans etre secs; lorsq’ils s’t secs, sikisa’tar.”

[216]The cloud-berry—Rubus chamæmorus, L. (Gerard, p. 1420)—is found in some parts of the subalpine region of the White Mountains; and Mr. Oakes detected it at Lubec, on the coast of Maine. It is common to both continents; and perhaps, therefore, as our author gives his cloud-berry a place in this division of his book, he may have meant something else.

[217]Rhus, L.; the species differing, as our author repeats in his Voyages (p. 71), “from all the kinds set down in our English herbals.” Wood (N. Eng. Prospect, chap, v.) calls it “the dear shumach.” Josselyn’s account of the virtues of our species, here, and especially in the Voyages (l. c.), agrees so well with what Gerard says of the properties of the European tanner’s sumach (R. coriaria, L.), that the latter may very likely have, in part, suggested the former. But see Cutler,l. c., p. 427.

[218]“The cherry-trees yield great store of cherries, which grow on clusters like grapes. They be much smaller than our English cherry; nothing near so good, if they be not fully ripe. They so furr the mouth, that the tongue will cleave to the roof, and the throat wax hoarse with swallowing those red bullies (as I may call them); being little better in taste” (that is, than bullaces). “English ordering may bring them to an English cherry; but they are as wild as the Indians.”—New-England’s Prospect, chap. v. The choke-cherry (Cerasus Virginiana(L.) DC.) and the wild cherry (C. serotina(Ehrh.) DC.) are meant.

[219]Pinus Strobus, L. (white pine). “Of the body the English make large canows of 20 foot long, and two foot and a half over; hollowing of them with an adds, and shaping of the outside like a boat.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 64; where is more concerning the use of this tree in medicine. “I have seen,” says Wood, “of these stately, high-grown trees, ten miles together, close by the river-side; from whence, by shipping, they might be conveyed to any desired port.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.

[220]Abies balsamea(L.) Marsh, (balsam-fir). “The firr-tree is a large tree, too; but seldom so big as the pine. The bark is smooth, with knobs, or blisters, in which lyeth clear liquid turpentine,—very good to be put into salves and oyntments. The leaves, or cones, boiled in beer, are good for the scurvie. The young buds are excellent to put into epithemes for warts and corns. The rosen is altogether as good as frankincense.... The knots of this tree and fat-pine are used by the English instead of candles; and it will burn a long time: but it makes the people pale” (Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 66); besides being, as Wood says (l. c., speaking of the pine), “something sluttish.” But Higginson says they “are very usefull in a house, and ... burne as cleere as a torch.”—New-Eng. Plantation,l. c., p. 122.

[221]Larix Americana, Michx. (Larch; “taccamahac,” Cutler;tamarack;hackmatack.) “Groundsels, made of larch-tree, will never rot; and the longer it lyes, the harder it growes, that you may almost drive a nail into a bar of iron as easily as into that.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 68. “The turpentine that issueth from the cones of the larch-tree (which comes nearest of any to the right turpentine) is singularly good to heal wounds, and to draw out the malice (or thorn, as Helmont phrases it) of any ach; rubbing the place therewith, and throwing upon it the powder of sage-leaves.”—Ibid., p. 66.

[222]Abies nigra, Poir. (black or double spruce), and probably alsoA. alba, Michx. (white or single spruce). “At Pascataway there is now a spruce-tree, brought down to the water-side by our mass-men, of an incredible bigness, and so long that no skipper durst ever yet adventure to ship it; but there it lyes and rots.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 67.

[223]Abies Canadensis(L.), Michx. (hemlock spruce). Beside the coniferous trees here set down, our author mentions in his Voyages (p. 67) “the white cedar, ... a stately tree, and is taken by some to be tamarisk.” This, which is probably our white cedar (Cupressus thyoides, L.), he says “the English saw into boards to floor their rooms; for which purpose it is excellent, long-lasting, and wears very smooth and white. Likewise they make shingles to cover their houses with, instead of tyle. It will never warp.” Wood (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v.) makes mention of a “cedar-tree, ... a tree of no great growth; not bearing above a foot and a half, at the most; neither is it very high.... This wood is more desired for ornament than substance; being of colour red and white, like eugh; smelling as sweet as juniper. It is commonly used for ceiling of houses, and making of chests, boxes, and staves.” This seems likely to have been the AmericanArbor vitæ(Thya occidentalis, L.); also called white-cedar.—Compare Emerson, Trees and Shrubs of Mass., pp. 96, 100. For mention of the juniper,seeante, p. 49.

[224]See p. 81; andante, p. 54.

[225]Sassafras officinale, Nees. “This tree growes not beyond Black Point, eastward.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 68. Michaux (Sylva, vol. ii. p. 144) says, “The neighbourhood of Portsmouth ... may be assumed as one of the extreme points at which it is found towards the north-east;” but, according to Mr. Emerson (Trees and Shrubs of Mass., p. 322), it is “found as far north as Canada,” though ... “there a small tree.”

[226]Vaccinium macrocarpum, Ait. Our author seems not to have known the European cranberry (V. oxycoccus, L., the marish-wortes, or fenne-berries, of Gerard, p. 1419); which is also found in our cold bogs, especially upon mountains. This is called by Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), “far superior to the foreignV. macrocarpon;” but, from Gerard’s account, it should appear that it was formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according to Josselyn) here, by both Indians and English. Linnæus speaks of the European fruit in much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of Lapland, where he says, “Baccæ hæ a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non vocantur, nec facile ab aliis nationibus, cum nimis acidæ sint” (Fl. Lapp., p. 145): but corrects this in a paper on the esculent plants of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without animation, “Harum vero cum saccharo præparata gelatina, quid in mensis nostris jucundius?” (Amæn. Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry was probably the “sasemineash—another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in fresh waters all the winter; excellent in conserve against fevers”—of R. Williams, Key,l. c., p. 221.—CompareMasimin, rendered [fruits] “rouges petits.”—Rasles’ Dict.,Abnaki,l. c., p. 460.

[227]Wood says the “vines afford great store of grapes, which are very big, both for the grape and cluster; sweet and good. These be of two sorts,—red and white. There is likewise a smaller kind of grape which groweth in the islands” (that is, of Massachusetts Bay), “which is sooner ripe, and more delectable; so that there is no known reason why as good wine may not be made in those parts, as well as Bordeaux in France; being under the same degree.”—New-Eng. Prospect, chap. v. “Vines,” says Mr. Graves (in New-Eng. Plantation, Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 124) “doe grow here, plentifully laden with the biggest grapes that ever I saw. Some I have seene foure inches about.”—“Our Governour,” adds Higginson, “hath already planted a vineyard, with great hope of encrease.”—New-England’s Plantation,l. c., p. 119.Vitis Labrusca, L. (fox-grape),—for some principal varieties of which, see Emerson,l. c., p. 468,—furnished, probably, most of the sorts known favorably to the first settlers; butV. æstivalis, Michx. (summer grape), also occurs on our seaboard.

[228]Pyrola, L., emend. (Gerard, p. 408). All but one of our species are common also to Europe.

[229]Goodyera pubescens(Willd.), R. Br., is plainly meant by the author; and the common name of the plant—rattlesnake plantain—still preserves the memory of its supposed virtues as a wound-herb. It seems, by the next page, that Josselyn tried to carry living specimens to England; but they “perished at sea.” The putting this among thePyrolæ(as if by some confusion ofGoodyerawithChimophila maculata) was a bad mistake.

[230]See p. 55; where the author refers to his figures of two kinds of “Pyrola” of which this must be one. The Voyages (p. 202) also make mention of an adventure of a neighbor of Josselyn’s, who, “rashly wandering out after some stray’d cattle, lost his way; and coming, as we conceived by his Relation, near to the head-spring of some of the branches of Black-Point River or Saco River, light into a tract of land, for God knows how many miles, full of delfes and dingles and dangerous precipices, rocks, and inextricable difficulties, which did justly daunt, yea, quite deter him from endeavouring to pass any further.” And this account may quite possibly relate to the same occasion of our author’s getting acquainted with his “elegant plant.” Plukenet (Amalth., p. 94; Phytogr., tab. 287, f. 5) mistakenly refers Josselyn’s “sufficiently unhappy figure” to hisFilix Hemionitis dicta Maderensis; which isAdiantum reniforme, L.

[231]“There is a plant, likewise,—called, for want of a name, clowne’s wound-wort, by the English; though it be not the same,—that will heal a green wound in 24 hours, if a wise man have the ordering of it.”—Voyages, p. 60.Verbena hastata, L. (blue vervain), is perhaps, notwithstanding the author’s disclaimer, what he had in view. This is certainly different from the common, once officinal, vervain of Europe (V. officinalis, L.),—on the virtues of which, as a wound-herb, see Gerard, p. 718; but yet more so from true clown’s all-heal (Gerard, p. 1005), which isStachys palustris, L. As to other medicinal properties of our vervains, compare Cutler,l. c., p. 405,—where they are said to have been used by the surgeons of our army in the Revolutionary War,—and Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1403.

[232]Symplocarpus fœtidus(L.) Salisb. (skunk-cabbage). Our author’s appears to be the first figure and account of this curious plant, which he rightly places among such “as are proper to the country, and have no name.” Cutler’s description, in 1785 (Account of Indig. Veg.,l. c., pp. 407-9),—which is followed by the remark, that “the fructification so essentially differs from all the genera of this order, it must undoubtedly be considered as a new genus,”—was the next contribution of importance, and so continued till Dr. Bigelow’s elaborate history;—Amer. Med. Bot., vol. ii. p. 41, pl. xxiv. Josselyn’s “sprig” of a horse-tail might perhaps be added to hisFilices, at p. 47, note 2, 3.

[233]Impatiens fulva, Nutt, (touch-me-not; balsam). Wilson says this plant “is the greatest favorite with the humming-bird of all our other flowers. In some places where these plants abound, you may see at one time ten or twelve humming-birds darting about, and fighting with and pursuing each other.”—Amer. Ornithol.,by Brewer, p. 120. As to Josselyn’s note on its use in medicine by the Indians, compare Wood and Bache, Disp., p. 1345. A kix, or kex, or kexy,—used in the expression, “hollow as a kix,”—is a provincialism, in various parts of England, for hemlock; “the dry, hollow stocks of hemlock” (whence Webster’s query,—Fr.,cique; Lat.cicuta); and also of cow-parsley, according to Holloway (Dict. of Provincialisms): that is to say, secondarily, any hollow-stemmed plant like hemlock. Gerard’s figure ofImpatiens noli tangere, L., the European balsam,—of which the earlier botanists considered our species to be varieties,—is so poor, and the plant so rare in Britain, that it is perhaps little wonder that our author took the showy American balsam to be quite new.

[234]Mulgedium leucophœum, DC. (Gray, Manual, p. 241). This fine plant is peculiar to America.

[235]Nabalus albus(L.) Hook. (Snake-weed): the genus peculiar to America.

[236]Chelone glabra, L. (snake-head). Plukenet quotes this figure underDigitalis Verbesinæ foliis, &c. (Amalth., p. 71; Mant., p. 64); which is referred by Linnæus toGerardia pedicularis, L. Plukenet has himself figured our plant, and but little better than Josselyn, in Phytogr., t. 348, fig. 3. The genus is peculiar to America.

[237]Upon this figure, Plukenet founds hisSolanum quadrifolium Nov’ Anglicanum, flore lacteo polycoccum(Amalth., p. 195); clearly taking the plant, as Josselyn did, for “a kind ofHerba Paris” (Paris quadrifolia, L.), which isSolanum quadrifolium bacciferumof Bauhin (Pin., p. 167,cit.L.). The plant is doubtlessCornus Canadensis, L. (dwarf-cornel; bunch-berry); and it certainly resembles the figure ofHerb Paris, given by Gerard (p. 405), much more than that ofCornus suecica, L. (European dwarf-cornel, p. 1296),—a shrub ill understood by the old botanists.

[238]Helianthus, L., sp. (sun-flower); a genus peculiar to America. The species is perhapsH. strumosus, L. (Gray, Man., p. 218).—See p. {56}of this book; note.

[239]The importance of this list has been already spoken of. Its value depends on its having been drawn up by a person of familiarity with some of the botanical writers of his day, as part of a botanical treatise; and the (in this case) not unfair presumption that the names cited are meant to be accurate. Mr. A. De Candolle (Geogr. Botanique, vol. ii. p. 746) appears to be unacquainted with any authority for the naturalized plants of the Northern States earlier than the first edition of theFlorulaof Dr. Bigelow, in 1814. The treatise of Cutler extends this limit to 1785; and that of Josselyn, so far as it goes, to 1672.

[240]Doubtful. Gerard’s couch-grass, p. 23, appears to beHolcus mollis, L.,—“the true couch-grass of sandy soils” in England; and English agricultural writers reckon yet other grasses of this name, beside the well-knownTriticum repens, L.

[241]Gerard, p. 276,—Capsella Bursa Pastoris(L.), Moench. “Cornfields, and about barns,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Naturalized.

[242]Gerard, p. 290,—Taraxacum Dens Leonis, Desf.; looked, to our author, like a new-comer. Dr. Gray (Man., p. 239; and comp. Torr, and Gray, Fl., vol. ii. p. 494) regards it as “probably indigenous in the north,” but only naturalized in other regions. “Grass land,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.

[243]Gerard, p. 278,—Senecio vulgaris, L.; one of theadventivenaturalized plants, as defined by Mr. De Candolle (l. c., vol. ii. p. 688; and Gray, Man. Bot., pref., p. viii.), according to the evidence of Dr. Darlington (Fl. Cestr., p. 152), and Gray,l. c.It has long been a common weed in eastern New England.

[244]Sonchus, L.S. oleraceus, L., as understood by Linnæus, was no doubt intended: but this is now taken to include two species, both recognized in this country (Gray,l. c., p. 241); between which there is no evidence to authorize a decision.

[245]Thegenera Chenopodium, L., andAtriplex, L., were much confused in Josselyn’s day; and his wild orach may belong to either. Gerard’s wild orach is in partAtriplex patula, L. (p. 326); but the first species to which he gives this name (p. 325) isChenopodium polyspermum, L. The latter is a rare,adventivemember of our Flora (Gray,l. c., p. 363); and the former is, according to Bigelow (Fl. Bost., ed. 3, p. 401), the well-known orach of our salt-marshes: but Dr. Gray now refers this (Man., p. 365) to the nearly alliedA. hastata, L. This plant, in either case, is reckoned truly common to both continents. It is possible that Josselyn intended it.

[246]Garden nightshade (Gerard, p. 339);Solanum nigrum, L. “Common among rubbish,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Naturalized.

[247]Common stinging-nettle, or great nettle (Gerard, p. 706),—Urtica dioica, L.

[248]Field-mallow (Gerard, p. 930),Malva sylvestris, L., and wild dwarf-mallow (ibid.),M. rotundifolia, L., are the only sorts likely to have been in view. The latter was, I doubt not, intended; and the former,adventiveonly with us, may also have occurred at any period after the settlement.

[249]“It is but one sort, and that is broad-leaved plantain” (Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188). Broad-leaved plantain (Gerard, p. 419),—Plantago major, L.; one of the most anciently and widely known of plants, and inhabiting, at present, all the great divisions of the earth. An account, similar to our author’s, of the name given to it by the American savages, is found in Kalm’s Travels. “Mr. Bartram had found this plant in many places on his travels; but he did not know whether it was an original American plant, or whether the Europeans had brought it over. This doubt had its rise from the savages (who always had an extensive knowledge of the plants of the country) pretending that this plant never grew here before the arrival of the Europeans. They therefore gave it a name which signifies the Englishman’s foot; for they say, that, where a European had walked, there this plant grew in his footsteps.”—Kalm’s Travels into North America, by Forster, vol. i. p. 92. But Dr. Pickering considers it possible, that, in North-west America at least, the plantain was introduced by the aborigines (Races of Man, pp. 317, 320): and, uncertain as this is admitted to be, the old vulgar names of the plant in Northern languages—asWegerichandWegetrittof the German,WeegbladandWeegbreeof the Dutch,Veibredof the Danish, andWeybredof old English, all pointing to the plantain’s growing on ways trodden by man—suggest, perhaps, a far older supposed relation between this plant and the human foot than that mentioned above; and thus favor the derivation of the original Latin name (as old as Pliny, H. N., vol. xxv. 8, in § 39) fromplanta, the sole of the foot,—whether because the plantain is always trodden on, or, taking the terminationgoinplantago, as some philologists take it, to signify likeness (as doubtless inlappago,mollugo,asperugo; but this signification does not appear so clear in some other words with the like ending), because its leaves resemble the sole of the foot in flatness, breadth, marking, and so on. The possible derivation from planta, a plant, “per excellentiam, quasi plantam præstantissimam” (Tournef., Inst., vol. i. p. 128), though less open to question than that of Linnæus (“planta tangenda,” Phil. Bot., § 234), is certainly less significant than the other; which, with the statements (independent, so far as appears, of each other) of Josselyn and Kalm, if these may be relied on, seems to point to a very ancient co-incidence of thought, not unworthy of attention. Something else of the same sort is to be found in R. Williams, where he says (Key,l. c., p. 218) that the Massachusetts Indians called the constellation of the Great Bearmosk, orpawkunnawaw; that is, the bear.

[250]Gerard, p. 353,—Hyoscyamus niger, L.Adventiveonly: having “escaped from gardens to roadsides,” according to Dr. Gray (Man., p. 340); but “common amongst rubbish and by roadsides,” in 1785 (Cutler,l. c.), and perhaps long known on the coasts of Massachusetts Bay.

[251]Broad-leaved wormwood, “our common and best-knowne wormwood” (Gerard, p. 1096),—Artemisia absynthium, L. “Roadsides and amongst rubbish,” 1785,—Cutler,l. c.Omitted by Bigelow, and not very frequent.

[252]Gerard, p. 388. If this is to be taken forRumex acutus, Sm. (Fl. Brit.), which seems not to be certain, it is now referable toR. conglomeratus, Murr., which is “sparingly introduced” with us, according to Gray (Man., p. 377). But it is more likely that Josselyn hadR. crispus, L. (curled dock), in view: which is, I suppose, the “varietie” of sharp-pointed dock, “with crisped or curled leaves,” of Johnson’s Gerard, p. 387; and is the only mention of the species by those authors.

[253]Gerard, p. 389,—Rumex Patientia, L. This and the next were garden pot-herbs of repute: and, at p. 90, our author brings them in again as such; telling us that bloodwort grows “but sorrily,” but patience “very pleasantly.” This may very likely have crept out of some garden: but the great water-dock (R. Hydrolapathum, Huds.) is, says Gerard, “not unlike to the garden patience” (p. 390); and Dr. Gray says the same of the American variety of the former.—Man., p. 377.

[254]Gerard, p. 390,—Rumex sanguineus, L., “sown for a pot-herb in most gardens” (Gerard); and so our author,p. 90. Linnæus took it to be originally American: but it is common in Europe; and Dr. Gray marks the American plant as naturalized. Dr. Torrey indicated the species as occurring about New York in 1819 (Catal. Pl., N.Y.); but New-England botanists do not appear to have recognized it. Josselyn’s plant was perhaps the offcast of some garden.

[255]Gerard, p. 404.—Comparep. 42of this; where our author more correctly reckons it among plants truly common to Europe and America.

[256]“Common knot-grasse” (Gerard, p. 565),—Polygonum aviculare, L. Common to all the great divisions of the earth, and reckoned indigenous in America.—De Cand. Geogr. Bot., vol. i. p. 577;Gray, Man., p. 373.

[257]There are many chickweeds in Gerard; but that most likely to have been in the author’s view here is the universally known common chickweed,—the middle or small chickweed of Gerard, p. 611. This was “common in gardens and rich cultivated ground” in 1785.—Cutler, l. c.Few plants have spread so widely over the earth asStellaria media.

[258]Great comfrey (Gerard, p. 806),—Symphytum officinale, L.: also in the list of garden herbs at p. 90. “Sometimes found growing wild,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.Not admitted by Dr. Bigelow (Fl. Bost.), but included by Dr. Gray as anadventive.—Man., p. 320.

[259]Gerard, p. 757,—Maruta cotula(L.), DC.; a naturalized member of our Flora, now become a very common ornament of roadsides; where Cutler notices it, also, in 1785.

[260]“Great burre-docke, or clott-burre” (Gerard, p. 809),—Lappa major, Gaertn. “About barns,”—Cutler(1785),l. c.

[261]“White-floured mullein” (Gerard, p. 773),—perhapsVerbascum Lychnitis, L.; which isadventivein some parts of the United States (Gray, Man., p. 283), but is not otherwise known to have made its appearance in New England. Great mullein (V. Thapsus, L.) was “common” in Cutler’s time. The moth-mullein (V. Blattaria, L.) he only knew “by roadsides in Lynn” (l. c., p. 419). Other plants referable to this list of naturalized weeds are “wild sorrel,”p. 42;Polygonum Persicaria, p. 43; St. John’s wort, speedwell, chickweed, male fluellin, cat-mint, and clot-bur,p. 44; yarrow, and oak of Jerusalem,p. 46; pimpernel, and toadflax,p. 48; and wild purslain, and woad-waxen,p. 51. See also spearmint, and ground-ivy,p. 89; and elecampane, celandine, and tansy,p. 90.

[262]The earliest, almost the only account that we have of the gardens of our fathers, after they had settled themselves in theirNewEngland, and had tamed its rugged coasts to obedience to English husbandry. What with their garden beans, and Indian beans, and pease (“as good as ever I eat in England,” says Higginson in 1629); their beets, parsnips, turnips, and carrots (“our turnips, parsnips, and carrots are both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary to be found in England,” says the same reverend writer); their cabbages and asparagus,—both thriving, we are told, exceedingly; their radishes and lettuce; their sorrel, parsley, chervil, and marigold, for pot-herbs; and their sage, thyme, savory of both kinds, clary, anise, fennel, coriander, spearmint, and pennyroyal, for sweet herbs,—not to mention the Indian pompions and melons and squanter-squashes, “and other odde fruits of the country,”—the first-named of which had got to be so well approved among the settlers, when Josselyn wrote in 1672, that what he calls “the ancient New-England standing dish” (we may well call it so now!) was made of them; and, finally, their pleasant, familiar flowers, lavender-cotton and hollyhocks and satin (“we call this herbe, in Norfolke, sattin,” says Gerard; “and, among our women, it is called honestie”) and gillyflowers, which meant pinks as well, and dear English roses, and eglantine,—yes, possibly, hedges of eglantine(p. 90 note),—surely the gardens of New England, fifty years after the settlement of the country, were as well stocked as they were a hundred and fifty years after. Nor were the first planters long behindhand in fruit. Even at his first visit, in 1639, our author was treated with “half a score very fair pippins,” from the Governor’s Island in Boston Harbor; though there was then, he says (Voyages, p. 29), “not one apple tree nor pear planted yet in no part of the countrey but upon that island.” But he has a much better account to give in 1671: “The quinces, cherries, damsons, set the dames a work. Marmalad and preserved damsons is to be met with in every house. Our fruit-trees prosper abundantly,—apple-trees, pear-trees, quince-trees, cherry-trees, plum-trees, barberry-trees. I have observed, with admiration, that the kernels sown, or the succors planted, produce as fair and good fruit, without graffing, as the tree from whence they were taken. The countrey is replenished with fair and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a magistrate in Connecticut Colony), at the Captain’s messe (of which I was), aboard the ship I came home in, that he made five hundred hogsheads of syder out of his own orchard in one year.”—Voyages, p. 189-90. Our barberry-bushes, now so familiar inhabitants of the hedgerows of Eastern New England, should seem from this to have come, with the eglantines, from the gardens of the first settlers. Barberries “are planted in most of our English gardens,” says Gerard.

[263]Portulaca oleracea,; L. β.sativa, L. (garden purslain). The wild variety is also reckoned by our author, in his list of plants, common to us and the Old World (p. 51).

[264]See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188.

[265]Vicia Faba, Willd., of which the Windsor bean is a variety. The author compares it,at p. 56, with kidney-beans (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.), called Indian beans by the first settlers, who had them from the savages, to the advantage of the last-mentioned sort; which probably soon drove the other out of our gardens.—Compare Cobbett’s American Gardener, p. 105.

[266]Gerard, p. 75,—Avena nuda, L.; derived from common oats (A. sativa, L.) according to Link; and also (in Gerard’s time, and even later) in cultivation. It was called pillcorn, or peelcorn, because the grains, when ripe, drop naked from the husks. But is it not possible that our author’sSilpee(comparable withapee, a leaf;toopee, a root;ahpee, a bow, in the Micmac language,—Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. vi., pp. 20, 24) was really the American name of the well-known water-oats, or Canada rice,—Zizania aquatica, L.; the deciduous grains of which are said to afford “a very good meal” (Loudon, Encycl., p. 788), with the qualities of rice?—SeeBigel., Fl. Bost., edit. 3, p. 369. This has long been used by our savages; but I have not met with any mention of it in the early writers. The “standing dish in New England” has its interest, if it were really made of Canada rice.

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