Rbodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 2 March, 1900 No. 15 
THE HEATHER IN NEW ENGLAND. 
WM. P. RicH. 
ON the twenty-fourth of September, 1899, the writer, happening to 
be in Tewksbury, Mass., visited the location of the Heather ( Calluna 
vulgaris, Salisb.), and it may be desirable to put on record the present 
condition of this interesting plant as well as some observations on the 
vexed question of its origin. 
Contrary to our usual experience in such matters, no difficulty was 
met with in finding the place where it grew, so well was the plant 
known in the town. . | 
It grows upon a hillside pasture sloping gradually down to boggy 
ground through which a deep channel has been cut by a brook. In 
the higher part of this pasture a few scattered patches of the plant 
were noticed, possibly transplanted from the main body of the Heather, 
and from their feeble appearance seemingly doomed to early extinc- 
tion. The principal growth was in the lower part of the pasture, on 
the borders of the brook, where the plants were growing quite thickly 
in a space about thirty feet square, which was inclosed by a wire fence. 
At the time of our visit a cow was standing in the midst of the precious 
shrubs, an invasion not likely to be soon repeated, for visiting the place 
a second time, some two weeks later, we found the fence had been 
repaired, showing the watchful care of some interested person over 
this rare plant. The shrubs were mostly in advanced fruit, although a 
few of their pretty rose-colored flowers still lingered as a sample of its 
beauty a month before. 
In the thirty-eight years which have elapsed since public attention 
was first called to the Heather in this locality, the area of its growth 
has been much reduced, judging from the description published at the 
