134 Rhodora [Jury 
As I have wandered along the gravelly beaches of the St. John and 
the Aroostook or have paddled through the calm lakes and whirling 
rapids of the St. Francis, this point has often set me wondering how 
to tell a really indigenous plant. For, wherever I have been on 
the St. John waters, the main St. John as far as the Little Black, or up 
the Aroostook and the St. Francis, the campion has always appeared in 
great masses, covering the gravel with its slender spreading gray-green 
stems and everywhere developing a wonderful profusion of white 
flowers tipped by purple anthers. Such stretches of airy white 
are among the most attractive features of these shores, for here the 
campion has lost the weedy appearance which we ordinarily associate 
with it and has assumed that untamed beauty and vigor which have so 
unspeakable a fascination for those who follow the northern rivers. 
Here along the cool shores the campion often mingles its clear white 
with the varied blues of the milk-vetch (Asżtragałus alpinus) or per- 
haps spreads its slender stems among the misty gray plumes of the 
Huronian tansy (Tanacetum huronense). Often, too, a patch of 
silver-weed (Potentilla Anserina) has crept in among the campion, 
here and there displaying the wonderful sheen of its yellow flowers, 
while a flash of white from its leaves tells that a stray breeze has crept 
up the stream. 
In northern Maine and New Brunswick the campion is not re- 
stricted, however, to the rivers already named. During the scientific 
survey of 1861, Professor Goodale saw it on the Allaguash, and it is 
said to grow at Mirimichi and Richibucto. Nor is this plant limited in 
its riparian distribution to northern Maine and New Brunswick. It 
has been noted in Quebec, at Notre Dame du Lac on Lake Temis- 
couata, the chief source of the Madawaska river; it is said to be abun- 
dant with colt's foot on mountain streams in northern Vermont; and 
Professor John Macoun, the distinguished government naturalist of 
Canada, states that on the lower St. Lawrence it is found in the 
greatest profusion. In fact, almost a century ago it was detected on 
the St. Lawrence by the elder Michaux, sent to America by the French 
government in search of trees useful in the arts, though from his note, 
“in Canada, circa Quebec et loca habitata," one would assume that 
the plant was there introduced. 
Excepting this northeastern colony of the campion, we have no 
indication that the plant is indigenous in America. It is common, to 
be sure, in many parts of Canada and the eastern states, but, wherever 
