1902] Deane, — Remarkable Persistence of Button-bush 243 



All of the above mentioned species are represented by herbarium 

 specimens, which are at present with the Herbarium of Williams 

 College in Williamstown. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



REMARKABLE PERSISTENCE OF THE BUTTON-BUSH. 



Walter Deane. 



It seems a strange and anomalous condition of things, a perver- 

 sion of the laws that govern the distribution of plants, to see our com- 

 mon Button-bush (Cephalanthus occidentalism L.) growing in a dry hen- 

 yard behind a barn. Yet such is the case and the shrubs flourish 

 from year to year in this quaint spot, though their natural habitat is 

 swamps and the wet borders of ponds and streams. The story is an 

 interesting one and illustrates well the dogged persistence that some 

 plants show in the hard struggle for life. 



The scene is in Shelburne, New Hampshire, on the farm of Mr. A. 

 E. Philbrook. On one part of this farm, as early as i860, there 

 stood a small pond on whose borders grew in greater or less abun- 

 dance the Button-bush. The water was shallow and muddy, and in 

 summer the pond was reduced to a very swampy piece of land. 

 Between i860 and 1865, the owner of the land, in order to make a 

 suitable site for a barn, decided to fill up the pond. To lighten this 

 task a small neighboring stream was turned so as to flow along the 

 foot of a sandy hill close by the pond. The water undermining the 

 bank brought down a good supply of sand, and the pond was finally 

 filled, the level of the ground being about three feet above the former 

 surface of the water. The Button-bush was buried out of sight, for 

 whatever may have been above ground was cut off or trampled down, 

 and on this new land the barn was built and an area left in the rear 

 was used as a wood-yard. Soon sprouts of the buried plants began 

 to appear, but they were continually cut off or trodden under foot 

 until finally the place was turned into a hen-yard and fenced in. Not 

 long after this, the sprouts again appeared and ere long the plants 

 were of normal size, in good condition, and flowering and fruiting 

 regularly, though the roots were buried at least three feet deeper 



