"IRbooora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 10. October, 1908. 
^ "o Es 
No. 118. 
THE THREE ADVENTIVE HEATHS OF NANTUCKET, 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
Maria L. Owen. 
On the island of Nantucket are three small heaths which attract a 
degree of attention quite disproportionate to their size. Botanists 
look at one and question “How came you here?” Flower lovers. 
admiring all of them are content to say “The self-same power that 
brought me here brought you.” Then the Athenians of our day who 
spend their time seeking new things wherever they journey, hearing 
of our plant that grows nowhere else on this continent from Greenland 
to Cape Horn, rush out to the commons to see it; they may be dis- 
appointed at its modest appearance, still they show that they too, in 
their way, care for the wonder, and for all these pilgrims the follow- 
ing story is written. 
Erica cinerea, L., Erica tetralix, L. and Calluna vulgaris, Salisb. 
are the three heaths, all common and abundant in Northern Europe; 
the interest lies in the fact that they appear on the Western Conti- 
nent. ‘Their family is well represented here, but of the genera to 
which these few specimens belong, Erica is totally lacking, and of 
Calluna, although it appears in a few localities quickly counted, it is 
not certain that it is indigenous with us. 
There are three heaths on the island, but it is Erica cinerea, the 
bell-heather, that is the Jean Paul of the trio,— ‘The Only-One". 
In August, 1868, a single plant of this species was detected in Nan- 
tucket by Mrs. Elizabeth E. Atwater of Chicago, and a notice of this 
in Wood's Manual of 1874 met my eye. I could hardly believe what 
I read, but after satisfying myself that there were in the Gray Herba- 
rium specimens verifying Prof. Wood's statement, I took steps to 
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