38 Rhodora [FEBRUARY 
One of the greatest obstacles to those, who have depended upon the 
assumed translation of the critical words, “vinber,” “hveiti,” and 
"mosurr" as Grape, Indian Corn or Wild Rice, and Maple, has been 
the reconciliation of the comparatively southern range of these plants 
with the accounts of the natives of Vínland. These people, the “Skrel- 
lings” “were small (‘swarthy’ in one version) men, and ill-looking, 
and the hair of their heads was ugly. They had great eyes, and were 
broad of cheek," and they came in *skin-canoes." Nearly all students 
of the sagas have agreed that these seem to be Esquimaux; but, in order 
to make the natives of Vínland, the *Skrellings," fit the geographic 
distribution of the Grape, many arguments, not at all convincing, 
have been put forward to prove, either that the Esquimaux formerly 
came to the coasts south of the St. Lawrence, or that, after all, the 
"Skrellings" were really Indians. Without entering now upon 
that question, which would lead us far from the subject of the present 
paper, it may be stated: that the mass of evidence which the writer 
has in hand, and which will soon be ready for publication, makes it 
clear that, if we read the sagas in the light of what we know of the 
abundant occurrence north of the St. Lawrence of the “vinber” 
(Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea or possibly Ribes triste, R. prostratum, or 
R. lacustre), “ hveiti” (Elymus arenarius) and " mosurr" (Betula alba, 
i. e. B. papyrifera of many botanists), the discrepancies in geog- 
raphy, ethnology, and zoólogy, which have been so troublesome in 
the past, will disappear; other features, usually considered obscure, 
will become luminous; and the older and less distorted sagas, at least 
in their main incidents, will become vivid records of actual geo- 
graphic exploration. 
Gray HERBARIUM, Harvard University. 
THE EXTENSION OF SOME RANGES IN EASTERN 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
K. M. WIEGAND. 
In the April 1909 number of RHopora there was published a list of 
rare plants found in the vicinity of Wellesley, Mass., in 1907 and 1908. 
During the past summer the survey of the Wellesley flora has been 
continued with the result that the following localities were found 
