1916] Kennedy, — Historical Data regarding the Sweet Bay 211 



This letter of Judge Parsons conclusively fixes the date of the dis- 

 covery of the Sweet Bay in Gloucester as July 22nd, 1806, and shows 

 clearly the identity of the discoverer as the Hon. Theophilus Parsons. 

 From a Life of Judge Parsons it is clear that the study of plants was 

 one of his favorite recreations. At the time of the discovery of the 

 Magnolia he was fifty-six years of age and was living on Pearl Street, 

 Boston, in a house with a large garden. 



The date 1805, given by Judge Davis, in the note cited above, is 

 plainly an error. The marginal memorandum in his copy of Bigelow's 

 Florida Bostoniensis written a number of years after the discovery 

 can surely carry little weight as evidence compared with a letter 

 written by the discoverer at the time of the discovery. 



In the Life of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, vol. ii. p. 359, one of his 

 grandchildren tells of his home at Hamilton, Mass., with his garden 

 where were to be seen many transplanted trees and shrubs. " Here 

 grew the pawpaw and persimmon by the side of strange foreign 

 plants; and in a swamp, not distant, flourished a transplanted Mag- 

 nolia, and in the garden a large tulip-tree." 



Regarding the origin of the colony and its present sadly depleted 

 state the following communications are of much interest. 



In Garden and Forest, vol. ii. p. 363 (1889) J. G. Jack gives nearly 

 a page on the Magnolia of Essex Co., Mass., including some parts of 

 its early history. And an unsigned correspondent in the same volume 

 on page 612 gives some suggestive hints as to its possible introduction. 

 I copy this note complete. "Magnolia Swamp contains several 

 hundred acres, and it is one and a half miles in length and from ten 

 to over 100 rods in width. I am of the opinion that this swamp has 

 furnished the shrub to all the others. In regard to three of the smaller 

 swamps I know that this is a fact, the Magnolia shrubs having been 

 transplanted by men. The inhabitants of Gloucester are firm in the 

 belief that Magnolia glauca is a native shrub, but I cannot think so. 



I believe it was introduced by the old settlers, some of whom may 

 have lived in and removed from a more southern state. 'The old 

 Salem road' deserted by the travelling public for over 100 years, skirts 

 the eastern side of Magnolia Swamp. Along the line of this road arc 

 the ruins of old cellars, and in the swamp opposite one of the cellars, 

 near a spring, may be found Magnolias which appear the oldest in 

 the region. The root-crowns below the moss are often found to be 

 two feet in diameter. In no other place can I find such a growth, and 



