VEGETABLE. i6i 



«' T TAKE the pleafure of giving you an account of a fm- 

 X gular blolTom, which 1 difcovered laft May,* in dig- 

 ging of a mill-race, onOpeckon creek, -j- through a rich bot- 

 tom of low ground, covered, in general, with well grown 

 large timber, of various kinds, particularly oak, poplar, 

 and walnut, feveral of which trees are from three to four 

 feet through, {landing on the ground through which the 

 race was dug. The curiofity is this, that between five and 

 fix feet under ground, chiefly a looiny, folid clay, one 

 of the diggers difcovered a bloflbm, not in full bloom, 

 nearly of the colour of the lilac, which flruck his atten- 

 tion. He called me to fee it, not knowing what it could 

 be. Upon viewing it, I recollected the form, and told 

 the diggers it was the fame kind of blue flower, which 

 had grown upon the furface of the ground adjacent, and 

 was then faded. In order to prove it, I defired one of 

 the men to dig up the root of the one under ground, 

 and the one upon the furface, which, upon exami- 

 nation, proved to be the very fame kind. The body 

 of earth where the plant was found mufl: have been form- 

 ed perhaps fome centuries, by reafon of the uncommon 

 fize of the timber which it contained, and from which 

 the moft heavy part of the mill-timber was procured." 



* The year is not mentioned. 



t A branch cf the river Potomak, In Virginia. 



No. 



