70 BICKNELL: FERNS AND FLOWERING PLANTS OF NANTUCKET 
early settler has left scarce a vestige to tell its tale, the gorse and 
the Scotch broom bear their witness to the human sentiment 
which here had its dwelling place in days now over half a century 
gone. At this spot, on June 6, 1909, the broom, almost dazzling 
in its wealth of bloom, everywhere spread its golden masses along 
the dark background of the pines and with a glow like sunshine 
lighted .up the recesses among the shrubs and trees. Blooming 
with it in scarcely paler brightness, but nowhere far strayed from 
the course of the vanished roadway, the gorse, in spiny clumps and 
formidable thickets was also in strong possession of its conquered 
ground. Its greatest continuous growth exceeded one hundred 
and ten paces in longer extent and twenty paces in maximum 
transverse breadth, the stouter shrubs having reached a height of 
four to six feet, with stems four to six inches in circumference. 
It had flowered earlier than the broom, some of the blossoms having 
already begun to fade. In June 1911, both the gorse and broom 
were found to have suffered severely, probably from the long- 
continued drought, and much of both was either partially or 
wholly dead and brown. 
CytTisus scoparius (L.) Link. 
Now extensively naturalized on Nantucket, the Scotch broom 
is steadily increasing and spreading to new localities year by year. 
Writing in 1888, Mrs. Owen included the species in her catalogue 
on the evidence of a single plant reported by Mr. J. H. Redfield 
as growing among the furze bushes on the O’Connell farm. At 
that locality in 1906 the broom was found to have spread exten- 
sively in a contest for supremacy with the young pines among which 
it grew, and the larger plants had attained a height of eight to ten 
feet and their stems a basal girth of four to six inches. In 1899, 
when this locality was unknown to me, the broom was observed at 
only three stations, east, west, and south of thetown. On my next 
visit to the island, five years later, small clusters were seen at 
three places on the Wauwinet road between Shawkemo and Polpis, 
and an extensive growth formed a stubborn thicket along the 
western border of Trot’s Swamp on the site of the old Barrett 
farm. In 1906it had appeared here and there along an old cart- 
road in Polpis and was first observed on the bluff at Siasconset, 
extending down the steep slope from the top, where it had doubt- 
