The Stolen Moccasins 47 



ness of following trout streams, fishing and hunting 

 through the swamps, searching for frogs, and rare roots 

 and herbs in their season. He finds ready market for 

 Ginseng, American Ipecacuanha, Hellebore, or Indian 

 Poke, from which is obtained a powerful cardiac de- 

 pressent, — Veratrum viride, and species of Cypripedium 

 also produce our native drug American valerian, which 

 takes the place of the European drug, procured from 

 Valerian offinciallis, Snakeroot, Dogwood, and various 

 other plants afford excellent tonics. One can readily 

 understand, as Thomas Wentworth Higginson re- 

 marks, ' * that many of our rarest flowers (in the vicin- 

 ity of Boston) are being chased into the very recesses 

 of the Green and White Mountains. The relics of 

 the Indian tribes are supported by the Legislature at 

 Martha's Vineyard, while these precursors of the 

 Indians are dying unfriended away." ^ 



Where years ago the swamps were fairly rose-purple 

 with waving blossoms of the Grass Pink {Limodorum 

 tuberosum) and Rose Pogonia or Snake-Mouth (^Pogonia 

 ophioglossoides), this year I found so few that I could 

 readily count them. I discovered the possible secret 

 of this extinction in the fact that a native of Ktchowog 

 was offered by some florist or gardener fifty cents a 

 bulb or plant for all the specimens he could secure. 

 This was an inducement for the vandal, but Nature 

 cannot restore her species as fast as man can uproot 

 them and devastate their haunts. Whether this is the 



' Thomas Wentworth Higginson, The Procession of the 

 FlowerSy p. 47. 



