322 MARK CATESBY [1742? 



tion of the Okamcerhododendron, which gives me so good an idea 

 of its form and colours, that are an assistance of the specimens 

 you sent, when occasion requires, I shall be enabled to give a tole- 

 rable figure of it ; which will be so much the more necessary, as 

 there being little probability of ever seeing it in blossom here. 

 Those plants you have already sent us, plainly show the aversion 

 they have to our soil and climate, by their slow progress and 

 stunted appearance. 



In answer to your conjecture, of their growing here as well as 

 with you, in the like moist land, I say, that plants, which, in Ame- 

 rica, grow in moist land, are generally killed when planted in such 

 like here. It is, by experience, found, that a dry, warm soil, is 

 most agreeable to American plants even aquatics. This, I con- 

 ceive, is not from our too great cold in winter, more than with 

 you ; but from a deficiency of heat in our summers ; wherefore, a 

 situation by being warmer, may compensate for that difference of 

 heat in a wet situation. * * * 



Mr. Clayton mentions a plant in the remote parts of Virginia, 

 called Leather-wood. It is a Thymelcea, or Spurge Laurel, per- 

 haps the same as your Leather-wood. 



Among the Shell animals of New England, one is called the 

 Signce [?]. Its eyes are placed under a covert of thick shells ; 

 but so ordered that the part above the eyes is transparent, that 

 the creature can see its way, though otherwise it is blinded. 

 These are somewhat like the eyes of a Mole, which are covered 

 with a thin skin, to fit it for working under ground. 



In New England is also the Monk-fish, having a hood like a 

 friar's cowl. In Baker's Cave, in New England, are scarlet 

 muscles, yielding a juice of a purple colour, that gives so deep a 

 dye that no water can wash out. 



I am told of an animal in Pennsylvania, called a Monax, and by 

 some, a Ground-hog. It lives and burrows under ground, and 

 sleeps much ; is about the size of a rabbit. I shall be glad of what 

 you know concerning it. 



Have you observed any other of the Deer kind, beside the 

 Moose, Elk, and common Deer ? Do you think that the Black 

 Fox, common in North America, is a different species, or only 

 varying in colour from the common Gray Fox ? 



There is a bird in Virginia and Carolina, and I suppose in 

 Pennsylvania, that at night calls Whipper Will, and sometimes, 



