1758.] PHILIP MILLER. 383 



not. I have received every article our worthy friend Peter 

 mentioned, in the letters I received from him ; and I have always, 

 ever since I corresponded with him, found him to be as faithful, 

 careful, punctual and true a correspondent as I believe ever lived : 

 so that if they had ever come to his hands, he would have given 

 me some account of them. 



* * * * 



Strange it is, but very true, that many seeds of plants we take 

 little care of, as not being of general use, will keep good in the 

 ground for seven years or more, before they all come up, and 

 perhaps the ground tilled every year, too ; but the nutritious 

 grains, pulse, and other esculents, that are adapted for our general 

 support, generally come up the first year they are sown. Oh ! the 

 wisdom of Divine Providence ! The more we search into it, the 

 more wonderful we discover its powerful influence to be. 



[The following notice of the pernicious and troublesome weeds 

 in Pennsylvania, accompanies the rough draught of the above 

 letter to P. Miller, and seems to have been appended to it ; 

 though P. Collinson apparently refers to it, in his letter of July 

 20, 175 ( J. See page 219. As it presents an interesting account 

 of the weeds of Eastern Pennsylvania, ninety years since, I have 

 concluded to insert it ; and cannot but remark how truly the state- 

 ment describes the actual condition of the farms in that region.] 



A brief account of those Plants that are most troublesome in our 

 pastures and fields, in Pennsylvania ; most of which were brought 

 from Europe.* 



The most mischievous of these is, first, the stinking yellow Li- 

 naria. It is the most hurtful plant to our pastures that can grow 

 in our northern climate. Neither the spade, plough, nor hoe, can 

 eradicate it, when it is spread in a pasture. Every little fibre that 

 is left, will soon increase prodigiously ; nay, some people have 

 rolled great heaps of logs upon it, and burnt them to ashes, 

 whereby the earth was burnt half a foot deep, yet it put up again, 

 as fresh as ever, covering the ground so close as not to let any 



* In the third volume of the Annals of the New York Lyceum, there is an in- 

 teresting notice, by the late E,ev. L. D. von Schweinitz, of the plants of Europe 

 which have become naturalized in the United States. 



