1758.] IN PENNSYLVANIA. 337 



philosophers say, that every plant is produced from the seed of the 

 same species ; but how came the small seed of this plant there, in 

 such quantities as to fill a field or meadow of one hundred acres 

 as full of plants as they can stand ? 



One day when the sun shone bright, a little after its meridian, 

 my Billy was looking up at it, when he discovered an innumera- 

 ble quantity of downy motes floating in the air, between him and 

 the sun. He immediately called me out of my study, to see what 

 they were. They rose higher and lower, as they were wafted to 

 and fro in the air, some very high and progressive with a fine 

 breeze, some lowered, and fell into my garden, where we observed 

 every particular detachment of down, spread in four or five rays, 

 with a seed of the Groundsel in its centre. How far these were 

 carried by that breeze, can't be known ; but I think they must 

 have come near two miles, from a meadow, to reach my garden. 

 As these are annual plants, they do but little harm in the country. 



The Phytolacca is troublesome in our new cleared meadows, and 

 new fields. It comes up from the seeds being carried all over the 

 settled parts of the country, by the birds, which are fond of them ; 

 but these may be easily destroyed by grubbing them up. Some- 

 times a very severe winter kills many of them, as they are natives 

 of the Southern Provinces. When I first travelled beyond the 

 Blue Mountains, I saw not one ; but now there is enough of them. 



Our Elder is exceedingly troublesome in our meadows. The 

 roots run under ground and spread much ; and I do not know that 

 mowing will ever kill it ; and grubbing will kill little more than the 

 mattock takes up, for if there is but a little bit of the root left in 

 the ground, it will grow. I have had a root growing in my kitchen 

 garden about thirty years. It was ploughed once every year, and 

 generally grubbed and hoed once, or mostly twice, every summer ; 

 yet, last summer, two stalks put up, and if there is an inch of root 

 left in the ground, if it be two feet deep, it will put up again. In 

 short, I believe there is not a shrub in the world, harder to eradi- 

 cate than our Elder. I wish I had some of your Elder seed to 

 sow. I hear it grows much larger than ours. 



Those above-mentioned, are most of the troublesome weeds that 

 frequent our meadows, pastures, and corn-fields ; but in our 



phrase leaves us, I think, about as wise as we were before. The phenomenon 

 observed by "Billy," as described in the next paragraph, seems to afford quite 

 as intelligible a clue to the mystery, as the above natural theory. 



