THE HEATHER IN AMERICA. 



Flower Committee were dispatched on an errand of 

 discovery. The Heather was then in full bloom. The 

 chairman of the committee, Mr. E. S. Rand, reported 

 that plants were found half a mile from the State 

 House of Tewksbury, and were spread over an extent 

 of perhaps half an acre. 



In the locality where the plants were growing 

 the surface of the ground was buried by small hum- 

 mocks and covered with a short close grass, inter- 

 spersed with numerous plants of Kalmia angustifo- 

 lia, Spiraea tomentosa, Cassandra calyculata, Azalea 

 viscosa and Myrica Gale. In several cases the Heather 

 was found overgrown and shaded by these shrubs. 

 The common cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) oc- 

 curred somewhat abundantly in the immediate vicin- 

 ity of the Heather, usually on the depressions, while 

 the Heather was found on the hummocks. The soil 

 was sandy peat, just that which the gardeners would 

 choose for heaths. 



The first supposition was that the Heather had 

 been planted, or the seed sown by a Scotchman, Mr. 

 Strachan, who lived near by, but in an interview he 

 denied all knowledge of the plant until within a few 

 years, said he had never had any Heather in his pos- 

 session, had never received any seeds from Scot- 

 land, or done anything in any way by which the plants 

 might have been introduced ; that he was as much 

 astonished as delighted when, about ten years before, 

 he discovered the plant, which he at once recognized 

 as the Scotch Heather, and each year since he had 

 gathered it when in blossom to adorn his house. On 

 being further pressed by one of the committee as to 



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