THE HEATHER IN AMERICA. 



think it of sufficient interest and value, both to sci- 

 entists and laymen, to warrant its insertion in full here. 

 It follows: 



That "America has no heaths" is a botanical 

 aphorism. It is understood, however, that an Eng- 

 lish surveyor, nearly thirty years ago, found Calluna 

 vulgaris in the interior of Newfoundland. Also that 

 De la Pylaie, still earlier, enumerates it as an inhab- 

 itant of that island. But this summer (1861) Mr. 

 Jackson Dawson, a young gardener, has brought us 

 specimens and living plants (both flowering stocks 

 and young seedlings) from Tewksbury, Mass., where 

 the plant occurs abundantly over about half an acre 

 of rather boggy ground, along with Andromeda caly- 

 culata, Azalea viscosa, Kalmia angustifolia, Gratiola 

 aurea, etc., apparently as much at home as any of 

 these. The station is about half a mile from the State 

 Almshouse. Certainly this is as unlikely a plant, and 

 as unlikely a place for it to have been introduced by 

 man, either designedly or accidentally, as can well be 

 imagined. From the age of the plants it must have 

 been there at least a dozen years ; indeed, it has been 

 noticed and recognized two years ago by a Scotch 

 farmer in the vicinity, well pleased to place his foot 

 once more on his native Heather. So that even in 

 New England he may say, if he will as a friend of 

 ours botanically renders the lines 



"Calluna vulgaris this night shall be my bed, 

 And Pteris aquilina the curtain round my head." 



37 



