THE HEATHER IN AMERICA. 



for Newfoundland plants in the 'Flora Boreali-Ameri- 

 cana.' This gentleman was a merchant in Newfound- 

 land, to which he made several voyages." 



We should recollect that the Calluna advances to 

 the extreme western limits (or out-liers) of Europe, 

 in Iceland, Ireland and the Azores. The step thence 

 to Newfoundland and Massachusetts, though wide, is 

 not an incredible one. 



Without doubt these are the very specimens re- 

 ferred to by Mr. Don, then curator of the Linnaean 

 Society. And now that the stations where they were 

 collected are made known, we may expect that the 

 plant will soon be rediscovered and its indigenous char- 

 acter ascertained. 



We notice that an earlier announcement of Dr. 

 Watson's discovery is contained in Dr. Seemann's 

 Journal of Botany for February last, where the record 

 of Gisecke's discovery of Calluna in Greenland is re- 

 ferred to. In view of this, and of its common oc- 

 currence in Ireland, Iceland and the Azores, Dr. See- 

 mann opines that "its extension to Newfoundland and 

 the American continent is, therefore, not so much a 

 paradox as a fact at which we might almost have 

 arrived by induction." It seems to us that the induc- 

 tion was all the other way until the plant was actu- 

 ally discovered on American soil. 



In Vol. 38, p. 428, 1864, of Silliman's Journal 

 occurs the following: 



The Newfoundland habitat of Calluna having been 

 confirmed (vide this journal, 38-123), we have now 

 pleasure to announce that Professor Lawson late of 

 King's College, Kingston, now of Dalhousie College, 



41 



