THE HEATHER IN AMERICA. 



location was above the snow levels, and the plants 

 were beautifully in flower at the time. A sprig in 

 the possession of Mr. Bain confirms this little story. 



The latest deductions from a scientific standpoint 

 regarding the indigenous character, or otherwise, of 

 the Heather in the United States, appears in the March, 

 1900, issue of Rhodora, the journal of the New Eng- 

 land Botanical Club, from the pen of Mr. William 

 Penn Rich, now Secretary of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society at Boston, Mass. Mr. Rich writes : 



"On the twenty-fourth of September, 1899, the 

 writer, happening to be in Tewksbury, Mass., visited 

 the location of the Heather (Calluna vulgaris, Salisb.), 

 and it may be desirable to put on record the present 

 condition of this interesting plant as well as some 

 observations on the vexed question of its origin. 



"Contrary to our usual experience in such matters, 

 no difficulty was met with in finding the place where 

 it grew, so well was the plant known in the town. 



"It grows upon a hillside pasture sloping grad- 

 ually down to boggy ground through which a deep 

 channel has been cut by a brook. In the higher part 

 of this pasture a few scattered patches of the plant 

 were noticed, possibly transplanted from the main 

 body of the Heather, and from their feeble appearance 

 seemingly doomed to early extinction. The principal 

 growth was in the lower part of the pasture, on the 

 borders of the brook, where the plants were growing 

 quite thickly in a space about thirty feet square, which 

 was inclosed by a wire fence. At the time of our visit 

 a cow was standing in the midst of the precious shrubs, 

 an invasion not likely to be soon repeated, for visit- 



45 



