136 CALYPSO BOREALIS. CALYPSO. 



crested, she being a beautiful nymph, according- to ancient story, 

 and the Goddess of Silence. It is related of Ulysses that he was 

 for twenty years a wanderer over the earth. He was wrecked 

 on an island called Ogygia ; and here in this strange, silent place, 

 the exact locality of which, as the poet intended, is not even now 

 known, he found the beautiful Calypso. The story of Ulysses' 

 departure from the charms of the goddess, in spite of all her 

 alluring entreaties to remain, is a very attractive one; and might 

 be regarded as something more than a mere fable when a cool- 

 headed modern botanist, under the guise of verse, tells us he 

 tarried long under the forest trees In the hope of finding merely 

 the damsel's shoe ! 



As to locality. It was at one time thought to be very rare In the 

 United States. When Dr. Torrey wrote the " Natural History 

 of the State of New York," only three localities were known, — 

 one in Jefferson and one in Lewis counties, of that State, and the 

 other in Vermont; but since that time Parry, Hall, Brandegee and 

 others have found It not uncommon in damp woods in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and it is likely to be found much more common as we 

 travel northwest, which is in the direction of its central home. 

 It is not always confined to low damp places. A writer In the 

 Gardeners Monthly, for 1869, finds it near Ottawa, In Canada, 

 " In a slight depression on the top of a limestone ridge, the high- 

 est ground in the vicinity, sparsely covered with white pine. The 

 plants were growing m turnovers, as they are commonly called 

 in Canada, that is, In the holes caused by the tearing up of the 

 roots and super-incumbent earth when forest trees are up-rooted 

 by the storms. The leaves of the pines having collected in these 

 holes, and decayed there, have formed a rich vegetable mould, 

 covering to the depth of five or six inches the broken fragments 

 of limestone left In the hole." This little sketch Is very interest- 

 ing as showing the nice condldons under which the seeds may 

 occasionally grow, for it is reasonable to suppose that under the 

 circumstances related, they originated there from seed. 



