300 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



we did not walk more than a mile and a half on it, when I 

 perceived by the increasing light among the trees that we 

 were approaching a large opening. 



We now pressed eagerly on, and found that we had reach- 

 ed the borders of the Brule, which was not a clearing, as I 

 had expected, but was covered with a stunted and ragged 

 growth of moss-grown spruce, from eight to twelve feet in 

 height, exactly resembling the small woods of Newfound- 

 land, on the borders of the large marshes. I found also the 

 same plants that inhabit such situations in that country, 

 and which I now saw for the first time in Canada. The 

 ground was covered with the same spongy moss, with shrubs 

 of Indian Tea (Ledum Latifolium), Sheep Laurel (Kalmia 

 Angustifolia), Swamp Laurel (Kalmia Glauca), and other 

 Newfoundland plants. The last two are there called Gould ; 

 they bear bunches of pretty little pink flowers, nearly circu- 

 lar, the stamens radiating very regularly, and their anthers 

 forming a circle within the edge of the corolla : the first, 

 whose leaves, bent downwards at the edge, are thickly clothed 

 on the under surface with a close yellow fur, is often infused 

 and drunk as tea : the infusion is bitter, but is relished by 

 many. I also recognised numbers of another old acquaint- 

 ance, an exceedingly curious plant, the Indian Cup, or Pitcher 

 Plant (Sarracenia Purpurea) : the leaves of this plant 

 have their edges united together, each one forming a deep 

 and capacious cup, always filled with water, not, I think, 

 collected rain, as is generally supposed, but distilled from 

 the marsh, through the pores of the plant : minute flies 

 and other insects are often found drowned in these natural 

 reservoirs. The leaves are sometimes green, but more com- 

 monly dark red, always with the nerves ramified in an infi- 

 nite number of red veins over the surface ; their bases are 

 crimson, each one partly sheathing the next, but this part is 

 usually concealed among the moss. From the bed of leaves 



