RARE AND NOTABLE PLANTS 



On our way northward, let us as we 

 pass Charles Megargee's mansion, now 

 the home of a popular club, recall a 

 rare oriental spruce recorded by Wil- 

 liam E. Meehan. Impersonality in 

 writing is often its greatest strength, 

 but the credit for a large amount of 

 city history presented by Mr. Meehan 

 I should like to see justly given, for 

 much that has appeared and repeat- 

 edly reappeared belongs to him. The 

 oriental spruce (picea orientalis) 

 once here was considered a remarka- 

 bly fine one, and belonged to the "most 

 northern growing of all the pine tree 

 family." This specimen was brought 

 to Philadelphia "by Engineer George 

 W. Melville on his return from the fa- 

 mous De Long expedition," the speci- 

 men being secured "on an island near 

 the mouth of the Lena river." 



Among our scarce plants is per- 

 simmon (diospyros Virginiana), 

 though why this should be I do not 

 know, for outside our territory, and 

 especially in the neighborhood of the 

 Perkiomen Valley, it is one of the most 

 common of trees. At Stenton; on 

 Abbotsford avenue near James A. 

 Wright's place; in the Wissahickon, 

 near Livezey's Mills;" near Rabbit 



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