78 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



substitute a native shrub, Labrador Tea, an inhabitant of the meadows 

 and swamps. The patriotic ladies of Worcester concurred in the 

 resolutions of the women of Boston. But there were royalist women 

 in Worcester who loved both their tea and their king, who had influ- 

 ence to cause these resolutions to be set aside. Lincoln's History of 

 Worcester gives the cause assigned for this action. 



Another of the native plants which dates its name from that time 

 is the New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus Americanus, L., its name implying 

 its use. This, unlike the Labrador Tea, is quite abundant in our 

 neighborhood. It does not belong, however, to the Ericacese. The 

 water andromeda, Andromeda jjoUfoUa, L., is kindred in interest 

 with the Ledum. Andromeda is a famous name in classic poetry, in 

 art, in astronomy, as well as in botany. Her name may not just now 

 be on as many tongues as Trilby's, but it will probably survive longer. 



The classic story of the beautiful maiden, Andromeda, chained to a 

 rock on the seashore to await the coming of the dreaded sea-monster 

 which will devour her, that so the sin of her mother may be expiated, 

 is as well known to the student of English literature as to the student 

 of Greek and Latin. There is no finer specimen of hexameters in 

 English poetry than Charles Kingsley's poem, Andromeda, or any 

 more interesting tale in Morris' Earthly Paradise than the " Doom of 

 King Acrisius," which contains the same story. But Andromeda was 

 rescued from this hard fate by Perseus, returning from his quest for 

 the head of the Gorgon, and he claimed her for his bride. The 

 astronomers transferred their names with those of her father and 

 mother, to groups of stars near each other in the northern sky. There, 

 whoever will look up on a clear night may see Andromeda spreading 

 her long white arms in the height of the oether, and near her are 

 Cepheus, her father, and Cassiopeia, sitting in her ivory chair as she 

 plaits ambrosial tresses. Linnaeus tells us that, as he contemplated 

 this lovely plant in the swamps of Lapland, the poetic legend filled 

 his mind and made the name seem most applicable. I have made 

 search and inquiry in all parts of the county, but Westborough is 

 the only town as yet where I have succeeded in locating it, and that 

 only last October. 



Before that time its nearest habitat known to me was Whitehall 

 Pond in Hopkinton, which is just outside the line of our county. It 

 is one of the native shrubs which is well wortliy of cultivation, for its 

 intrinsic beauty both of flower and foliage. Who knows in wliat 

 grateful way it might repay the labor devoted to it? 



Linnaeus raised to Peter Kalm, one of his favorite pupils, a monu- 



