﻿LIVING PLANTS 



roads. To be more specific, it appears to 



have first been seen in Cambridge, Mass., 



First appear- about 1863, and about fifteen or twenty 



ance in years later to have appeared in several of the 



America larger cities along the great lakes and the 



Mississippi river. It is probable that the fact 



that these cities are upon water-v^ays had 



little to do with the matter, but being great 



railway centers must have been an important 



factor. 



The earliest record in American literature is 

 in the edition of Gray's Manual of Botany 

 issued in the year 1867, where the plant is 

 said to occur in waste ground and along road- 

 sides in Cambridge, Mass. In the editions of 

 1866 and earlier it is not mentioned. It was, 

 however, to be found in Cambridge at least 

 four years earlier than the published record, 

 as specimens exist in the Gray Herbarium of 

 Harvard University, collected by Mr. D. Mur- 

 ray, in both 1863 and 1864. It was found 

 upon ballast ground near New York City in 

 1879, but not seen in previous years. The 

 ballast grounds of Philadelphia, which have 

 received much attention from local botanists, 

 do not appear to have yielded a specimen of 

 the plant until 1883. Along the Atlantic sea- 

 board the plant is still comparatively uncom- 

 mon, and does not become an abundant weed 



