CALLUNA VULGARIS, A NATIVE. 33 



home, and plantations of them constitute the " American Plants" which make 

 80 marked a feature in English landscape gardening. 



While possessing, however, these many species, we have ever yielded to 

 Europe the claim of alone possessing the Heather (Calluna vulgaris), or, as 

 improperly called, "the Heath," (Erica vulgaris.) 



It is scarcely to be wondered that our botanists doubted the assertion that it 

 had been found wild in Massachusetts, nor are the many, who still remain 

 incredulous, not having examined the locality, heard the evidence, or seen the 

 proofs, to be accused of obstinacy, for the assertion that the Heather is indig- 

 enous bears high improbability upon its face. The question at once arises, 

 why has not the discovery been made before? how could it have, till now, 

 escaped the notice of our botanists, if existing in a region wliich is known to 

 have been a field well gleaned by Greene, and where he discovered many 

 rare and beautiful plants. 



If we examine the botanical researches of collectors upon the North Ameri- 

 can Continent, and consult the writings of botanists for the last century, with 

 two exceptions, we find no mention of the plant in question, as existing in 

 North America. 



The Flora Boreali Americana of the elder Michaux, published in Paris, 

 A. D. 1803, makes no mention of the plant. 



It is incidentally mentioned in the Index of the Flora Boreali Americana, 

 published in London, A. D. 1840, by Sir William I. Hooker, a work of great 

 research and authority, and which goes over the ground where the plant was 

 said to have been found, by the only writer asserting its existence. 



Had it existed in Massachusetts it should have found a place in Emerson's 

 Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts, a work treating most fully of the 

 plants indigenous to our State, published about the year 1846. And it 

 should also be mentioned in Bigelow's Plants of Boston, long our faverite 

 Botany. 



The only writer, except Hooker, who gives an American habitat, is Loudon, 

 in the Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, Vol. II., p. 1085, as follows : — 



" The common Heath abounds in almost every part of Europe, more 

 especially in the northern countries. It is found in Iceland, Greenland, and 

 Kamtschatka, and in JVbva Scotia and JVew/oundland. [The italics are our 

 own.] In Britain it flourishes best in the upland and moorland zones ; but it 

 descends to the sea level in the south of England. In the north, and on the 

 Grampian Mountains, it grows at the height of three thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. In deciduous copse woods it commonly gives place to 

 Vaccineum myrtillus, but in open pine groves it maintains its ground. It 

 covers extensive tracts in France and Germany, and it is common in all tem- 

 perate parts of the Russian Empire, and probably also in Siberian Russia." 



So much for the assertion ; no authority is given, nor is any reference made 

 to any botanist's opinion or researches, through the whole article, covering 

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