40 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 



is so constructed as to retain the seed in it a whole year. Loudon remarks, 

 " When heathy ground has been subjected to the plough, it should never be 

 kept in pasture for many years together unless it is richly manured, for, as the 

 seeds retain their vitality for many years, plants never fail at the end of a few 

 seasons to make their appearance among the grass. In the improvement of 

 heath soils lime is always a principal ingredient, it being found necessary to 

 neutralize the tannin and acid principles which exist in the mould formed by 

 the decay of the heath." 



Now as to the age of the plants. Fifty years ago, say in 1810, there were 

 plants in existence " as large as a bushel basket, or larger ;" the question arises 

 how old were those plants ? Every botanist well knows that the growth of the 

 Heather is very slow. Loudon remarks, " The plant is of slow growth, seldom 

 making shoots longer than three or four inches in one season, even when 

 young; and when of five or six years' growth, not more than half that length ; 

 but it is of great duration." We may safely conclude that the plants, to attain 

 so large a size and to have such tough roots as Mr. Livingston described, are 

 likely to have been in existence for more than a (?ientury, which carries it back 

 to about the year 1700. Beyond this we have no evidence, and can only assert 

 the probability that the plant existing at so early a date in such an unlikely, 

 out-of-the-way place, was indigenous to the locality. 



The town of Tewksbury is five miles south-east of Lowell, and twenty 

 miles north-northwest from Boston. It was formerly a part of Billerica, and 

 was an Indian village called Wamesitt. The town was set oflT from Billerica 

 in 1734. Billerica was settled in 1753 but very sparsely, and its present popu- 

 lation is, we believe, less than two thousand. 



Early in September the writer had the pleasure of accompanying Professor 

 Gray to the locality of the Heather. The ground was carefully examined, and 

 with the exception of the discovery of innumerable young plants, of all ages 

 from one to five years, no new facts were obtained. 



From all the evidence adduced it seems much more probable that this is an 

 original locality of the Heather, and that the plant is indigenous to the United 

 States. In this opinion Professor Gray coincides, after a careful study of the 

 facts. 



May not the Heather have once existed in profusion on this continent, and 

 have gradually died out owing to some inexplicable, perhaps only slight, cli- 

 matic changes ? May not this be the last vestige of one of the last of what 

 was once an American heath ? And if the Heather exists in Nova Scotia and 

 Newfoundland, may we not expect further discoveries of localities intermediate 

 between those countries and the Heather-field in Tewksbury ? 



Every few years botanists are startled by the discovery, in what were con- 

 sidered well gleaned localities, of new or very rare plants ; and we are forced 

 to the conclusion that the botany even of New England and the Canadas is not 

 yet wholly known. 



