100 Notice of some Plants of Lynnfield, Daiivers, 



matrons, who, skilled in the plainer pharmacopcEia of the 

 herb and simples, employed its soothing jnices in allaying 

 burns, and in mitigating the acrid humors of ulcers. It was 

 a pleasing memento of those ruder days, when the kitchen 

 garden was the unfailing source of all manner of healing 

 plants fit for the curing of the ails of the body ; aye, and of 

 the mind and the heart too, forsooth ; for accidents and in- 

 juries beyond the skill of the village leech. Now, whether 

 its magic virtues in its humble sphere, have been superseded 

 by some other plant of more foreign growth, or have ceased 

 altogether, doth not appear to me a clear and precise point ; 

 suffice it, it has almost become to be among the things 

 which were. 



The extreme dryness of the season was soon perceived, as 

 we struck into the woods, or ranged among the high rocks, 

 or skii'ted beneath the impending cliffs, the noted resort of 

 the much dreaded rattlesnake, {Crotalus durissus Kalm,) 

 whose presence was not discovered by any of us, notwith- 

 standing our intrusion, under a sun of noontide splendor, and 

 when its reptile vigor might be supposed to be the most ac- 

 tive. The herborizing among the phanogamous plants was, 

 as might be supposed, a precarious occupation ; and it was 

 only by seeking the low, swampy spots, or else the margins 

 of the ditches and streams, that we could meet with the 

 usual flowers of the season. Nothing of particular interest 

 was observed in this line of research ; and, with the solitary 

 exception of a small sphagnous spot, which produced a few 

 beautiful species, we were obliged to content ourselves with 

 the common shrubs, which were passing out of bloom, and 

 with scanning the surfaces and sides of the rocks, on which 

 the hardier forms of vegetable life were to be found, defying 

 by their peculiar habits, the solstitial heats and the winter's 

 cold alike. It was in such a little sunken spot, where usu- 

 ally it would have been impracticable to have walked dry- 

 shod, that the Dro'sera longifolia (long-leaved Sun-dew,) 

 was growing in abundance : its spatulate foliage sparkling 

 in the light, with its viscous secretion exuding from the 

 many glands which invested it, and contrasting splendidly 



