170 Some Additional Remarks 



this Magazine, for 1849, it is remarked, that this rare plant 

 has been detected " on a space of ground about thirty feet 

 long and twenty wide, on the summit of a hill," which was 

 covered " with it," and this spring, the whole area was 

 whitened with its delicate blossoms." Surprised, as you may 

 imagine, to learn that so remarkable a plant, as is the true 

 Cow-berry, should have been growing so near, and unnoticed 

 hitherto, I was led to repair to the spot indicated, and by so 

 doing, found, what I thought would be very possible, that 

 quite another, and by no means uncommon plant, had been 

 mistaken for it. On casual inspection, there is a resemblance ; 

 and several instances of such a mistake have occurred to my 

 knowledge, since the publication of my communication in 

 the number for July, 1849, of this Magazine. 



I think, Mr. Editor, that you yourself spoke to me of a 

 gentleman, who was, in like manner, assured of a locality 

 well known to him, where the genuine Vaccinium Vitis-Idae^a 

 grew, and of which, under the name of Mountain Cran- 

 berry, he supposed that he could produce specimens to your 

 satisfaction, but which proved to be the common Bear-berry, 

 (Arctosta'phylos UVA-U'Rsr;) the identical plant to which 

 General Dearborn alludes, as growing also in the Forest Hills 

 Cemetery, Roxbury, and which he evidently thought to be 

 the Cow-berry. A friend of mine who is not unfamiliar 

 with the forms of our native plants, was confident that he had 

 seen plenty of Vaccinium Vi^tis-Id^^a, near some town in 

 Middlesex county, which he had visited during the past 

 summer, but which, he afterwards became satisfied, was no 

 other than the Bear-berry. And still another instance, of 

 friends, who, 1 think, must have mistaken the common Cran- 

 berry (Vacci'nium macroca'rpon Ait.,) which, growing as it 

 sometimes does, by the sides of roads on the banks of ditches 

 that are nearly dry in summer, was supposed to be the plant 

 under consideration. 



It must be understood then, that it is the Arctosta'phylos, 

 UVa-U'rsi, or Bear-berry, that is the plant alluded to, in 

 General Dearborn's article, of which I have spoken, and may 

 be seen in great luxuriance on the spot, which he has indi- 



