1886. ] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 327 
height, and I was assured that it grew much higher. In a salt 
marsh near by there was a patch of half an acre covered with this 
hardly seeming to belong to the fresh over-topping leaves. 
is grass, as is well known, becomes very fragrant when 
dried, whence its name, Vanilla Grass. Bigelow says, “ This is 
one of our earliest grasses and is distinguished by the delightfully 
fragrant odor while drying.” In Germany, on festival days, it is 
strewn before the doors of churches on account of its fragrance 
and is called, as the generic name implies, Holy Grass. These 
radical leaves are used very largely by the Penobscot Indians in 
the manufacture of their baskets, ete. Sabbatis Dana is one of 
the remnant of the Penobscot tribe, from 400 to 500 in number, 
who live at Old Town Island, Me., on the Penobscot river. In 
the summer time large numbers of them visit the various fash- 
ionable resorts and ply their profitable trade. Sabbatis has been 
at Rye Beach for twenty-six consecutive summers. The Hiero- 
chloa borealis is known among the Indians as Sweet Grass. 
There is no Indian name for it, even those Indians who know no 
other English using this name. They pick it in large quantities 
and hang it up in small bunches from the ridgepole of their tents 
to dry, the fragrance being much stronger if dried away from the 
sun. In this way, I was told, that the scent would last for years. 
The leaves, in drying, become strongly involute, making a fine 
pliable thread, very different in appearance and color from the 
positively assured that it never flowered at all, 
statement being obvious. For whe 
ers have long gone by. I 
looking wisely at 
Sweet Grass.” es, but they 
did not belong to the grass, and he refused to be convinced until 
I produced a specimen with the old culm and fresh radical leaves 
risino from the same root-stock. Then he was much surprised 
Of course, in pulling up the leaves as they do, 
stock remains attached. The Indians 
the base of each tuft, in the fres. 
and interested. 
but little, ifany, of the root- 
know the grass by experience, 
