July 11, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



33 



in November, 1918, to find the plant if pos- 

 sible, but after two days' search be was unable 

 to locate it. 



The situation had become acute, for a firm 

 of nurserymen had taken away a truck load of 

 plants from the Pennsylvania locality in 1918, 

 and the doom of the species in a wild state ap- 

 peared to be sealed unless we could find 

 another plant, for the Pennsylvania plant was 

 the only one actually known. Therefore when 

 Mr. E. T. Wherry, the chemist, offered to make 

 a further search for the Delaware area I gladly 

 assented. To his acute insight into the soil 

 habits of rare and fastidious plants he added 

 further information that he found in Phila- 

 delphia regarding the location of the old 

 Canby station, and after three days' syste- 

 matic search, in early March of the present 

 year, he found it. 



From. Mr. Wherry's report of his rediscov- 

 ery the following paragraph is drawn: 



This colony of the box huckleberry is situ- 

 ated on a northwest sloping bank about eight 

 feet high. It covers an area but twenty feet 

 square, the plant forming a practically pure 

 stand in the center but thinning out rapidly 

 in all directions. !N"o seedlings could be found, 

 all the stems apparently being connected with 

 one another by running rootstocks so that 

 really only a single plant is represented. A 

 few stems extend into the wet, peaty material 

 bordering the marsh but most of the colony 

 is growing in dry, sandy upland peat made up 

 of leaves of pine, oak and laurel, on the steep 

 slope. The plants immediately associated, as 

 far as could be determined at the time of the 

 visit, are: 

 Trees : 



Pond pine (Pinus serotina), 



Bed cedar (Juniperus virginiana) , 



Red oak (Quercus maxima), 



Holly {Ilex opaca). 

 Shrubs : 



Inkberry {Ilex glabra), 



Laurel {Kalmia latifolia), 



Sweetbells {Eubotrys racemosa). 

 Vine: 



Greenbrier {Smilax rotundifolia) . 



Only five localities, widely distant, have been 

 recorded for this plant and its existence in only 



two of these at the present time has actually 

 been confirmed. The question why the species 

 has become so nearly extinct has not yet been 

 answered and perhaps never will be answered 

 conclusively. I wish to call attention, how- 

 ever, to the probability that if these two north- 

 eastern patches consist of a single plant each, 

 as it appears they do, it is likely that they 

 were originally chance seedlings from seeds 

 carried by birds beyond the original main 

 range of the species. For if these patches 

 were remnants of a former widespread con- 

 tinuous range, and climatic changes had de- 

 stroyed the species over the rest of its range, 

 each of these remnants would almost certainly 

 have consisted of more than a single plant. I 

 am impressed also by the possibility that a 

 plant in process of extinction may have been 

 killed over most of its original range by some 

 particularly destructive fungus or insect, and 

 that the reason of the preservation of healthy 

 remnants may be that they were beyond the 

 range of the destructive enemy. Possibly, too, 

 the remnants were immune to the destroying 

 agent. The present ravages of the chestnut 

 blight {Endothia parasitica) give an idea of 

 what may have happened to thousands of plant 

 species now extinct or known only from dis- 

 tant remnants. 



However, the box huckleberry is not extinct, 

 and we are hoping for its rejuvenation through 

 vigorous seedlings. In order that my col- 

 leagues may share in the excitement I may 

 add that portions of the Pennsylvania and 

 Delaware plants have been brought together at 

 Washington, cross pollinations have been 

 made, and fruit has set but is not yet ripe. 

 : I trust I shall be pardoned if I add to this 

 article an unessential postcript, the excuse for 

 which is more biographical than biological. 

 In April, 1846, Asa Gray, the most distin- 

 guished of American botanists, writing to his 

 colleague, John Torrey, said: 



A Mr. Baird, of Carlisle, Pa., called on me yes- 

 terday, evidently a most keen naturalist (ornithol- 

 ogy principally), but a man of more than com- 

 mon grasp. He talked about an evergreen-leated 

 Vaccindum, which I have no doubt is V. brachy- 

 cerum, Mx., that I have so long sought in vain.! 



