41 



great quantity or frequency. It is mentioned in De la Pylaie's cata- 

 logue of Newfoundland plants, and also in De CandoUe's Prodromus, 

 as occurring there. Dr. Gray was told by Dr. Don, some twenty 

 years ago, that a surveyor had brought a specimen from the interior 

 of the island. Loudon gives it as a native of New Brunswick, on un- 

 known authority. This is all the evidence we have to prove the Cal- 

 luna a native of the northern regions of America. 



If we find one single fossil animal in a stratum where its remains 

 must have been deposited at its death, we may take it as a positive 

 proof that animals of that species lived there at the geological epoch 

 during which that stratum was deposited. But one specimen of a plant 

 said to be gathered in a certain region does not equally prove that 

 the plant is indigenous there ; particularly when that region has been 

 for years the dwelling-jjlace of emigrants from the very country where 

 that particular plant does grow luxuriantly in a wild state. At any 

 rate, whatever may have been the origin of the few specimens of 

 which a rather uncertain record exists, it is very certain that the Cal- 

 luna vulgaris is, at present, no known denizen of any part of this con- 

 tinent. Nor can we understand why it should be destroyed, if native, 

 by any special causes, when it thrives so well under disadvantageous 

 circumstances at Tewksbury. If it should be found growing freely 

 and abundantly at Newfoundland, there might be ground for thinking 

 it indigenous, in view of the record made of it by De la Pylaie as a 

 Newfoundland plant ; yet these very regions were long ago settled by 

 French immigrants. We imagine that the state of the country theiie 

 has not changed, since his day, so much as to eradicate from existence 

 a native shrub. Were the Heath a plant growing naturally isolated, 

 we might more readily accord to it an occasional existence in remote 

 localities ; but this is not the case. It is gregarious in habit, robust in 

 growth, and tenacious of life. Until it is found in such places and in 

 such quantity as to prove undoubtedly that it is a native of North 

 America, we must remain somewhat doubtful of the secondhand evi- 

 dence now on record. 



' We therefore incline to the opinion that the Calluna is an intro- 

 duced plant, at least in Tewksbury, for the reasons that it occurs in a 

 very limited area, while every circumstance is favorable to its growth, 

 if native, over the whole face of the northern country ; because it 

 grows luxuriantly in similar situations where it is native ; because, 

 after a known occupancy of this area for many years, it has not ex- 

 tended itself into stirrounding places of a like character; because 

 kindred native plants, growing In precisely the same situations, are 

 profuse throughout the country ; and because it is found near grounds 

 used, from early times, for agricultural purposes. 



