104 



Bastard Calamus. Our Sweet Flag or Flagroot {Acori?s 

 calamus.) The Calamus of "the apothecaries shoppes" 

 seems to have been some foreign drug, saifJ to have come from 

 Syria and Arabia, and called the true aromatic calamus or 

 Reed, or Calamus aromaikus : the pleasant odour of which, is 

 said to scent the air, even from the growing plant. When cut 

 down, dried and powdered, it was employed by the Jews as an 

 ingredient in their richest perfume : see Exodus xxx : 23. Can- 

 ticles iv. 14, &c. &c. Consult Harris' Nahfral History of the 

 Bible, p. 66. etc. Parkinson gives a very good figure of the 

 flagroot and calls it the Acorus vents. Josselyn tells us, that 

 his Calamus aromatinis " agrees with the description but is 

 not barren. They flower in July and grow in wet Places as 

 about the Banks of Ponds." The "barren" condition of 

 flagroot seems to be only in gardens and in a dry soil. 



Wild Leeks. {Allkmi Canadense), which the Indians use 

 much to eat with their Fish. 



A plant, like Knaver''^ Mustard, called New England Mus- 

 tard, It is difficult to explain what this plant may have been. 



Mountain Lillies, bearing many yellow flowers, turning up 

 their Leaves, like the Martagon or Turk's Cap, spotted with 

 small spots as deep as SafiVon. Lilium Canadense. 

 One Berry or True Love. Cornus Canadensis. 

 Tobacco, there is not much of it Planted in New England : 

 {Nicotiana tahacum) the Indians make use of a small kind^ 

 with short round Leaves called Ponke. Nicotiana rustica was 

 used by the Indians, and stray plants from their rude culture is 

 to be met with in " old fields from New York westward," says 

 Prof. Gray. Whether this is the " Pooke" of the Indians or 

 "whether they used Lobelia inflata or some other acrid plant 

 remains in much mystery. This Poke or pooke was an odious 

 article to the English ; and it would have been as well were 

 the Virginian weed in the same estimation. 



Hollow-Leaved Lavender, (^Sarracenia furjpured). The 

 description of this fine plant " proper to the Country" and 

 really worthy of being one of "New England's Rarities Dis- 

 covered," is so unique that I shall transcribe it at length. — 

 There is also a very good figure by which the plant in question 



