275 



Definite and systematic lierborization in eighteen towns in 

 Essex and several in Middlesex have wholly failed to procure 

 me a specimen of this plant, thoiigli I have often examined 

 the most favorable spots. I will not say that it is not on 

 Marblehead Neck, as I have never sought it there at the 

 proper season : but I cannot learn that any one knovrs of it 

 being tliere. Yet in May, as I have said, tliere is no spot of 

 unimproved land at Nahant that is not full of it. It nestles 

 among the short pasture-grass, it creeps among tlie loose 

 stones above higli water on tlie beaches, it hangs in fringes 

 over the brows of the iron-! toking ledges. Its pure white 

 flowers, little smaller than a dime, meet the eye cverywdiere ; 

 and, its herbage lacing almost invisible, one half believes that 

 the grass has grown frolicsome, and laid off its old green 

 plumes for fresh posies to salute the Spring. 



It is not my purpose to go into the discussion of the cause 

 of such a thing as this, or any other mentioned in this paper. 

 I am alluding to them as peculiar traits in tlie Flora of Na- 

 hant, which go to show something of a distinct, and therefore, 

 an insular character in her productions. 



The Short Beach, connecting the two islands which arc 

 collectively known as Nahant, being formed with a greater 

 share of upland than the other beach, and also abundantly 

 supplied with decaying sea-weeds, has a soil, probably not 

 without peculiar properties. In this the Henbane (^Hyoscy- 

 amus niger') has flourished for an unknown time. It seems 

 to be gradually losing its luxuriance, and may before long 

 disappear, either temporarily or finally. But it is a some- 

 what curious circumstance that this plant, which commonly 

 confines itself to old grounds and the neighborhood of spots 

 long inhabited, should here fix itself upon a place where no 

 house or work of men is known to have preceded it and occu- 

 py it so persistently for years together. 



This favorable character of the Short Beach, as to soil, 

 has made it the home of several other somewhat uncommon 

 plants. 



The Annual Wild Bean, (^Phaseolus diver sifolius), is now 

 and then met with, along this beach, betraying its true affini- 

 ties by its leaves and pods, though it seems to twine but lit- 

 tle. It seems to be admitted that Massachusetts is the 

 extreme eastern station of this plant ; and if it is so, Nahant 

 must be near its outer margin, as Cape Ann is to that of the 

 Magnolias. I have heard that this Wild Bean, however, is 



