176 LAWSOX NOTES OX SOME NOVA SCOTIAN PLANTS. 



■when he returned he told me that they had all perished, and he did not 

 know where to find any more. Being firmly persuaded that the plant, if 

 existing at all, must be a Rhododendron (as I remarked to you some 

 years ago), I continued making enquiries of both Indians and white set- 

 tlers without success, until the last day of May, 1875. 



In September, 1874, I was in the woods with two Indians (father 

 and son), and one day, lamenting the disappearance of the "green bushes " 

 (the father had been previously looking for the plant at my request), the 

 son told the father, who interpreted to me, that he knew where a few of 

 the- plants still grew. I bargained with them to go and get me some, and, 

 if they found them to give them to Mr. D. W. Archibald, Sheet Harbor, 

 who would forward them to me. It being possible that they might for- 

 get, I wrote to Mr Archibald, who saw that they went ; and, shortly after, 

 he informed me that fire had been through the small peaty place where 

 the boy had seen the plants, and there were none left. Hoping against 

 hope, that there might be some shoots from the burnt wood, I wrote to 

 Mr. Archibald in the latter part of May, 1875. He being absent, my 

 letter was handed to Mr. J. H. Balcom, who sent the Indians seeking 

 again ; and on the last day of May they handed him one small plant, which 

 was all they could find, " and they searched carefully;" it reached me in 

 June, on the day upon which you left for England, and, before taking it 

 home, I asked Mr. Jack, as well as Mr. Barron, to come and see it. 

 The latter gentleman told me he had been looking for it a long time, 

 without success, — more than seventeen years. 



In the autumn — I think about the last of October — Mr. Falconer, with 

 whom I was talking of the plant, told me that the late Colonel Chearnley 

 had given the Horticultural Society's Garden one about ten years ago ; 

 but Mr. Falconer's impression was that it had not sufficient roots, and 

 was never planted ; and, also, that Colonel Chearnley did not then know 

 the name of the plant, but he (Mr. F.) knew it to be Rhododendron max- 

 imum, from specimens of the same plant which he had in his garden, 

 imported from the United States. 



The plant has been known to the Indians and to many of the settlers 

 for a long period, as " Green Bushes," and is not therefore newly discov- 

 ered, or discovered by me ; and Mr. Archibald, who identified the plant 

 at my house, tried to cultivate it some years ago as " Green Bushes," 

 but without success ; he had also expressed the opinion to me some time 

 previously that it had died out. All that I have to do with it may be 

 summed up in few words. I sought for it from September 1864, to May 

 1875, without knowing that it had been seen by the late Colonel Chearnley 

 or recognized by Mr. Falconer, or by any one else, but knowing from 

 you that it has not been scientifically recognized and recorded, and that 

 you, as well as others, doubted its existence, I fortunately have been 

 able to set the matter at rest by showing you the living plant. 

 I am, my dear Dr. Lawson, 

 Yours truly, 



Robt. Morrow. 



