120 FIELD AND FOREST. 



One who has never visited Martha's Vineyard would imagine from 

 the name that its vegetation must be very rich and varied, one who has 

 visited the island and roamed over its barren coasts would come to the 

 conclusion that its name must have been bestowed on the lucus a non 

 lucendo principle, because there are no vineyards there. 



And yet there was a period, if we may credit the ancient historians, 

 when the aspect of these islands was very different. Bartholomew 

 Gosnold and his fellow voyagers, who discovered and landed upon 

 them in the year 1602, speak rapturously of their fertility. At that 

 time the islands were covered, to the water's edge, with a thick growth 

 of timber trees, among which are mentioned the oak, ash, beech, walnut, 

 cedar and cherry. Archer the principal historian of Gosnold's enter- 

 prise, enumerates as among the smaller growths, "rubbish" he calls 

 them, "hawthorne, eglantine, * honeysuckle, gooseberry bushes, vines, 

 whortleberries, raspberries, sassafras, groundnuts, alexander, survey, 

 tansy &c, without count.'" 



Brereton, another member of the ship's company, who also wrote an 

 account of the voyage, is greatly attracted by the "strawberries, red 

 and white, as sweet and much bigger than ours in England." They 

 formed, he says, "such an incredible store of vines, as well in the woody 

 part of the island as on the outward parts, that we could not go for 

 treading upon them in comparison whereof the most fertile part of 

 England is (of itself) but barren." 



These narratives show plainly enough how one half of the name of 

 Martha's Vineyard originated, though no one has ever yet ascertained 

 who the lady was in whose honor the old sailor conferred the other 

 half. 



The noble forests that greeted the eyes of the early navigators have 

 fallen a victim to the cupidity of later settlers, and large tracts of sand 

 and bare uplands now occupy the greater part of the land. The for- 

 mer woods are represented by a few, scanty pines and oaks on some 

 of the low hills and sand bluffs, except at the western extremity of 

 the Vineyard where a little more of the ancient fertility remains. 



* The mention of Eglantine (Rosa rubiginosa, which has been called Eglantine 

 by the English from time immemorial) as being in New England 275 years 

 ago, naturaly suggests the inquiry how Dr. Gray, who marks this plant in his Man- 

 ual as '-JVa t. from Ea." determines whether a particular species is native or intro- 

 duced. 



