BOTAKY, conchology, and geology. 37 



gives a true richness to the commons of Nantucket, 

 changing their aspect from the barren plains of a half- 

 century ago to a verdure whose beauty cannot be sur- 

 passed. 



In most parts of the Northern United States we can 

 gather the violet, the houstonia, the cinquefoil, the 

 stellaria, etc., at random, in their season ; but it is a 

 very rare thing to find so broad an expanse of unen- 

 closed space covered entirely with their exquisite 

 shades, as is sometimes the case at Nantucket. These, 

 passing away, are quickly followed by others in turn ; 

 so that the whole island, from May to October, is as a 

 garden in full bloom This is the general appearance 

 that meets the stranger's eye. With a little more 

 scrutiny he will find the gerardia, the arethusa, the 

 cymbidium, the sabbalia, and a host of others too nu- 

 merous to be mentioned, ranging in size from the wild 

 azalea to the scarlet pimpernel. 



A short time after the laws were passed by which 

 sheep were no longer allowed the scope of the undi- 

 vided lands, followed the introduction of the pine- 

 trees. Whether by their shelter, whether by the new 

 properties that the roots of these trees may have en- 

 gendered in the soil, whether by other seeds accident- 

 ally mingled and sown with their own, or whether 

 from some unknown causes it is that varieties of 

 plants new to our island have appeared in the near 

 neighborhood of these pines, remains to be discov- 

 ered. Certain it is, that now and then a species which 

 may be quite common to other parts of Massachusetts, 

 and quite familiar to our florists of the present day, 

 is not recorded by our earlier botanists as native to the 

 island. 



