296 Scientific Intelligence. 



Sereno Watson, Mr. Walter Deane and the present writer. The 

 plant grows in large patches in a pasture on the south side of the 

 railroad, half a mile from West Townsend. Strong plants of the 

 common variety of the species are found in an area of about two 

 acres of open field, here and there forming compact beds some of 

 which are more than eighty feet in circumference. In the adjoin- 

 ing woods only a single plant was detected, but a more protracted 

 search would probably have brought others to light. The soil 

 where the plants are most thrifty consists of sand mixed with 

 gravel, and contains a fair amount of vegetable mould. The 

 ground has a gentle slope with considerable inequalities, and, in 

 a few places, is sufficiently wet to support a good growth of cran- 

 berries, but the heather is abundant in the drier as well as the 

 moister parts. The plant is thoroughly established, and appears 

 as much a part of the indigenous vegetation as any of the native 

 plants with which it grows. From its proximity to the Tewks- 

 bury and Andover localities, which are perhaps twenty-five or 

 thirty miles in an easterly direction, this station promised to be 

 of special interest as bearing on the indigenous character of the 

 heather found elsewhere in this country. Inquiry reveals the un- 

 welcome fact that the Townsend heather comes from seeds which 

 were sown there not very far from twenty years ago. Mr. 

 Eldridge Saunders, to whom the field belongs, states that certain 

 relatives, on their return from a visit to Europe, brought back 

 sonxe plants of heather. From these plants a quantity of seed 

 was obtained and sown in the pasture above described. The rela- 

 tives do not recollect very distinctly the method of sowing the 

 seeds, but it is remembered that there was some discussion, at the 

 time, as to the best place for planting, and the decision was 

 finally made to try the plants in this wet pasture rather than in 

 the drier soil near the house. The date of sowing cannot be fixed 

 more nearly than by the fact that the journey to Europe was 

 made at some time during the progress of the Franco-Prussian 

 war — that is, after the summer of 1870. The history of this sta- 

 tion for Calluna throws much doubt on the native character of 

 the plants at the other reported localities. It also indicates how 

 readily this plant can be established even in our comparatively 

 dry climate. It would appear to be possible to cultivate heather 

 as a decorative plant on any of our moist sandy slopes, g. l. g. 



9. Insect Life. — A periodical bulletin with the title Insect 

 Life has been commenced at Washington by the Department of 

 Agriculture. It is devoted, as the title page of the first number 

 states (dated July, 1888), to the economy and life-habits of insects 

 especially in their relations to agriculture, and is edited by the En- 

 tomologist and his assistants, with the sanction of the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture. The journal will enable the department 

 to give early publication to the facts and communications that 

 are constantly reaching it from various directions, and render it 

 of greater value to the public. The writer reads in it, with some 

 interest the fact that " the Hessian Fly, Cecidomyia destructor, 



