Census of Cultivated Indigenous Plants. 



217 



country, from the. time of Linnaeus until near the middle of 

 this century. Drummond, Fraser, Douglas and their cotem- 

 poraries were particularly assiduous in acquainting the gar- 

 dens of Europe with American plants. Long cultivation has 

 greatly modified many of these early introductions, so that 

 even in European botanic gardens American plants often as- 

 sume forms strange to one who has known them only in a wild 

 state. Even at Kew, as Director W. T. Thiselton Dyer 

 writes me, "the American species are mostly represented by 

 cultivated forms and the feral types are wanted." I have en- 

 deavored in the following catalogue to record the date of in- 

 troduction or of the first record of our plants in England. It 

 will be noticed that very few of the dates are recent. On 

 the other hand, if dates could be obtained of the independent 

 introduction of native plants to cultivation in America very 

 few of them would be found to be old. 



There appears to have been a distinct movement in the sev- 

 enties towards the introduction of native plants. Several per- 

 sons, mostly independently of each other, began then to collect 

 and offer roots for sale. This appears to have been the first 

 movement of the kind. Thomas Meehan, who has spent a 

 long and busy life in the study of our native flora, both as 

 nurseryman and botanist, writes me the following reminis- 

 cence : "I think that there was no effort to cultivate our na- 

 tive plants until in comparatively recent years. When I came 

 to Philadelphia, in 1847, the introductions to our gardens were 

 wholly from Europe. It was rare to find even an American 

 tree, to say nothing of herbaceous plants. Even the culti- 

 vated varieties of our native plants, such as phloxes, pent- 

 stemons and rhododendrons, came from Europe. In 1847 

 Mr. Buist told me that he had attempted to introduce our na- 

 tive herbaceous plants, but found the prejudice against them 

 too strong. He was fond of telling an anecdote in connection 

 with Dodecatheon Meadia, which he had introduced from 

 Ohio, then 6 the far west.' To an admiring lady who had pur- 

 chased but had not paid for a plant, he happened to remark 

 that it was one of the most beautiful of our wild-flowers. 

 6 Is it a wild thing?' she asked; ' then I don't want it.' 

 He gave us younger fellows this bit from experience to 

 teach alike the folly of saying more than is necessary in a 



