1128 (for, says he, of the “divers sorts of ferne ... there be two
sorts, according to the old writers,—the male and the female; and
these be properly called ferne: the others have their proper names”),
is the collective designation of four species of _Aspidium_; of
which all, according to Pursh, and certainly three, are natives of
both continents,—_AA. cristatum_, _Filix mas_, _Filix fæmina_, and
_aculeatum_, Willd. “_Filix fæmina_ (female ferne, or brakes,)” of
Gerard, _l. c._ is _Pteris aquilina_, L.; also common to us and
Europe. The other _Filices_ mentioned by our author are _Ophioglossum
vulgatum_, L. (p. 42); and _Adiantum pedatum_, L. (p. 55).
[154] _Oxalis corniculata_, L. (Gerard, em., p. 1202), common to
Europe and America.
[155] _Ulmus_, L. There are no species common to America and Europe.
[156] See the Voyages, p. 69, where the author has it “the line-tree,
with long nuts: the other kind I could never find.” The former was
_Tilia Americana_, L.,—a species peculiar to America.
[157] See p. 48; and Voyages, p. 69. None of our species are found in
Europe.
[158] The plant intended is doubtless the same with that spoken
of in the Voyages, p. 80.—“_Rosa solis_, sundew, moor-grass. This
plant I have seen more of than ever I saw in my whole life before in
England,” &c. Both our common New-England species of _Drosera_ are
also natives of Europe.
[159] “Differing much from those in England. One sort of them bears
a most beautiful flower” (p. 56, where it is rightly placed among
plants “proper to the country”). The author refers here, doubtless,
to _Apios tuberosa_, Moench. (ground-nut of New England), which was
raised at Paris, from American seeds, by Vespasian Robin, and figured
from his specimens by Cornuti (Canad., p. 200) in 1635; but it was
celebrated, ten years earlier, in “Nova Anglia,”—a curious poem by
the Rev. William Morrell, who came over with Capt. Robert Gorges in
1623, and spent about a year at Weymouth and Plymouth, publishing his
book in 1625 (repr. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 125, &c.),—as follows:—
“Vimine gramineo nux subterranea suavis
Serpit humi, tenui flavo sub cortice, pingui
Et placido nucleo nivei candoris ab intra,
Melliflua parcos hilarans dulcedine gustus,
Donec in æstivum Phœbus conscenderit axem.
His nucleis laute versutus vescitur Indus:
His exempta fames segnis nostratibus omnis
Dulcibus his vires revocantur victibus almæ.”
[160] See p. 52 and Voyages (pp. 70, 81) for other notices of
_Fungi_; and Voyages, p. 81, for the only mention of _Algæ_.
[161] Female pimpernell (Gerard, em., p. 617),—_Anagallis arvensis_,
γ, Sm.; _A. cærulea_, Schreb.,—but scarcely differing, except in
color, from the scarlet pimpernel, which has long (“in clayey
ground,”—_Cutler_, _l. c._, 1785) been an inhabitant of the coasts of
Massachusetts Bay, though doubtless introduced.
[162] _Hepatica triloba_, Chaix. (_Anemone hepatica_, L.),
common to Europe and America; occurring occasionally with white
flowers.—_Gerard_, em., p. 1203.
[163] _Rubus_, L. The red raspberry of this country is hardly other
than an American variety of the European (_R. Idæus_, var. strigosus,
caule petiolis pedunculis calyceque aculeato-hispidissimis, Enum.
Pl. Agri Cantab, 1843, Ms.); upon which see Gray (Man., p. 121; and
Statistics, &c., _l. c._, p. 81). _R. triflorus_, Richards., is also
very near to, and was once considered the same as, the European
_R. saxatilis_, L. The rest of our New-England raspberries and
blackberries appear to be specifically distinct from those of Europe.
The cloud-berry, mentioned at p. 60, is there set down among plants
proper to the country; and may therefore not be the true cloud-berry
(Gerard, p. 1273), or _Rubus chamæmorus_, L., which is common to both
continents.
[164] The New-England gooseberries are peculiar to this country. The
author no doubt intends _Ribes hirtellum_, Michx. (Gray, Man., p.
137); as see further his Voyages, p. 72.
[165] _Cratægus_, L. But the species are peculiar to this country, as
Josselyn implies with respect to the haws which he notices. These,
no doubt, included _C. tomentosa_, L., Gray; and perhaps, also, _C.
coccinea_, L. Wood says, “The white thorn affords hawes as big as an
English cherry; which is esteemed above a cherry for his goodness
and pleasantness to the taste.”—_New-England’s Prospect_, chap. v.
At page 72 of his Voyages, the author mentions “a small shrub, which
is very common; growing sometimes to the height of elder; bearing
a berry like in shape to the fruit of the white thorn; of a pale,
yellow colour at first, then red (when it is ripe, of a deep purple);
of a delicate, aromatical tast, but somewhat stiptick,”—which may be
_Pyrus arbutifolia_, L. Higginson (New-England’s Plantation, _l. c._,
p. 119) speaks of our haws almost as highly as Wood.
[166] Great toad-flax (Gerard, em., p. 550); _Linaria vulgaris_,
Moench. Compare De Candolle (Geog. Bot., vol. ii. p. 716) for a
sketch of the American history of this now familiar plant, which the
learned author cannot trace before Bigelow’s date (Fl. Bost., edit.
1) of 1814. But it is certainly Cutler’s “snapdragon; ... blossoms
yellow, with a mixture of scarlet; common by roadsides in Lynn and
Cambridge” (_l. c._, 1785): though he strangely prefixes the Linnæan
phrase for _Antirrhinum Canadense_, L.; and there seems no reason to
doubt that Josselyn may very well have seen it in 1671.
[167] Gerard, p. 653 (_Teucrium_, L.). The author may have intended
to reckon the genus only. Our species is peculiar to this continent.
[168] The designation is uncertain. The old botanists gave the name
_Auricula muris_, or mouse-ear, to species of _Myosotis_, _Draba_,
_Hieracium_, and _Gnaphalium_. Josselyn’s plant may most probably be
_Antennaria plantaginifolia_, Hook. (mouse-ear of New England), which
is very near to _A. dioica_ of Europe.—_Gray, Statistics, &c._, _l.
c._, p. 81.
[169] _Quercus alba_, L.; _Q. rubra_, L.; and _Q. tinctoria_, Bartr.
Wood’s account of the oaks (New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) is
similar. In his Voyages, p. 61, Josselyn gives us “the ordering of
red oake for wainscot. When they have cut it down and clear’d it from
the branches, they pitch the body of the tree in a muddy place in a
river, with the head downward, for some time. Afterwards they draw it
out; and, when it is seasoned sufficiently, they saw it into boards
for wainscot; and it will branch out into curious works.”
[170] _Juniperus communis_, L.; common to both continents. But the
author did not probably distinguish from it _J. Virginiana_, L.;
which is frequent, and often dwarfish, near the sea.
[171] _Salix_, L.; the genus only meant here, it is likely.
[172] _Daphne Laureola_, L. (Gerard, p. 1404), with which Josselyn
may have considered _Kalmia angustifolia_, L., in some sort allied.
The latter has long been known in New England as dwarf or low laurel.
[173] _Myrica Gale_, L. (Gerard, p. 1414); common to Europe and
America.
[174] _Sambucus_, L. Our _S. Canadensis_, L. differs very little from
the common elder of Europe, except, as our author in his Voyages
says (p. 71), in being “shrubbie,” and in not having “a smell so
strong.”—_Cf._ DC. _Prodr._, vol. ii. p. 322; _Gerard_, p. 1421. The
other North-American elder (_S. pubens_, Michx.) is at least equally
near to the European _S. racemosa_, L., according to Prof. Gray.
[175] “There is a sort of dwarf-elder, that grows by the sea-side,
that hath a red pith. The berries of both”—that is, of this and of
the true elder mentioned above—“are smaller than English elder; not
round, but corner’d.”—_Voyages_, p. 71. Gerard’s dwarf-elder (p.
1425) is _Sambucus ebulus_, L. Josselyn’s may have been a _Viburnum_;
for this genus was confused with _Sambucus_ by the elder botanists.
Wood (New-England Prospect, chap. v.) speaks of—
“Small eldern, by the Indian fletchers sought;”—
which was perhaps arrow-wood, or _Viburnum dentatum_, L.
[176] _Alnus_, Tourn. One of the three New-England species (_A.
incana_, Willd.) is common to Europe and America. Another (_A.
serrulata_, Willd.) “bears so great a resemblance,” says F. A.
Michaux, to the common European alder (_A. glutinosa_, Willd.) “in
its flowers, its seeds, its leaves, its wood, and its bark, as to
render a separate figure unnecessary; the only difference observable
between them” being “that the European species is larger, and has
smaller leaves.”—_Sylva_, vol. ii. p. 114. Compare Gray, Statistics,
&c., _l. c._, p. 83. _A. viridis_, our third species, is common to
Europe and this country.
[177] _Corylus_, L. Our species, which are peculiar to America, are
both indicated: the “filberd, ... with hairy husks upon the nuts,”
being _C. rostrata_, Ait. (beaked hazel); and that “setting hollow
from the nut,”—that is, larger than the nut.—_C. Americana_, Wangenh.
(common hazel).
[178] _Carya_, Nutt. In the Voyages, p. 69, the author speaks of
the “walnut, which is divers: some bearing square nuts; others like
ours, but smaller. There is likewise black walnut, of precious use
for tables, cabinets, and the like” (_Juglans nigra_, L.). “The
walnut-tree,” continues Josselyn, “is the toughest wood in the
countrie, and therefore made use of for hoops and bowes; there
being no yews there growing. In England, they made their bowes
usually of witch-hasel” (that is, witch-elm,—_Ulmus montana_,
Bauh., Lindl.; as see Gerard, p. 1481: but _Carpinus_, “in Essex,
is called witch-hasell,”—_ib._), “ash, yew, the best of outlandish
elm; but the Indians make theirs of walnut.” This was hickory, and
what Wood says belongs doubtless to the same. He calls it “something
different from the English walnut; being a great deal more tough
and more serviceable, and altogether heavy. And whereas our guns,
that are stocked with English walnut, are soon broken and cracked
in frost,—being a brittle wood,—we are driven to stock them new
with the country walnut, which will endure all blows and weather;
lasting time out of mind.” After speaking favorably of the fruit, he
adds (New-Eng. Prospect, chap. vi.), “There is likewise a tree, in
some parts of the country, that bears a nut as big as a pear,”—the
butternut, doubtless (_Juglans cinerea_, L.). Josselyn has told us
(p. 48) of the oil which the Indians managed to get from the acorns
of the white oak. Roger Williams (Key, _l. c._, p. 220) says our
native Americans made “of these walnuts ... an excellent oil, good
for many uses, but especially for the anointing of their heads.”
Michaux (_Sylva_, vol. i. p. 163) says the Indians used the oil
of the butternut, and also (p. 185) of the shag-bark, “to season
their aliments.” Williams adds (_l. c._), “Of the chips of the
walnut-tree—the bark taken off—some English in the country make
excellent beer, both for taste, strength, colour, and inoffensive
opening operation.”
[179] _Castanea vesca_, Gaertn.; common to Europe and America.
Our chestnut is considered to differ from the European only as an
American variety of a species common to both continents might be
expected to. “The Indians have an art of drying their chestnuts, and
so to preserve them in their barns for a dainty all the year.”—_R.
Williams_, _l. c._
[180] Neither Wood nor R. Williams makes mention of it. The
younger Michaux considered our beech distinct from the European;
but Mr. Nuttall makes it only a variety of it; while Prof.
Gray puts both trees in his list of “very close representative
species.”—_Statistics, &c._, _l. c._, p. 81.
[181] _Fraxinus_, L. Our species are peculiar to this continent. I
cannot account for Wood’s saying, “It is different from the ash of
England; being brittle and good for little, so that walnut is used
for it.”—_New-Eng. Prospect_, chap. vi.
[182] _Sorbus_, L. (Gerard, p. 1473). Our mountain-ash (_S.
Americana_, Willd.) is quite near to the quicken, or mountain-ash of
the north of Europe (_S. aucuparia_, L.); but hardly, perhaps, to
be reduced to an American variety of it, as the elder Michaux (_Fl.
Amer._, vol. i. p. 290) proposed. Compare Gray, Statistics, &c., _l.
c._, p. 82.
[183] Except the small white birch (_B. populifolia_, Ait.),
which Mr. Spach reduces to a variety of the European _B. alba_,
L.,—in which he is sustained by Prof. Gray (Man., p. 411),—and the
dwarf-birch (_B. nana_, L.) of our alpine regions, all our species
are peculiar to this continent.—See the author’s Voyages, p. 69, for
another mention of the birches.
[184] _Populus_, L. Our species are peculiar to the country, as the
author’s remark suggests. Wood (_l. c._) notices “the ever-trembling
asps.”
[185] “The plumbs of the country be better for plumbs than the
cherries be for cherries. They be black and yellow; about the bigness
of damsons; of a reasonable good taste.”—_New-Eng. Prospect_, chap.
v. _Prunus maritima_, Wangenh. (beech-plum), and _P. Americana_,
Marsh. (wild yellow plum), are no doubt here intended; as also, it
is likely, by Josselyn, who, it is evident, in this place had only
the genus in mind as “common with us in England.”—See p. 61 for the
author’s mention of the “wild cherry.”
[186] _Portulaca oleracea_, L. (Gerard, p. 521). “In cornfields. It
is eaten as a pot-herb, and esteemed by some as little inferior to
asparagus.”—_Cutler_; _Account of Indigenous Vegetables_ (1785),
_l. c._, p. 447. Considered to have been introduced here; but our
author enables us to carry back the date of its introduction, without
reasonable doubt, to the first settlement of the country. “Purslain,
Mr. Glover says, is also very common in Virginia, and troublesome
too, to the tobacco-planters.” Sir Philip Skippon to Ray, Feb. 11,
1675-6, in Ray Society’s Corresp. of John Ray, p. 121. Mr. Nuttall
regarded the species as indigenous on the plains of the Missouri; but
this plant, “too closely resembling the common purslane,” according
to Prof. Gray (Man., p. 64), has been separated as specifically
distinct by Dr. Engelmann.
[187] _Genista tinctoria_, L. (_Genistella tinctoria_,—greenweed,
or dyers’ weed; Gerard, p. 1316). “We shall not need to speake of
the use that diers make thereof,” says the latter. Our author could
hardly have been mistaken about so well-known a plant as this; which
he probably met with in one of his visits to the neighborhood of
Boston,—long the only American station for it. There is a tradition
that it was introduced here by Gov. Endicott; which may have been
some forty years before Josselyn finished his herborizing,—enough to
account for its naturalization then. It was long confined to Salem
(“pastures between New Mills and Salem,”—_Cutler_, _l. c._, 1785);
but occurred to me sparingly, in 1841, on the shores of Cambridge
Bay, and also on roadsides in Old Cambridge. “Woad-seed” is set down,
in a memorandum of the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay,
before February, 1628, to be sent to New England (Mass. Col. Rec.,
vol. i. p. 24); and though _Isatis tinctoria_, L., is true woad,
_Reseda luteola_, L. (wold, or weld), and our _Genista_ (woadwaxen),
have, it is said (Rees’s Cycl., _in loco_), been known “in English
herbals under that name.”
[188] “Current-bushes are of two kinds,—red and black. The black
currents, which are larger than the red, ... are reasonable pleasant
in eating.”—_Voyages_, p. 72. Our black currant is _Ribes floridum_,
Herit.,—considered by Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 291) only a variety of
_R. nigrum_, L., the true black currant of the gardens; and our red
currant, which I have gathered in the White Mountains,—far below
the region of _R. rigens_, Michx., the more common red currant
there,—appears to be undistinguishable from _R. rubrum_, L. (the red
currant of gardens); unless, possibly, as an American variety of
it. This is probably _R. albinervium_, Michx. (Fl., vol. i. p. 110;
Pursh, Fl., vol. i. p. 163).
[189] _Polyporus_, Mich., sp.—In his Voyages, p. 70, the author
speaks of “a stately tree growing here and there in valleys, not
like to any trees in Europe; having a smooth bark, of a dark-brown
colour, the leaves like great maple in England called sycamor; but
larger,”—which may be _Platanus occidentalis_, L. (button-wood). And
Wood enables us to add one more to this early account of the genera
of plants, which we possess, common to the Old World. He tells us
(New-England’s Prospect, chap. v.) “the hornbound tree is a tough
kind of wood, that requires so much pains in riving as is almost
incredible; being the best to make bowls and dishes, not being
subject to crack or leak. This tree growing with broad-spread arms,
the vines twist their curling branches about them; which vines afford
great store of grapes,” &c. This was our American hornbeam (_Carpinus
Americana_, L.). And the same author again alludes to it, in verse,
as—
“The horn-bound tree, that to be cloven scorns;
Which from the tender vine oft takes his spouse,
Who twines embracing arms about his boughs.”
A pleasant enough illustration of what taught classical
husbandry,—“_ulmis adjungere vites_.”—_Georg._, i. 2.
[190] See also the Voyages, p. 73. “It is almost incredible,” says
Higginson (New-England’s Plantation, _l. c._, p. 118), “what great
gaine some of our English planters have had by our Indian corne.
Credible persons have assured me,—and the partie himselfe avouched
the truth of it to me,—that, of the setting of thirteen gallons of
corne, hee hath had encrease of it 52 hogsheads; every hogshead
holding seven bushels, of London measure: and every bushell was
by him sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was
worth 18 shillings. And so, of this 13 gallons of corne, which was
worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made about 327 pounds of it the yeere
following, as by reckoning will appeare; where you may see how
God blessed husbandry in this land. There is not such greate and
plentifull eares of corne, I suppose, any where else to bee found
but in this countrey; because, also of varietie of colours,—as red,
blew, and yellow, &c.: and of one corne there springeth four or
five hundred.” Roger Williams (Key, _l. c._, pp. 208, 221) has some
interesting particulars of the Indian use of their corn. According
to him, the Indian _msickquatash_ (that is succotash, as we call it
now) was “boiled corn whole,” and _nawsaump_, a kind of meal pottage
unparched. From this the English call their samp; which is the
Indian corn beaten and boiled, and eaten, hot or cold; with milk or
butter,—which are mercies beyond the natives’ plain water, and which
is a dish exceeding wholesome for the English bodies.
[191] _Acorus Calamus_, L.; common to Europe and America. In his
Voyages, p. 77, the author drops properly, in mentioning this, the
injurious prefix. It seems that our New-England forefathers used the
leaves to cover their cold floors, as they had used rushes at home;
and, according to Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 159), the
pleasant smell of the plant has recommended it, in like manner, “for
strewing on the floor of the cathedral at Norwich, on festival days.”
[192] _Allium Canadense_, L., probably.—See also p. 55, note 4.
[193] “Knaves’-mustard (for that it is too bad for honest
men).”—_Gerard_, p. 262. The “New-England mustard,” which was like
it, may be _Lepidium Virginicum_, L.; which, having “a taste like
common garden-cress, or peppergrass” (Bigel., Fl. Bost., _in loco_),
perhaps attracted the first settlers.
[194] The “many flowers,” with reflexed sepals, perhaps refer this to
our noble American Turk’s-cap (_Lilium superbum_, L.), rather than to
the yellow lily (_L. Canadense_, L.).
[195] See p. 81.
[196] “They take their _wuttammauog_,—that is, a weak tobacco,—which
the men plant themselves, very frequently. Yet I never see any take
so excessively as I have seen men in Europe; and yet excess were
more tolerable in them, because they want the refreshing of beer and
wine, which God had vouchsafed Europe.”—_R. Williams_, _Key_, _l.
c._, p. 213. And, in another place, the same writer says that tobacco
is “commonly the only plant which men labour in” (he is speaking of
the Indians); “the women managing all the rest” (p. 208). Wood, in
his list of Indian words (New-Eng. Prospect, _ad ult._), spells the
Indian word, above given, _ottommaocke_,—(perhaps both are comparable
with “_wuttahimneash_, strawberries” Williams, _l. c._, p. 220),
and “_weetimoquat_, it smells sweet” (Vocab. of Narraganset Lang.,
in Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 82); _og_, _ock_, and _ash_, being all
plural terminations; between which and “the noun in the singular one
or more consonants or vowels are frequently interspersed” (_ibid._,
vol. iii. p. 222, note); and _oquat_, from the context, the verbal;
and the root appearing possibly the same,—and also defines it as
tobacco. There is much other testimony that the New-England savages
were found using “tobacco” (as Mourt’s Relation, _l. c._, p. 230;
and Winslow’s Relation, _l. c._, p. 253); but our author’s text,
above, appears to distinguish the true herb, “not much planted,”
from “a small kind called _pooke_,” which “the Indians make use of.”
And again, more clearly, in his Voyages, we have to the same effect:
“the Indians in New England use a small, round-leafed tobacco, called
by them or the fishermen _poke_. It is odious to the English.... Of
marchantable ... tobacco, ... there is little of it planted in New
England; neither have they” (both clauses appear to refer to the
English) “learned the right way of curing of it.” This “marchantable
tobacco” was no doubt mainly _Nicotiana tabacum_, L.; but the other
kind, the weak tobacco,—cultivated, as Williams tells us, by the
Indians, and recognized as tobacco by the English,—was not, as Wood
says (N. E. Prospect, _l. c._), colt’s-foot, but _Nicotiana rustica_,
L. (the yellow henbane of Gerard’s Herbal, p. 356), well known to
have been long in cultivation among the American savages, and now a
naturalized relic of that cultivation in various parts of the United
States. The name, _poke_, or _pooke_,—if it be, as is supposable,
the same with “_puck_, smoke,” of the Narraganset vocabulary of R.
Williams (Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 84),—was perhaps always indefinite,
and, since Cutler’s day, has been applied in New England to the green
hellebore (_Veratrum viride_, Ait.); but this was not, it is evident,
the poke of the first settlers. The name is also given to _Phytolacca
decandra_, L. (the _skoke_ of Cutler), and the hellebore apparently
distinguished from this as Indian poke; but the application of the
name to the former, at least, probably had its origin among the
whites.
[197] The figure sufficiently exhibits _Sarracenia purpurea_, L.
[198] “Live-for-ever. It is a kind of cud-weed.... It growes
now plentifully in our English gardens.... The fishermen, when
they want” (that is, lack) “tobacco, take this herb; being cut
and dryed.”—_Voyages_, p. 78; where the author adds the peculiar
medicinal virtues of the plant, which are the same as those assigned
by Gerard (p. 644) to the genus. Compare, as to this, Wood and
Bache, Dispens., p. 1334. The species intended by Josselyn is our
everlasting (_Antennaria margaritacea_ (L.) Br.), described by
Gerard, and figured by Johnson in his edition of the former (p. 641),
and first published by Clusius (_Gnaphalium Americanum_, Rar. Pl.
Hist., vol. i. p. 327) in 1601. Clusius had it from England, says
Johnson. The dried herb, used by the fishermen instead of tobacco,
and no doubt called by them _poke_, may have been mistaken by Wood
for colt’s-foot, the leaves of which were “smoked by the ancients
in pulmonary complaints; ... and, in some parts of Germany, are at
the present time said to be substituted for tobacco.”—_Wood and
Bache_, _Dispens._, p. 1401. _Cornus sericea_, L.,—“called by the
natives squaw-bush” (Williamson’s Hist. Maine, vol. i. p. 125),
and by the western Indians _kinnikinnik_ (Gray, Man., p. 161);
furnished, in its inner bark (on the medicinal properties of which,
see especially Rees’s Cycl., Amer. ed., _in loco_), a substitute for
_Nicotiana_,—very widely approved among the native Americans. The
name, Indian tobacco, given to _Lobelia inflata_, L. (the emetic-weed
of Cutler, _l. c._, p. 484; who “first attracted to it the attention
of the profession”), by the whites, is in some connections confusing,
and might well be displaced by wild tobacco, which is also in popular
use.
[199] _Œnothera biennis_, L. (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 475),—known to
Europeans, according to Linnæus (Sp. Pl., p. 493), as early as 1614;
but first described and figured by Prosper Alpinus, in his posthumous
_De Pl. Exoticis_, p. 325, t. 324, _cit._ L. Johnson says that
Parkinson gave it the English name of tree-primrose, which it still
keeps. It is “vulgarly known by the name of scabish (a corruption,
probably of scabious)” in the country.—_Bigel. Fl. Bost._, _in loco_.
Josselyn describes the plant in his Voyages, p. 78.
[200] _Adiantum pedatum_, L.—The European _A. Camillus veneris_, L.,
long used as a pectoral (the _sirop de capillaire_ of French shops
being made of it), is, according to Messrs. Wood and Bache (Dispens.,
p. 1290), “feebler” than our species, which Josselyn recommends.
[201] See pp. 67, 68.
[202] Johnson’s Gerard, p. 183: which is perhaps _Allium magicum_,
L.; for which our _A. tricoccum_, Ait., may have been mistaken.—See
also p. 54 of this; note.
[203] _Epilobium angustifolium_, L. (rosebay willow-herbe of Gerard
by Johnson); which last figures it at p. 477: common to Europe
and America; but some botanists have, like Josselyn, reckoned the
American plant “proper to the country.”
[204] _Helianthus_, L. (Gerard, p. 751), a genus peculiar to America;
called “American marygold” in the Voyages (p. 59), where it is set
down among the more striking of our New-England flowers. At p. 82 of
this book, the author gives a cut of the “marygold of America,” which
he describes. It is probably the second one above mentioned, and
perhaps _H. strumosus_, L., Gray. The other kind, with “black seeds,”
was probably _H. divaricatus_, L.
[205] See p. 47. The earth-nuts of Gerard (p. 1064) are species of
_Bulbocastanum_ of authors.
[206] Not clear to me. But, taking the alleged virtues and the
station into account, our author may mean here the rather striking
American sea-rocket (_Cakile Americana_, Nutt.); which, it is likely,
occurred to him. Spurge-time (p. 43) also grows on “sea-banks.”
[207] “French beans; or, rather, American beans. The herbalists call
them kidney-beans, from their shape and effects; for they strengthen
the kidneys. They are variegated much,—some being bigger, a great
deal, than others; some white, black, red, yellow, blue, spotted:
besides your _Bonivis_, and _Calavances_, and the kidney-bean that
is proper to Ronoake. But these are brought into the country: the
other are natural to the climate.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 73-4.
R. Williams (Key, _l. c._, p. 208) gives _manusquussedash_ as the
Indian word for beans. Cornuti (whose book, indeed, is not confined
to Canadian plants; though, on the other hand, he was sometimes ill
informed of the true locality of his specimens; as in the case of
_Asclepias Cornuti_, Decsne, which he published as _A. Syriaca_)
figures and describes, at pp. 184-5, _Phaseolus multiflorus_, L.;
and this may possibly have been raised from seeds procured by French
missionaries from the Canadian savages: but _P. vulgaris_, L., our
well-known bush-bean, is doubtless what Josselyn has mainly in view,
as cultivated by the native Americans.
[208] “_Askutasquash_,—their vine-apples,—which the English,
from them, call squashes: about the bigness of apples of several
colours.”—_R. Williams_, _Key, &c._, _l. c._, p. 222. “In summer,
when their corn is spent, _isquotersquashes_ is their best bread;
a fruit much like a pumpion.”—_Wood_, _New-Eng. Prospect_, part 2,
chap. vi. The late Dr. T. W. Harris made the ill-understood edible
gourds a special object of study, and devoted particular attention
to the ascertaining of the kinds cultivated by the American savages;
but his papers have not as yet seen the light. The warted squash
(_Cucurbita verrucosa_, L.) and the orange-gourd (_C. aurantium_,
Willd.)—the fruit of which last is of the size and color of an
orange, and “more tender than the common pompion” (Loudon, Encycl.
Pl.)—are perhaps, in part, intended by our author.
[209] “Pompions and water-mellons, too, they have good store,” says
our author (Voyages, p. 130); and again, at p. 74 of the same, “The
water-melon is proper to the countrie. The flesh of it is of a
flesh-colour; a rare cooler of feavers, and excellent against the
stone.” The water-melon (_Cucurbita citrullus_, L.) is “the only
medicine the common people use in ardent fevers,” in Egypt (Loudon,
_l. c._). _Cucurbita pepo_, L. (Gr. πέπων; Low Dutch, _pepoen_,
_pompoen_; Fr., _pompone_), is our English pompion, or pumpkin. At
p. 91, Josselyn speaks of pompions “proper to the country.” Compare
Gerard’s chapter “of melons, or pompions” (Johnson’s Gerard, p. 918),
where are two Virginian sorts; and see “the ancient New-England
standing dish,” at p. 91 of this book. The evidence appears to be
sufficient, that our savages had in cultivation, together with
their corn and tobacco,—and, like these, derived originally from
tropical regions,—several sorts of what we call squashes, some
kinds of pompion, and also water-melons; and, Graves’s letter
(New-England Plantation, _l. c._, p. 124) adds, musk-melons. See
further, especially, Champlain (Voy. de la Nouv. France, _passim_)
and L’Escarbot (Hist. de la Nouv. France, vol. ii. p. 836). Mr. A. De
Candolle (Geogr. Bot., vol. ii. pp. 899, 904) disputes the American
origin of the edible gourds, but does not appear to have examined all
the early authorities for their cultivation by the savages before the
settlement of this country. Such cultivation appears to be made out,
and to indicate that these vegetables have probably been known, from
very remote antiquity, in the warmer parts of America. But this does
not touch the difficult question of origin; and it may still appear
that the gourds are equally ancient in Europe, and derived, both
here and there, from Asia (De Cand., _l. c._); such derivation being
explainable, in the case of America, by old migrations from Asia
through Polynesia.—_Pickering_, _Races of Man_, chap. 17.
[210] Johnson’s Gerard, p. 528; where the same plant is also called
“jagged or rose penniwoort,” and is probably what our author
intends at p. 43 of this. It was no doubt our pretty _Saxifraga
Virginiensis_, Michx., which Josselyn had in view. In his Voyages, p.
80, he assigns to it the medicinal virtues which Gerard attributes
to the great navel-wort, or wall-pennywort (_Cotyledon umbilicus_,
Huds.).
[211] _Convolvulus sepium_, L. (great bind-weed) is exceedingly
like to _C. Scammonia_, L., the inspissated juice of which is the
officinal scammony; and is common to Europe and North America.
Gerard’s bryony of Peru (p. 872-3), to which Josselyn refers, is,
whatever it be, not found here. Compare Cutler’s remarks on _C.
sepium_ (Account of Veg., &c., _l. c._, p. 416). _Mechoacan_,
“called ... Indian briony, or briony, or scammony of America,” from
the Caribbee Islands, &c., is described in Hughes, Amer. Physitian
(1672), p. 94; and see Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 424, note.
[212] _Rosa Carolina_, L. (Carolina rose), probably.—See Cutler’s
observations, _l. c._, p. 451. Higginson also notices “single damaske
roses, verie sweete.”—_New-Eng. Plantation_, _l. c._, p. 119. Our
Carolina rose is said to be common in English shrubberies.
[213] See also Voyages, p. 72. Our author is the earliest authority
that I have met with for this name; and his plant, which is placed
among those “proper to the country,” may very well be what has long
been called sweet-fern in New England,—_Comptonia asplenifolia_
(L.) Ait.; still used in “molasses beer,” and medicinal in the way
mentioned.—_Emerson_, _Trees and Shrubs of Mass._, p. 226.
[214] See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 77. The first of the two plants
which the author mentions here is probably _Aralia nudicaulis_, L.
(wild sarsaparilla); and the other, _A. hispida_, Michx. The last,
which is what is spoken of in the Voyages, has been recommended for
medicinal properties by Prof. Peck.—_Wood and Bache_, _Dispens._, p.
116.
[215] “_Attitaash_ (whortleberries), of which there are divers
sorts; sweet, like currants; some opening, some of a binding nature.
_Sautaash_ are these currants dried by the natives, and so preserved
all the year; which they beat to powder, and mingle it with their
parched meal, and make a delicate dish which they call _sautauthig_,
which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English.”—_R.
Williams_, _Key, &c._, _l. c._, p. 221. The fruitful and wholesome
American whortleberries, or bilberries, were, it is likely, a very
pleasant discovery to our forefathers. It was, no doubt, those
species that we call blueberries which they made most of, and
particularly the low blueberry (_Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum_, Lam.)
and the swamp-blueberry (_V. corymbosum_, L.). From these the common
black whortleberry (_Gaylussacia resinosa_, Torr. and Gray) differs
no less in quality than in structure. _Sa’té_ (compare _sautaash_,
above), in Rasles Dict. of the Abnaki Language, _l. c._, p. 450, is
rendered “_frais, sans etre secs; lorsq’ils s’t secs, sikisa’tar_.”
[216] The cloud-berry—_Rubus chamæmorus_, L. (Gerard, p. 1420)—is
found in some parts of the subalpine region of the White Mountains;
and Mr. Oakes detected it at Lubec, on the coast of Maine. It is
common to both continents; and perhaps, therefore, as our author
gives his cloud-berry a place in this division of his book, he may
have meant something else.
[217] _Rhus_, L.; the species differing, as our author repeats in
his Voyages (p. 71), “from all the kinds set down in our English
herbals.” Wood (N. Eng. Prospect, chap, v.) calls it “the dear
shumach.” Josselyn’s account of the virtues of our species, here,
and especially in the Voyages (_l. c._), agrees so well with what
Gerard says of the properties of the European tanner’s sumach (_R.
coriaria_, L.), that the latter may very likely have, in part,
suggested the former. But see Cutler, _l. c._, p. 427.
[218] “The cherry-trees yield great store of cherries, which grow on
clusters like grapes. They be much smaller than our English cherry;
nothing near so good, if they be not fully ripe. They so furr the
mouth, that the tongue will cleave to the roof, and the throat wax
hoarse with swallowing those red bullies (as I may call them);
being little better in taste” (that is, than bullaces). “English
ordering may bring them to an English cherry; but they are as wild
as the Indians.”—_New-England’s Prospect_, chap. v. The choke-cherry
(_Cerasus Virginiana_ (L.) DC.) and the wild cherry (_C. serotina_
(Ehrh.) DC.) are meant.
[219] _Pinus Strobus_, L. (white pine). “Of the body the English
make large canows of 20 foot long, and two foot and a half over;
hollowing of them with an adds, and shaping of the outside like
a boat.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 64; where is more concerning
the use of this tree in medicine. “I have seen,” says Wood, “of
these stately, high-grown trees, ten miles together, close by the
river-side; from whence, by shipping, they might be conveyed to any
desired port.”—_New-Eng. Prospect_, chap. v.
[220] _Abies balsamea_ (L.) Marsh, (balsam-fir). “The firr-tree is a
large tree, too; but seldom so big as the pine. The bark is smooth,
with knobs, or blisters, in which lyeth clear liquid turpentine,—very
good to be put into salves and oyntments. The leaves, or cones,
boiled in beer, are good for the scurvie. The young buds are
excellent to put into epithemes for warts and corns. The rosen is
altogether as good as frankincense.... The knots of this tree and
fat-pine are used by the English instead of candles; and it will burn
a long time: but it makes the people pale” (Josselyn’s Voyages, p.
66); besides being, as Wood says (_l. c._, speaking of the pine),
“something sluttish.” But Higginson says they “are very usefull in a
house, and ... burne as cleere as a torch.”—_New-Eng. Plantation_,
_l. c._, p. 122.
[221] _Larix Americana_, Michx. (Larch; “_taccamahac_,” Cutler;
_tamarack_; _hackmatack_.) “Groundsels, made of larch-tree, will
never rot; and the longer it lyes, the harder it growes, that
you may almost drive a nail into a bar of iron as easily as into
that.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 68. “The turpentine that issueth
from the cones of the larch-tree (which comes nearest of any to
the right turpentine) is singularly good to heal wounds, and to
draw out the malice (or thorn, as Helmont phrases it) of any ach;
rubbing the place therewith, and throwing upon it the powder of
sage-leaves.”—_Ibid._, p. 66.
[222] _Abies nigra_, Poir. (black or double spruce), and probably
also _A. alba_, Michx. (white or single spruce). “At Pascataway there
is now a spruce-tree, brought down to the water-side by our mass-men,
of an incredible bigness, and so long that no skipper durst ever
yet adventure to ship it; but there it lyes and rots.”—_Josselyn’s
Voyages_, p. 67.
[223] _Abies Canadensis_ (L.), Michx. (hemlock spruce). Beside the
coniferous trees here set down, our author mentions in his Voyages
(p. 67) “the white cedar, ... a stately tree, and is taken by some
to be tamarisk.” This, which is probably our white cedar (_Cupressus
thyoides_, L.), he says “the English saw into boards to floor their
rooms; for which purpose it is excellent, long-lasting, and wears
very smooth and white. Likewise they make shingles to cover their
houses with, instead of tyle. It will never warp.” Wood (New-Eng.
Prospect, chap. v.) makes mention of a “cedar-tree, ... a tree of
no great growth; not bearing above a foot and a half, at the most;
neither is it very high.... This wood is more desired for ornament
than substance; being of colour red and white, like eugh; smelling
as sweet as juniper. It is commonly used for ceiling of houses, and
making of chests, boxes, and staves.” This seems likely to have been
the American _Arbor vitæ_ (_Thya occidentalis_, L.); also called
white-cedar.—Compare Emerson, Trees and Shrubs of Mass., pp. 96, 100.
For mention of the juniper, see _ante_, p. 49.
[224] See p. 81; and _ante_, p. 54.
[225] _Sassafras officinale_, Nees. “This tree growes not beyond
Black Point, eastward.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 68. Michaux (Sylva,
vol. ii. p. 144) says, “The neighbourhood of Portsmouth ... may be
assumed as one of the extreme points at which it is found towards
the north-east;” but, according to Mr. Emerson (Trees and Shrubs of
Mass., p. 322), it is “found as far north as Canada,” though ...
“there a small tree.”
[226] _Vaccinium macrocarpum_, Ait. Our author seems not to have
known the European cranberry (_V. oxycoccus_, L., the marish-wortes,
or fenne-berries, of Gerard, p. 1419); which is also found in our
cold bogs, especially upon mountains. This is called by Sir W. J.
Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), “far superior to the foreign _V.
macrocarpon_;” but, from Gerard’s account, it should appear that it
was formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according
to Josselyn) here, by both Indians and English. Linnæus speaks of
the European fruit in much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of
Lapland, where he says, “_Baccæ hæ a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non
vocantur, nec facile ab aliis nationibus, cum nimis acidæ sint_” (Fl.
Lapp., p. 145): but corrects this in a paper on the esculent plants
of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without animation, “_Harum vero cum
saccharo præparata gelatina, quid in mensis nostris jucundius?_”
(Amæn. Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry was probably the
“_sasemineash_—another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in fresh waters
all the winter; excellent in conserve against fevers”—of R. Williams,
Key, _l. c._, p. 221.—Compare _Masimin_, rendered [_fruits_] “_rouges
petits_.”—_Rasles’ Dict._, _Abnaki_, _l. c._, p. 460.
[227] Wood says the “vines afford great store of grapes, which are
very big, both for the grape and cluster; sweet and good. These be of
two sorts,—red and white. There is likewise a smaller kind of grape
which groweth in the islands” (that is, of Massachusetts Bay), “which
is sooner ripe, and more delectable; so that there is no known reason
why as good wine may not be made in those parts, as well as Bordeaux
in France; being under the same degree.”—_New-Eng. Prospect_, chap.
v. “Vines,” says Mr. Graves (in New-Eng. Plantation, Hist. Coll.,
vol. i. p. 124) “doe grow here, plentifully laden with the biggest
grapes that ever I saw. Some I have seene foure inches about.”—“Our
Governour,” adds Higginson, “hath already planted a vineyard, with
great hope of encrease.”—_New-England’s Plantation_, _l. c._, p.
119. _Vitis Labrusca_, L. (fox-grape),—for some principal varieties
of which, see Emerson, _l. c._, p. 468,—furnished, probably, most of
the sorts known favorably to the first settlers; but _V. æstivalis_,
Michx. (summer grape), also occurs on our seaboard.
[228] _Pyrola_, L., emend. (Gerard, p. 408). All but one of our
species are common also to Europe.
[229] _Goodyera pubescens_ (Willd.), R. Br., is plainly meant by the
author; and the common name of the plant—rattlesnake plantain—still
preserves the memory of its supposed virtues as a wound-herb.
It seems, by the next page, that Josselyn tried to carry living
specimens to England; but they “perished at sea.” The putting this
among the _Pyrolæ_ (as if by some confusion of _Goodyera_ with
_Chimophila maculata_) was a bad mistake.
[230] See p. 55; where the author refers to his figures of two
kinds of “_Pyrola_” of which this must be one. The Voyages (p. 202)
also make mention of an adventure of a neighbor of Josselyn’s,
who, “rashly wandering out after some stray’d cattle, lost his
way; and coming, as we conceived by his Relation, near to the
head-spring of some of the branches of Black-Point River or Saco
River, light into a tract of land, for God knows how many miles,
full of delfes and dingles and dangerous precipices, rocks, and
inextricable difficulties, which did justly daunt, yea, quite deter
him from endeavouring to pass any further.” And this account may
quite possibly relate to the same occasion of our author’s getting
acquainted with his “elegant plant.” Plukenet (Amalth., p. 94;
Phytogr., tab. 287, f. 5) mistakenly refers Josselyn’s “sufficiently
unhappy figure” to his _Filix Hemionitis dicta Maderensis_; which is
_Adiantum reniforme_, L.
[231] “There is a plant, likewise,—called, for want of a name,
clowne’s wound-wort, by the English; though it be not the same,—that
will heal a green wound in 24 hours, if a wise man have the ordering
of it.”—_Voyages_, p. 60. _Verbena hastata_, L. (blue vervain), is
perhaps, notwithstanding the author’s disclaimer, what he had in
view. This is certainly different from the common, once officinal,
vervain of Europe (_V. officinalis_, L.),—on the virtues of which, as
a wound-herb, see Gerard, p. 718; but yet more so from true clown’s
all-heal (Gerard, p. 1005), which is _Stachys palustris_, L. As to
other medicinal properties of our vervains, compare Cutler, _l. c._,
p. 405,—where they are said to have been used by the surgeons of our
army in the Revolutionary War,—and Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1403.
[232] _Symplocarpus fœtidus_ (L.) Salisb. (skunk-cabbage). Our
author’s appears to be the first figure and account of this curious
plant, which he rightly places among such “as are proper to the
country, and have no name.” Cutler’s description, in 1785 (Account of
Indig. Veg., _l. c._, pp. 407-9),—which is followed by the remark,
that “the fructification so essentially differs from all the genera
of this order, it must undoubtedly be considered as a new genus,”—was
the next contribution of importance, and so continued till Dr.
Bigelow’s elaborate history;—_Amer. Med. Bot._, vol. ii. p. 41, pl.
xxiv. Josselyn’s “sprig” of a horse-tail might perhaps be added to
his _Filices_, at p. 47, note 2, 3.
[233] _Impatiens fulva_, Nutt, (touch-me-not; balsam). Wilson says
this plant “is the greatest favorite with the humming-bird of all our
other flowers. In some places where these plants abound, you may see
at one time ten or twelve humming-birds darting about, and fighting
with and pursuing each other.”—_Amer. Ornithol._, _by Brewer_, p.
120. As to Josselyn’s note on its use in medicine by the Indians,
compare Wood and Bache, Disp., p. 1345. A kix, or kex, or kexy,—used
in the expression, “hollow as a kix,”—is a provincialism, in various
parts of England, for hemlock; “the dry, hollow stocks of hemlock”
(whence Webster’s query,—Fr., _cique_; Lat. _cicuta_); and also of
cow-parsley, according to Holloway (Dict. of Provincialisms): that is
to say, secondarily, any hollow-stemmed plant like hemlock. Gerard’s
figure of _Impatiens noli tangere_, L., the European balsam,—of which
the earlier botanists considered our species to be varieties,—is so
poor, and the plant so rare in Britain, that it is perhaps little
wonder that our author took the showy American balsam to be quite new.
[234] _Mulgedium leucophœum_, DC. (Gray, Manual, p. 241). This fine
plant is peculiar to America.
[235] _Nabalus albus_ (L.) Hook. (Snake-weed): the genus peculiar to
America.
[236] _Chelone glabra_, L. (snake-head). Plukenet quotes this figure
under _Digitalis Verbesinæ foliis_, &c. (Amalth., p. 71; Mant., p.
64); which is referred by Linnæus to _Gerardia pedicularis_, L.
Plukenet has himself figured our plant, and but little better than
Josselyn, in Phytogr., t. 348, fig. 3. The genus is peculiar to
America.
[237] Upon this figure, Plukenet founds his _Solanum quadrifolium
Nov’ Anglicanum, flore lacteo polycoccum_ (Amalth., p. 195); clearly
taking the plant, as Josselyn did, for “a kind of _Herba Paris_”
(_Paris quadrifolia_, L.), which is _Solanum quadrifolium bacciferum_
of Bauhin (Pin., p. 167, _cit._ L.). The plant is doubtless _Cornus
Canadensis_, L. (dwarf-cornel; bunch-berry); and it certainly
resembles the figure of _Herb Paris_, given by Gerard (p. 405), much
more than that of _Cornus suecica_, L. (European dwarf-cornel, p.
1296),—a shrub ill understood by the old botanists.
[238] _Helianthus_, L., sp. (sun-flower); a genus peculiar to
America. The species is perhaps _H. strumosus_, L. (Gray, Man., p.
218).—See p. {56} of this book; note.
[239] The importance of this list has been already spoken of. Its
value depends on its having been drawn up by a person of familiarity
with some of the botanical writers of his day, as part of a botanical
treatise; and the (in this case) not unfair presumption that the
names cited are meant to be accurate. Mr. A. De Candolle (_Geogr.
Botanique_, vol. ii. p. 746) appears to be unacquainted with any
authority for the naturalized plants of the Northern States earlier
than the first edition of the _Florula_ of Dr. Bigelow, in 1814. The
treatise of Cutler extends this limit to 1785; and that of Josselyn,
so far as it goes, to 1672.
[240] Doubtful. Gerard’s couch-grass, p. 23, appears to be _Holcus
mollis_, L.,—“the true couch-grass of sandy soils” in England; and
English agricultural writers reckon yet other grasses of this name,
beside the well-known _Triticum repens_, L.
[241] Gerard, p. 276,—_Capsella Bursa Pastoris_ (L.), Moench.
“Cornfields, and about barns,”—_Cutler_ (1785), _l. c._ Naturalized.
[242] Gerard, p. 290,—_Taraxacum Dens Leonis_, Desf.; looked, to our
author, like a new-comer. Dr. Gray (Man., p. 239; and comp. Torr, and
Gray, Fl., vol. ii. p. 494) regards it as “probably indigenous in the
north,” but only naturalized in other regions. “Grass land,”—_Cutler_
(1785), _l. c._
[243] Gerard, p. 278,—_Senecio vulgaris_, L.; one of the _adventive_
naturalized plants, as defined by Mr. De Candolle (_l. c._, vol.
ii. p. 688; and Gray, Man. Bot., pref., p. viii.), according to the
evidence of Dr. Darlington (Fl. Cestr., p. 152), and Gray, _l. c._ It
has long been a common weed in eastern New England.
[244] _Sonchus_, L. _S. oleraceus_, L., as understood by Linnæus, was
no doubt intended: but this is now taken to include two species, both
recognized in this country (Gray, _l. c._, p. 241); between which
there is no evidence to authorize a decision.
[245] The _genera Chenopodium_, L., and _Atriplex_, L., were much
confused in Josselyn’s day; and his wild orach may belong to
either. Gerard’s wild orach is in part _Atriplex patula_, L. (p.
326); but the first species to which he gives this name (p. 325)
is _Chenopodium polyspermum_, L. The latter is a rare, _adventive_
member of our Flora (Gray, _l. c._, p. 363); and the former is,
according to Bigelow (Fl. Bost., ed. 3, p. 401), the well-known orach
of our salt-marshes: but Dr. Gray now refers this (Man., p. 365)
to the nearly allied _A. hastata_, L. This plant, in either case,
is reckoned truly common to both continents. It is possible that
Josselyn intended it.
[246] Garden nightshade (Gerard, p. 339); _Solanum nigrum_, L.
“Common among rubbish,”—_Cutler_ (1785), _l. c._ Naturalized.
[247] Common stinging-nettle, or great nettle (Gerard, p.
706),—_Urtica dioica_, L.
[248] Field-mallow (Gerard, p. 930), _Malva sylvestris_, L., and wild
dwarf-mallow (_ibid._), _M. rotundifolia_, L., are the only sorts
likely to have been in view. The latter was, I doubt not, intended;
and the former, _adventive_ only with us, may also have occurred at
any period after the settlement.
[249] “It is but one sort, and that is broad-leaved plantain”
(Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188). Broad-leaved plantain (Gerard, p.
419),—_Plantago major_, L.; one of the most anciently and widely
known of plants, and inhabiting, at present, all the great divisions
of the earth. An account, similar to our author’s, of the name given
to it by the American savages, is found in Kalm’s Travels. “Mr.
Bartram had found this plant in many places on his travels; but he
did not know whether it was an original American plant, or whether
the Europeans had brought it over. This doubt had its rise from
the savages (who always had an extensive knowledge of the plants
of the country) pretending that this plant never grew here before
the arrival of the Europeans. They therefore gave it a name which
signifies the Englishman’s foot; for they say, that, where a European
had walked, there this plant grew in his footsteps.”—_Kalm’s Travels
into North America_, by Forster, vol. i. p. 92. But Dr. Pickering
considers it possible, that, in North-west America at least, the
plantain was introduced by the aborigines (Races of Man, pp. 317,
320): and, uncertain as this is admitted to be, the old vulgar names
of the plant in Northern languages—as _Wegerich_ and _Wegetritt_ of
the German, _Weegblad_ and _Weegbree_ of the Dutch, _Veibred_ of the
Danish, and _Weybred_ of old English, all pointing to the plantain’s
growing on ways trodden by man—suggest, perhaps, a far older supposed
relation between this plant and the human foot than that mentioned
above; and thus favor the derivation of the original Latin name (as
old as Pliny, H. N., vol. xxv. 8, in § 39) from _planta_, the sole
of the foot,—whether because the plantain is always trodden on, or,
taking the termination _go_ in _plantago_, as some philologists
take it, to signify likeness (as doubtless in _lappago_, _mollugo_,
_asperugo_; but this signification does not appear so clear in some
other words with the like ending), because its leaves resemble the
sole of the foot in flatness, breadth, marking, and so on. The
possible derivation from planta, a plant, “_per excellentiam, quasi
plantam præstantissimam_” (Tournef., Inst., vol. i. p. 128), though
less open to question than that of Linnæus (“_planta tangenda_,”
Phil. Bot., § 234), is certainly less significant than the other;
which, with the statements (independent, so far as appears, of each
other) of Josselyn and Kalm, if these may be relied on, seems to
point to a very ancient co-incidence of thought, not unworthy of
attention. Something else of the same sort is to be found in R.
Williams, where he says (Key, _l. c._, p. 218) that the Massachusetts
Indians called the constellation of the Great Bear _mosk_, or
_pawkunnawaw_; that is, the bear.
[250] Gerard, p. 353,—_Hyoscyamus niger_, L. _Adventive_ only: having
“escaped from gardens to roadsides,” according to Dr. Gray (Man., p.
340); but “common amongst rubbish and by roadsides,” in 1785 (Cutler,
_l. c._), and perhaps long known on the coasts of Massachusetts Bay.
[251] Broad-leaved wormwood, “our common and best-knowne wormwood”
(Gerard, p. 1096),—_Artemisia absynthium_, L. “Roadsides and amongst
rubbish,” 1785,—_Cutler_, _l. c._ Omitted by Bigelow, and not very
frequent.
[252] Gerard, p. 388. If this is to be taken for _Rumex acutus_, Sm.
(Fl. Brit.), which seems not to be certain, it is now referable to
_R. conglomeratus_, Murr., which is “sparingly introduced” with us,
according to Gray (Man., p. 377). But it is more likely that Josselyn
had _R. crispus_, L. (curled dock), in view: which is, I suppose, the
“varietie” of sharp-pointed dock, “with crisped or curled leaves,” of
Johnson’s Gerard, p. 387; and is the only mention of the species by
those authors.
[253] Gerard, p. 389,—_Rumex Patientia_, L. This and the next were
garden pot-herbs of repute: and, at p. 90, our author brings them in
again as such; telling us that bloodwort grows “but sorrily,” but
patience “very pleasantly.” This may very likely have crept out of
some garden: but the great water-dock (_R. Hydrolapathum_, Huds.) is,
says Gerard, “not unlike to the garden patience” (p. 390); and Dr.
Gray says the same of the American variety of the former.—_Man._, p.
377.
[254] Gerard, p. 390,—_Rumex sanguineus_, L., “sown for a pot-herb
in most gardens” (Gerard); and so our author, p. 90. Linnæus took it
to be originally American: but it is common in Europe; and Dr. Gray
marks the American plant as naturalized. Dr. Torrey indicated the
species as occurring about New York in 1819 (Catal. Pl., N.Y.); but
New-England botanists do not appear to have recognized it. Josselyn’s
plant was perhaps the offcast of some garden.
[255] Gerard, p. 404.—Compare p. 42 of this; where our author more
correctly reckons it among plants truly common to Europe and America.
[256] “Common knot-grasse” (Gerard, p. 565),—_Polygonum aviculare_,
L. Common to all the great divisions of the earth, and reckoned
indigenous in America.—_De Cand. Geogr. Bot._, vol. i. p. 577; _Gray,
Man._, p. 373.
[257] There are many chickweeds in Gerard; but that most likely to
have been in the author’s view here is the universally known common
chickweed,—the middle or small chickweed of Gerard, p. 611. This was
“common in gardens and rich cultivated ground” in 1785.—_Cutler, l.
c._ Few plants have spread so widely over the earth as _Stellaria
media_.
[258] Great comfrey (Gerard, p. 806),—_Symphytum officinale_, L.:
also in the list of garden herbs at p. 90. “Sometimes found growing
wild,”—_Cutler_ (1785), _l. c._ Not admitted by Dr. Bigelow (Fl.
Bost.), but included by Dr. Gray as an _adventive_.—_Man._, p. 320.
[259] Gerard, p. 757,—_Maruta cotula_ (L.), DC.; a naturalized member
of our Flora, now become a very common ornament of roadsides; where
Cutler notices it, also, in 1785.
[260] “Great burre-docke, or clott-burre” (Gerard, p. 809),—_Lappa
major_, Gaertn. “About barns,”—_Cutler_ (1785), _l. c._
[261] “White-floured mullein” (Gerard, p. 773),—perhaps _Verbascum
Lychnitis_, L.; which is _adventive_ in some parts of the United
States (Gray, Man., p. 283), but is not otherwise known to have made
its appearance in New England. Great mullein (_V. Thapsus_, L.) was
“common” in Cutler’s time. The moth-mullein (_V. Blattaria_, L.) he
only knew “by roadsides in Lynn” (_l. c._, p. 419). Other plants
referable to this list of naturalized weeds are “wild sorrel,” p. 42;
_Polygonum Persicaria_, p. 43; St. John’s wort, speedwell, chickweed,
male fluellin, cat-mint, and clot-bur, p. 44; yarrow, and oak of
Jerusalem, p. 46; pimpernel, and toadflax, p. 48; and wild purslain,
and woad-waxen, p. 51. See also spearmint, and ground-ivy, p. 89; and
elecampane, celandine, and tansy, p. 90.
[262] The earliest, almost the only account that we have of the
gardens of our fathers, after they had settled themselves in their
_New_ England, and had tamed its rugged coasts to obedience to
English husbandry. What with their garden beans, and Indian beans,
and pease (“as good as ever I eat in England,” says Higginson in
1629); their beets, parsnips, turnips, and carrots (“our turnips,
parsnips, and carrots are both bigger and sweeter than is ordinary
to be found in England,” says the same reverend writer); their
cabbages and asparagus,—both thriving, we are told, exceedingly;
their radishes and lettuce; their sorrel, parsley, chervil, and
marigold, for pot-herbs; and their sage, thyme, savory of both
kinds, clary, anise, fennel, coriander, spearmint, and pennyroyal,
for sweet herbs,—not to mention the Indian pompions and melons and
squanter-squashes, “and other odde fruits of the country,”—the
first-named of which had got to be so well approved among the
settlers, when Josselyn wrote in 1672, that what he calls “the
ancient New-England standing dish” (we may well call it so now!)
was made of them; and, finally, their pleasant, familiar flowers,
lavender-cotton and hollyhocks and satin (“we call this herbe, in
Norfolke, sattin,” says Gerard; “and, among our women, it is called
honestie”) and gillyflowers, which meant pinks as well, and dear
English roses, and eglantine,—yes, possibly, hedges of eglantine
(p. 90 note),—surely the gardens of New England, fifty years after
the settlement of the country, were as well stocked as they were
a hundred and fifty years after. Nor were the first planters long
behindhand in fruit. Even at his first visit, in 1639, our author was
treated with “half a score very fair pippins,” from the Governor’s
Island in Boston Harbor; though there was then, he says (Voyages,
p. 29), “not one apple tree nor pear planted yet in no part of the
countrey but upon that island.” But he has a much better account
to give in 1671: “The quinces, cherries, damsons, set the dames a
work. Marmalad and preserved damsons is to be met with in every
house. Our fruit-trees prosper abundantly,—apple-trees, pear-trees,
quince-trees, cherry-trees, plum-trees, barberry-trees. I have
observed, with admiration, that the kernels sown, or the succors
planted, produce as fair and good fruit, without graffing, as the
tree from whence they were taken. The countrey is replenished with
fair and large orchards. It was affirmed by one Mr. Woolcut (a
magistrate in Connecticut Colony), at the Captain’s messe (of which
I was), aboard the ship I came home in, that he made five hundred
hogsheads of syder out of his own orchard in one year.”—_Voyages_,
p. 189-90. Our barberry-bushes, now so familiar inhabitants of the
hedgerows of Eastern New England, should seem from this to have
come, with the eglantines, from the gardens of the first settlers.
Barberries “are planted in most of our English gardens,” says Gerard.
[263] _Portulaca oleracea_,; L. β. _sativa_, L. (garden purslain).
The wild variety is also reckoned by our author, in his list of
plants, common to us and the Old World (p. 51).
[264] See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 188.
[265] _Vicia Faba_, Willd., of which the Windsor bean is a variety.
The author compares it, at p. 56, with kidney-beans (_Phaseolus
vulgaris_, L.), called Indian beans by the first settlers, who had
them from the savages, to the advantage of the last-mentioned sort;
which probably soon drove the other out of our gardens.—Compare
Cobbett’s American Gardener, p. 105.
[266] Gerard, p. 75,—_Avena nuda_, L.; derived from common oats (_A.
sativa_, L.) according to Link; and also (in Gerard’s time, and even
later) in cultivation. It was called pillcorn, or peelcorn, because
the grains, when ripe, drop naked from the husks. But is it not
possible that our author’s _Silpee_ (comparable with _apee_, a leaf;
_toopee_, a root; _ahpee_, a bow, in the Micmac language,— _Mass.
Hist. Coll._, vol. vi., pp. 20, 24) was really the American name of
the well-known water-oats, or Canada rice,—_Zizania aquatica_, L.;
the deciduous grains of which are said to afford “a very good meal”
(Loudon, Encycl., p. 788), with the qualities of rice?—See _Bigel.,
Fl. Bost._, edit. 3, p. 369. This has long been used by our savages;
but I have not met with any mention of it in the early writers. The
“standing dish in New England” has its interest, if it were really
made of Canada rice.
[267] Gerard, p. 680,—_Mentha viridis_, L. It perhaps soon became
naturalized. “In moist ground” (1785).—_Cutler, l. c._
[268] Perhaps only an inference of the author’s, from the southern
origin of these three shrubs. Lavender also belongs naturally to a
warmer climate.
[269] Gerard, p. 1109,—_Santolina Chamæ Cyparissus_, L.
[270] Gerard, p. 856,—_Glechoma hederacea_, L.; once of great
medicinal repute: which accounts for our author’s finding it, as it
should seem, among garden-herbs. It has become naturalized and very
familiar in New England. Cutler finds it wild in 1785. Mr. Bentham
refers it to _Nepeta_, but substitutes a new specific name for that
given by Linnæus, which is based on the ancient names, and has at
least the right of priority.
[271] “Gilliflowers thrive exceedingly there, and are very large. The
collibuy, or humming-bird, is much pleased with them.”—_Josselyn’s
Voyages_, p. 188.
[272] Elecampane (Gerard, p. 793),—_Inula Helenium_, L. “Roadsides”
(1785),—_Cutler, l. c._; and now extensively naturalized in New
England.
[273] Gerard, p. 1272,—_Rosa rubiginosa_, L.; and _R. micrantha_,
Sm. Since naturalized, especially in Eastern New England, and not
uncommon on roadsides and in pastures. First indicated as a member
of our Flora by Bigelow in 1824.—_Fl. Bost., in loc._ “Eglantine, or
sweet-bryer, is best sowen with juniper-berries,—two or three to one
eglantine-berry, put into a hole made with a stick. The next year,
separate and remove them to your banks. In three years’ time, they
will make a hedge as high as a man; which you may keep thick and
handsome with cutting.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 188. And what next
goes before seems to show that the author picked up this information
here; which is not uninteresting.
[274] See p. 86.
[275] Brier-rose, or hep-tree (Gerard, p. 1270); “also called _Rosa
canina_, which is a plant so common and well knowne, that it were
to small purpose to use many words in the description thereof:
for even children with great delight eat the berries thereof,
when they be ripe,—make chaines and other prettie gewgawes of the
fruit; cookes and gentlewomen make tarts, and such like dishes,
for pleasure thereof,” &c. (Gerard, _l. c._). _Rosa canina_, L.,
was once the collective name of what are now understood as many
distinct species; but that which still retains the name of dog-rose
is reckoned the finest of native English roses. This familiar plant
may well have been reared with tender interest in some New-England
gardens of Josselyn’s day; but it did not make a new home here, like
the eglantine. Cutler gives the name of dog-rose to the Carolina
rose,—_R. Carolina_, L.,—which it has not kept; and he also makes
it equivalent to the officinal _R. canina_. Our Flora will possibly
one day include one or two other garden-roses. A damask rose is well
established and spreading rapidly in mowing-land of the writer’s, and
elsewhere on roadsides of this country; and that general favorite,
the cinnamon-rose, which is now naturalized in England, may yet
become wild with us.
[276] Great celandine (Gerard, p. 1069), as the west-country name of
kenning-wort—that is, sight-wort—makes manifest; the juice being once
thought to be “good to sharpen the sight,”—_Chelidonium majus_, L.
Small celandine (_Ranunculus Ficaria_, L.) was quite another thing.
The former had got to be “common by fences and amongst rubbish” in
1785 (Cutler, _l. c._), and is now naturalized in Eastern New England.
[277] Gerard, p. 650,—_Tanacetum vulgare_, L. In “pastures”
(1785).—_Cutler, l. c._ Now widely naturalized in New England.
[278] See p. 57, note. “The ancient New-England standing dish” was
doubtless far better than Gerard’s fried pompions (p. 921), and has
more than held its own.
[279] “For such commodities as lie under ground, I cannot, out of
mine own experience or knowledge, say much; having taken no great
notice of such things: but it is certainly reported that there is
iron-stone; and the Indians informed us that they can lead us to the
mountains of black-lead; and have shown us lead-ore, if our small
judgment in such things does not deceive us; and though nobody dare
confidently conclude, yet dare they not utterly deny, but that the
Spaniard’s-bliss may lie hid in the barren mountains. Such as have
coasted the country affirm that they know where to fetch sea-coal, if
wood were scarce. There is plenty of stone, both rough and smooth,
useful for many things; with quarries of slate, out of which they
get coverings for houses; with good clay, whereof they make tiles
and bricks and pavements for their necessary uses. For the country
it is well watered as any land under the sun; every family, or every
two families, having a spring of sweet water betwixt them; which
is far different from the waters of England, being not so sharp,
but of a fatter substance, and of a more jetty colour.... Those
that drink it be as healthful, fresh, and lusty as they that drink
beer.”—_Wood, New-Eng. Prospect_, chap. v. “The humour and justness
of” this writer’s “account recommend him,” says the editor of 1764,
“to every candid mind.” There is certainly no view of New England, as
it was at its settlement, that surpasses Wood’s in understanding, and
homeborn English truth, not always without beauty. What he says in
this place of “quarries of slate” points to a very early discovery.
Higginson says, in 1629 (New-Eng. Plantation, _l. c._, p. 118), “Here
is plenty of slates at the Isle of Slate in Masathulets Bay:” and
there is a court order of July 2, 1633, granting “to Tho: Lambe, of
slate in Slate Ileand, 10 poole towards the water-side, and 5 poole
into the land, for three yeares; payeing the yearely rent of ijs.
vjd.”—_Mass. Col. Rec._, vol. i. p. 106. There are other later grants
of the same island, which “lies between Bumkin Island and Weymouth
River.”—_Pemberton, Desc. Bost., Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii. p.
297. Josselyn, in his Voyages, p. 46, says that tables of slate could
be got out (he does not tell us where), “long enough for a dozen men
to sit at.” Argillaceous slate is, according to Dr. Hitchcock, “the
predominating rock on the outermost of these islands;” and he adds,
that “there can be but little doubt that the peninsula of Boston has
a foundation” of this rock.—_Report on Geol. of Mass._, p. 270.
[280] “Mr. John Winthrope, jun., is granted y^e hill at Tantousq,
about 60 miles westward, in which the black-leade is; and liberty
to purchase some land there of the Indians” (13th November,
1644).—_Mass. Col. Rec._, vol. ii. p. 82; and _Savage, in Winthrop,
N. E._, vol. ii. p. 213, note. The place mentioned is what is
now Sturbridge; which is called “the most important locality” of
black-lead in Massachusetts, by Dr. Hitchcock.—_Geol._, pp. 47, 395.
[281] “The mountains and rocky hills are richly furnished with mines
of lead, silver, copper, tin, and divers sorts of minerals, branching
out even to their summits; where, in small crannies, you may meet
with threds of perfect silver: yet have the English no maw to open
any of them;” and so forth.—_Josselyn’s Voyages_, p. 44.
[282] _Asterias rubens_, L.—_Gould, Report on Invert._, p. 345.
[283] See the chapter on Fishes, p. 23, for this and the others here
spoken of.
[284] “Numerous about the Isle of Sables; i.e., the Sandy
Isle.”—_Voyages_, p. 106. “Mr. Graves” (year 1635) “in the ‘James,’
and Mr. Hodges in the ‘Rebecka,’ set sail for the Isle of Sable for
sea-horse, which are there in great number,” &c.—_Winthrop’s N. E.,
by Savage_, vol. i. p. 162. And I cite one other mention of this
pursuit: “Eastward is the Isle of Sables; whither one John Webb,
_alias_ Evered (an active man), with his company, are gone, with
commission from the Bay to get sea-horse teeth and oyle.”—_Lechford’s
Newes from New England_ (1642), _Mass. Hist. Coll._, vol. iii.
3d series, p. 100. The Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, are the most southern habitat of the animal spoken of by
Godman.—_Amer. Nat. Hist._, vol. i. p. 249.
[285] Compare Cutler (Account of Indig. Veg., _l. c._, p. 456) and
Wood and Bache (Dispens., p. 1369).
[286] The author has something to the same effect in his Voyages, p.
124; but Wood’s account of the Indian women (New-England’s Prospect,
part ii. chap. xx.) is far better worth reading. Both appreciated, in
one way or another, their savage neighbors. Wood has a pleasant touch
at the last. “These women,” he says, “resort often to the English
houses, where _pares cum paribus congregatæ_,—in sex, I mean,—they do
somewhat ease their misery by complaining, and seldom part without
a relief. If her husband come to seek for his squaw, and begin to
bluster, the English woman betakes her to her arms, which are the
war-like ladle and the scalding liquors, threatning blistering to the
naked runaway, who is soon expelled by such liquid comminations. In
a word, to conclude this woman’s history, their love to the English
hath deserved no small esteem; ever presenting them something that is
either rare or desired,—as strawberries, hurtleberries, rasberries,
gooseberries, cherries, plumbs, fish, and other such gifts as their
poor treasury yields them” (_l. c._). And, if Lechford’s Newes from
New England (_l. supra c._, p. 103) can be trusted, the savages
became “much the kinder to their wives by the example of the English.”
[287] In the author’s Voyages, this chronological table is greatly
extended; beginning with “_Anno Mundi_, 3720,” and ending with A.D.
1674.
[288] Set right by the author in Voyages, p. 248.
[289] The author, in the “chronological observations” appended to his
Voyages, enlarges this, but confounds Conant’s Plantation at Cape
Ann, and Endicott’s, as follows: “1628. Mr. John Endicot arrived in
New England with some number of people, and set down first by Cape
Ann, at a place called afterwards Gloster; but their abiding-place
was at Salem, where they built the first town in the Massachusets
Patent.... 1629. Three ships arrived at Salem, bringing a great
number of passengers from England.... Mr. Endicot chosen Governour.”
The next year, Josselyn continues as follows: “1630. The 10th of
July, John Winthrop, Esq., and the Assistants, arrived in New England
with the patent for the Massachusetts.... John Winthrop, Esq.,
chosen Governour for the remainder of the year; Mr. Thomas Dudley,
Deputy-Governour; Mr. Simon Broadstreet, Secretary.”—_Voyages_,
p. 252. The title of Governor was used anciently, as it still is
elsewhere, in a looser sense than has been usual in New England;
and derived all the dignity that it had from the character and
considerableness of the government. Conant and Endicott were
directors or governors of settlements in the Massachusetts Bay
before Winthrop’s arrival; but when the Massachusetts Company in
London proceeded, on the 20th October, 1629, to carry into effect
their resolution to transfer their government to this country,—and
chose accordingly Winthrop to be their Governor; Humphrey, their
Deputy-Governor; and Endicot and others, Assistants (Young, Chron. of
Mass., p. 102),—the record appears sufficient evidence that they had
in view something quite different from the fishing plantation which
Conant had had charge of at Cape Ann, or the little society (“in all,
not much above fifty or sixty persons,” says White’s Relation in
Young, Chron., p. 13; which the editor, from Higginson’s narrative,
raises to “about a hundred”) “of which Master Endecott was sent out
Governour” (White, _l. c._) at Naumkeak.
[290] That is, Noddle’s Island was already planted on (by Mr.
Maverick) when the government was established.—Compare Johnson, cited
by Prince, N. E. Chronol., edit. 2, p. 308, note.
[291] The date set right in Prince, N. E. Chronol., p. 367.
[292] The date corrected in Prince, N. E. Chronol., edit. 2, p. 367.
[293] Compare Prince, p. 367, and Mass. Col. Rec., vol. i. p. 128.
“The will,” says Dr. Mather, “because it bequeathed a thousand pounds
to New England, gave satisfaction unto our Mr. Wilson; though it was
otherwise injurious to himself.”—_Magnalia_, vol. iii. p. 45, _cit._
Davis, _in Morton’s Memorial_, p. 334, note.
[294] Compare Winthrop, N.E., vol. i. p. 265; Johnson’s
Wonder-working Prov. lib. ii. c. 12, _cit._ Savage; and Morton’s
Memorial, by Davis, p. 209, and note, p. 289.
[295] Morton’s Memorial, by Davis, p. 244.
[296] 1664, “December, a great and dreadful comet, or blazing star,
appeared in the south-east in New England for the space of three
moneths; which was accompanied with many sad effects,—great mildews
blasting in the countrey the next summer.”—_Josselyn’s Voyages,
Chronol. Obs._, p. 273; and see p. 245 of the same for a fuller
account.—Compare Morton’s Memorial, by Davis, p. 304. As to the
blasting and mildew of 1665, see the same, p. 317; and that of 1664,
p. 309.
[297] See Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 204 and p. 277, where the “hole”
is said to have been, not “two,” but “forty, yards square:” and we
are farther told that “the like accident fell out at Casco, one and
twenty miles from it to the eastward, much about the same time;
and fish, in some ponds in the countrey, thrown up dead upon the
banks,—supposed likewise to be kill’d with mineral vapours.” Hubbard
(Hist. N.E., chap. 75) tells this, partly in the same words with the
account in the Voyages, and adds, “All the whole town of Wells are
witnesses of the truth of this relation; and many others have seen
sundry of these clay pellets, which the inhabitants have shown to
their neighbours of other towns.” And compare also the following,
at p. 189 of the Voyages: “In 1669, the pond that lyeth between
Watertown and Cambridge cast its fish dead upon the shore; forc’t by
a mineral vapour, as was conjectured.”