Part 37

Gerard by Johnson, p. 17,—Carex flava, L.; the first species of this genus indicated in North America, and common also to Europe. There is no doubt of the reference, taking Josselyn’s name to be meant for specific, and to refer to Gerard’s first figure with the same name. But it is certainly possible that our author had in view only a general reference to Gerard’s fourteenth chapter, “Of Hedgehog Grasse,” which brings together plants of very different genera; and, in this case, his name is of little account. Cutler (Account of Indig. Veg., l. c., 1785) mentions three genera of Cyperaceæ, but not Carex; nor did he ever publish that description of our true Gramineæ “and other native grasses,” which, he says (l. c., p. 407), “may be the subject of another paper.” The first edition of Bigelow’s Florula Bostoniensis (1814) has seven species of Carex, which are increased to seventeen in the second edition (1824); the list embracing the most common and conspicuous forms. The genus has since been made an object of special study, and the number of our species, in consequence, greatly increased. A list of Carices of the neighborhood of Boston, published by the present writer in 1841 (Hovey’s Mag. Hort.), gives forty-seven species; and Professor Dewey’s Report on the Herbaceous Plants of Massachusetts, in 1840, reckons ninety-one species within the limits of his work.

Johnson’s Gerard, p. 42,—English matweed, or helme (the other species being excluded, as not English, by our author’s caption); which I take to be Calamagrostis arenaria (L.) Roth, of Gray, Man., p. 548; called sea-matweed in England, and common to Europe and America. But if the author only intended to refer to Gerard’s “Chapter 34, of Mat-weed,”—which is perhaps, on the whole, unlikely,—his name is of no value.

Gerard, p. 46,—Typha latifolia, L.,—common to America and Europe.

Gerard, p. 47,—Stellaria graminea, L.; for which our author mistook, as did Cutler a century after, the nearly akin S. longifolia, Muhl.

Appears not to be meant for a specific reference to any of Gerard’s species; but only an indication of the genus, with the single distinguishing character of color, which was enough to separate the New-England plants from the only British one referred by Gerard to Iris. Both of our blue-flags are peculiar to the country.

Not one of Gerard’s bastard daffodils, but his dog’s-tooth, p. 204 (Erythronium, L.). Our common dog’s-tooth was at first taken for a variety of the European, but is now reckoned distinct.

Gerard, p. 205,—Orchis, L., etc. It is here clear that the name is used only in a general way. The second name (Satyrion), perhaps, however, makes our author’s notion a little more definite, and permits us to refer the plants he had probably in view to species of Platanthera, Rich. (Gray, Man., p. 444), of which only one is certainly known to be common to us and Europe.

Gerard, em. p. 257,—Nasturtium officinale, L. Reckoned also by Cutler, and indeed naturalized in some parts of the country (Gray, Man., p. 30); but our author had probably N. palustre, DC. (marsh-cress), if any thing of this genus, and not rather Cardamine hirsuta, L. (hairy lady’s smock), in his mind. Both the last are common to us and Europe.—Gray, l. c.

Gerard, p. 192. Lilium bulbiferum (the garden red lily) is meant; for which our author mistook our own red lily (L. Philadelphicum, L.).

Of the two plants,—either of which may possibly have been in view of the author here,—the sorrell du bois, or white wood-sorrel of Gerard, p. 1101 (Oxalis acetosella, L.) which is truly common to Europe and America, and the sheep’s sorrel (Gerard, p. 397,—Rumex acetosella, L.), which inhabits, indeed, the whole northern hemisphere, but is taken by Dr. Gray to be a naturalized weed here, I incline to think the latter less likely to have escaped Josselyn’s attention than the former, and to be what he means to say appeared to him as native, in 1671. For the yellow wood-sorrel, see farther on.

Gerard, em., p. 404,—Ophioglossum vulgatum, L.; common to us and Europe.

Gerard, em., p. 409,—Smilacina bifolia (L.), Ker; common to us and Europe.

Gerard, em., p. 410. A mistake of our author’s, which can hardly be set right. The station is against the plant’s having been Smilacina trifolia (L.), Desf. But it may be that Clintonia borealis (Ait.) Raf., was intended.

Alisma plantago, L., common to Europe and America; “called, in New England, water suck-leaves and scurvie-leaves. You must lay them whole to the leggs to draw out water between the skin and the flesh.”—Josselyn’s Voyages, p. 80. As to its medicinal properties, see Gerard, p. 419; and Wood and Bache, Dispens., p. 1293.

Plantago maritima, L. (Gerard, p. 423), a native of Europe and America, is our only sea-plantain. One of the others was probably Triglochin.

Sagittaria sagittifolia, L. (now called arrowhead), common to Europe and America; though here passing into some varieties which are unknown in the European Floras.

Gentiana saponaria, L., peculiar to America, but nearly akin to the European G. pneumonanthe, L., which our author intended.—Johnson’s Gerard, edit. cit., p. 438.

The plant is green hellebore (Veratrum viride, Ait.); so near, indeed, to the white hellebore (V. album, L.) of Europe, that it was taken for it by Michaux. In his Voyages, the author, after speaking of the use of opium by the Turks, says, “The English in New England take white hellebore, which operates as fairly with them as with the Indians,” &c. (p. 60); and see p. 76, further.

Polygonum lapathifolium, L. (Hydropiper of Gerard, p. 445),—for which, perhaps, P. hydropiper, L., was mistaken,—and P. Persicaria, L. (Persicaria maculosa of Gerard, l. c.), are what the author means; being the two sorts figured by Gerard himself. The third, added by Johnson, is unknown in this country; and the fourth belongs to a very different genus. P. Persicaria is marked as introduced in the late Mr. Oakes’s catalogue of the plants of Vermont; and both this and P. hydropiper are considered to be naturalized weeds by Dr. Gray (Man., p. 373). Josselyn’s testimony as to the former, as appearing to him to be native in 1671, is therefore not without interest; and possibly it is not quite worthless as to the latter.

Chamæsyce, or spurge-time, of Gerard (edit. cit., p. 504), is Euphorbia chamæsyce, L., a species belonging to the Eastern continent; for which Sloane (cit. L. Sp. Pl. in loco) appears to have mistaken our Euphorbia maculata, L.; while Plukenet (Alm. 372, cit. L.) recognizes the affinity of the same plants, calling the latter Chamæsyce altera Virginiana. Josselyn’s spurge-time may be E. maculata; but quite possibly, taking the station which he gives into the account, E. polygonifolia, L.

There are “several sorts of spurge,” according to the Voyages (p. 78); of which this, which I cannot specifically refer, is possibly one.

To this species of Saxifraga, L., unknown to our Flora (Gerard, p. 528), our author, with little doubt, referred the pretty S. Virginiensis, Michx.—See p. 58 of this, note.

Gerard, em., p. 535,—Salicornia herbacea, L. But Linnæus referred one of Clayton’s Virginia specimens (the rest he did not distinguish from S. herbacea) to a variety, β. Virginica (which he took to be also European; Sp. Pl.), and afterwards raised this to a species, as S. Virginica, Syst. Nat., vol. ii. p. 52, Willd. Sp. Pl., vol. i. p. 25. To this the more common glasswort of our salt marshes is to be referred; and we possess, beside, a still better representative of the European plant in S. mucronata, Bigel. (Fl. Bost., edit. 2, p. 2), which may perhaps best be taken for a peculiar variety (S. herbacea, β. mucronata, articulorum dentibus squamisque mucronatis, Enum. Pl. Cantab., Ms.; and S. Virginica may well be another) of a species common to us and Europe. It is certain that we have plants strictly common to American and European Floras, in which the differences referable to difference of atmospheric and other like conditions are either not apparent or of no account; and it is possible that there are yet other species, now considered peculiar to America, which only differ from older European species in those characters—whether of exuberance mostly, or also of impoverishment—in which an American variety of a plant, common to America and Europe, might beforehand be expected to differ from an European state of the same. “Linnæus ut Tournefortii errores corrigeret, varietates nimis contraxit.”—Link, Phil. Bot., p. 222.

Hypericum perforatum, L. (“Hypericum, S. John’s-wort; in shops, Perforata.”—Gerard, edit. cit., p. 539). The species is considered to have been introduced, by most American authors; and it is possible that Josselyn had H. corymbosum, Muhl., in his mind.

Hypericum quadrangulum, L. (Gerard, p. 542); for which our author doubtless mistook H. mutilum, L. (H. parviflorum, Willd.), a species peculiar to America; to which Cutler’s H. quadrangulum (Account of Indig. Veg., l. c., p. 474) is probably also to be referred.

Veronica arvensis, L. (Gerard, p. 613),—a native, at present, of Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, and North America (Benth., in DC. Prodr., vol. x. p. 482); but considered to have been introduced here.

Veronica, L. The species is perhaps V. officinalis, L.; which, together with V. serpyllifolia, L., is considered by Prof. Gray to be both indigenous and introduced here.—Man. Bot., pp. 200-1.

Hedeoma pulegioides (L.) Pers. (American pennyroyal), is doubtless meant. The specific name indicates its resemblance—in smell and taste particularly—to Mentha pulegium, L.; for which our author and Cutler (l. c., p. 461) mistook it. But the former is peculiar to America.