Part 41

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.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

See p. 81; and ante, p. 54.

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.”

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.

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.

Pyrola, L., emend. (Gerard, p. 408). All but one of our species are common also to Europe.

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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

Mulgedium leucophœum, DC. (Gray, Manual, p. 241). This fine plant is peculiar to America.

Nabalus albus (L.) Hook. (Snake-weed): the genus peculiar to America.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.