[114] Gerard, p. 192. Lilium bulbiferum (the garden red lily) is meant; for which our author mistook our own red lily (L. Philadelphicum, L.).
[115] 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].
[116] Gerard, em., p. 404,—Ophioglossum vulgatum, L.; common to us and Europe.
[117] Gerard, em., p. 409,—Smilacina bifolia (L.), Ker; common to us and Europe.
[118] 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.
[119] 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.
[120] Plantago maritima, L. (Gerard, p. 423), a native of Europe and America, is our only sea-plantain. One of the others was probably Triglochin.
[121] Sagittaria sagittifolia, L. (now called arrowhead), common to Europe and America; though here passing into some varieties which are unknown in the European Floras.
[122] 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.
[123] 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.