[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.