[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.