The Laurus æstivalis, which some people call Spice-wood, likewise began to blossom about this time; its leaves were not yet broke out; it liked a moist soil in the woods.
April the 9th. Apocynum Cannabinum was by the Swedes called Hemp of the Indians;[26] and grew plentifully in old corn-grounds, in woods, on hills, and in high glades. The Swedes have given it the name of Indian hemp, because the Indians formerly, and even now, apply it to the same purposes as the Europeans do hemp; for the stalk may be divided into filaments, and is easily prepared. When the Indians were yet settled among the Swedes, in Pensylvania and New Jersey, they made ropes of this Apocynum, which the Swedes bought, and employed them as bridles, and for nets. These ropes were stronger, and kept longer in water, than such as were made of common hemp. The Swedes commonly got fourteen yards of these ropes for one piece of bread. Many of the Europeans still buy such ropes, because they last so well. The Indians likewise make several other stuffs of their hemp. On my journey through [[132]]the country of the Iroquese, I saw the women employed in manufacturing this hemp. They made use neither of spinning-wheels nor distaffs, but rolled the filaments upon their bare thighs, and made thread and strings of them, which they dyed red, yellow, black, &c. and afterwards worked them into stuffs, with a great deal of ingenuity. The plant is perennial, which renders the annual planting of it altogether unnecessary. Out of the root and stalk of this plant, when it is fresh, comes a white milky juice, which is somewhat poisonous. Sometimes the fishing tackle of the Indians consists entirely of this hemp. The Europeans make no use of it, that I know of.
Flax and Cat-tail, were names given to a plant which grows in bays, rivers, and in deep whirlpools, and which is known to botanists by the name of Typha latifolia. Its leaves are here twisted together, and formed into great oblong rings, which are put upon the horse’s neck, between the mane and the collar, in order to prevent the horse’s neck from being hurt by the collar. The bottoms of chairs were frequently made of these leaves, twisted together. Formerly the Swedes employed the wool or cotton which surrounds its seeds, and put it into their beds, instead of feathers; [[133]]but as it coalesces into lumps after the beds have been used for some time, they have left off making use of them. I omit the use of this plant in physic, it being the peculiar province of the physicians.
A species of Leek[27], very like that which appears only in woods on hills in Sweden, grows at present on almost all corn-fields mixed with sand. The English here called it Garlick. On some fields it grew in great abundance. When the cattle grazed on such fields, and ate the garlick, their milk, and the butter which was made of it, tasted so strongly of it, that they were scarce eatable. Sometimes they sold butter in the Philadelphia markets, which tasted so strongly of garlick that it was entirely useless. On this account, they do not suffer milking cows to graze on fields where garlick abounds: this they reserve for other species of cattle. When the cattle eat much of this garlick in summer, their flesh has likewise such a strong flavour, that it is unfit for eating. This kind of garlick appears early in spring; and the horses always passed by it, without ever touching it. [[134]]
It would take too much room in my Journal, and render it too prolix, were I to mark down the time when every wild plant in this country was in blossom, when it got ripe seeds, what soil was peculiar to it, besides other circumstances. Some of my readers would be but little amused with such a botanical digression. I intend therefore to reserve all this for another work, which will give a particular account of all the plants of North America; and I shall only mention such trees and plants here, which deserve to be made known for some peculiar quality.
April the 12th. This morning I went to Philadelphia and the places adjacent, in order to know whether there were more plants lately sprung up, than at Raccoon, and in New Jersey in general. The wet weather which had happened the preceding days, had made the roads very bad in low and clayey places.
The leaves which dropt last autumn had covered the ground, in depth three or four inches. As this seems to hinder the growth of the grass, it was customary to burn it in March or at the end of that month, (according to the old stile) in order to give the grass the liberty of growing up. I found several spots burnt in this manner [[135]]to-day; but if it be useful one way, it does a great deal of damage in another; all the young shoots of several trees were burnt with the dead leaves, which diminishes the woods considerably; and in such places where the dead leaves had been burnt for several years together, the old trees only were left, which being cut down, there remains nothing but a great field, without any wood. At the same time all sorts of trees and plants are consumed by the fire, or at least deprived of their power of budding; a great number of the plants, and most of the grasses here, are annual; their seeds fall between the leaves, and by that means are burnt: This is another cause of universal complaint, that grass is much scarcer at present in the woods than it was formerly; a great number of dry and hollow trees are burnt at the same time, though they could serve as fewel in the houses, and by that means spare part of the forests. The upper mould likewise burns away in part by that means, not to mention several other inconveniences with which this burning of the dead leaves is attended. To this purpose the government of Pensylvania have lately published an edict, which prohibits this burning; nevertheless every one did as he pleased, [[136]]and this prohibition met with a general censure.
There were vast numbers of Woodlice in the woods about this time; they are a very disagreeable insect, for as soon as a person sits down on an old stump of a tree, or on a tree which is cut down, or on the ground itself, a whole army of Woodlice creep upon his clothes, and insensibly come upon the naked body. I have given a full account of their bad qualities, and of other circumstances relating to them, in the Memoirs of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences. See the Volume for the year 1754, page 19.
I had a piece of petrified wood given me to-day, which was found deep in the ground at Raccoon. In this wood the fibres and inward rings appeared very plainly; it seemed to be a piece of hiccory; for it was as like it, in every respect, as if it had but just been cut from a hiccory-tree.
I likewise got some shells to-day which the English commonly call Clams, and whereof the Indians make their ornaments and money, which I shall take an opportunity of speaking of in the sequel. These Clams were not fresh, but such as are every where found in New Jersey, on digging deep into the ground; the live shells of [[137]]this kind are only found in salt water, and on the sea coasts. But these Clams were found at Raccoon, about eight or nine English miles from the river Delaware, and near a hundred from the nearest sea-shore.