Part 8

Having read in Mr. Miller’s Botanical Dictionary, that Mr. Peter Collinson had a particular Larch tree from America in his garden, I asked Mr. Bartram whether he was acquainted with it, he answered, that he had sent it himself to Mr. Collinson, that it only grew in the eastern parts of New Jersey, and that he had met with it in no other English plantation. It differs from the other species of Larch trees, its cones being much less. I afterwards saw this tree in great plenty in Canada.

Mr. Bartram was of opinion, that the apple tree was brought into America by the Europeans, and that it never was there before their arrival. But he looked upon peaches as an original American fruit, and as growing wild in the greatest part of America. Others again were of opinion, that they were first brought over by the Europeans. But all the French in Canada agreed, that on the banks of the river Missisippi and in the country thereabouts peaches were found growing wild in great quantity. [22]

September the 27th. The tree which the English here call Persimon, is the Diospyros Virginiana of Linnæus. It grows for the greatest part in wet places, round the water pits. I have already mentioned that the fruits of this tree are extremely bitter and sharp before they are quite ripe, and that being eaten in that state they quite contract ones mouth, and have a very disagreeable taste. But as soon as they are ripe, which does not happen till they have been quite softened by the frost, they are a very agreeable fruit. They are here eaten raw, and seldom any other way. But in a great book, which contains a description of Virginia, you meet with different ways of preparing the Persimon, under the article of that name. Mr. Bartram, related that they were commonly put upon the table amongst the sweet-meats, and that some people made a tolerably good wine of them. Some of these Persimon fruits were dropped on the ground in his garden, and were almost quite ripe, having been exposed to a great degree of the heat of the sun. We picked up a few and tasted them, and I must own that those who praised this fruit as an agreeable one, have but done it justice. It really deserves a place among the most palatable fruit of this country, when the frost has thoroughly conquered its acrimony.

The Verbascum Thapsus, or great white Mullein, grows in great quantity on roads, in hedges, on dry fields, and high meadows of a ground mixed with sand. The Swedes here call it the tobacco of the savages, but owned, that they did not know whether or no the Indians really used this plant instead of tobacco. The Swedes are used to tie the leaves round their feet and arms, when they have the ague. Some of them prepared a tea from the leaves, for the dysentery. A Swede likewise told me, that a decoction of the roots was injected into the wounds of the cattle which are full of worms, which killed these worms, and made them fall out. [23]

September the 28th. The meadows which are surrounded by wood, and were at present mown, have a fine lively verdure. On the contrary when they lie on hills, or in open fields, or in some elevated situation, especially so that the sun may be able to act upon them without any obstacles, their grass looks brown and dry. Several people from Virginia told me, that on account of the great heat and drought, the meadows and pastures almost always had a brown colour, and looked as if they were burnt. The inhabitants of those parts do not therefore enjoy the pleasure which a European feels at the sight of our verdant, odoriferous meadows.

The American Nightshade, or the Phytolacca decandra, grows abundantly in the fields, and under the trees, on little hills. Its black berries are now ripe. We observed to day some little birds with a blue plumage, and of the size of our Hortulans and Yellow Hammers (Emberiza Citrinella and Emberiza Hortulanus) flying down from the trees, in order to settle upon the nightshade and eat its berries.

Towards night I went to Mr. Bartram’s country seat.

September the 29th. The Gnaphalium margaritaceum, grows in astonishing quantities upon all uncultivated fields, glades, hills, and the like. Its height is different according to its different soil and situation. Sometimes it is very ramose, and sometimes very little. It has a strong, but agreeable smell. The English call it Life everlasting; for its flowers, which consist chiefly of dry, shining, silvery leaves (Folia calycina) do not change when dried. This plant is now every where in full blossom. But some have already lost the flowers, and are beginning to drop the seeds. The English ladies were used to gather great quantities of this Life everlasting, and to pluck them with the stalks. For they put them into pots with or without water, amongst other fine flowers which they had gathered both in the gardens and in the fields, and placed them as an ornament in the rooms. The English ladies in general are much inclined to have fine flowers all the summer long, in or upon the chimneys, sometimes upon a table, or before the windows, either on account of their fine appearance, or for the sake of their sweet scent. The Gnaphalium above-mentioned, was one of those, which they kept in their rooms during the winter, because its flowers never altered from what they were when they stood in the ground. Mr. Bartram told me another use of this plant. A decoction of the flowers and stalks is used to bathe any pained or bruised part, or it is rubbed with the plant itself tied up in a bag.

Instead of flax several people made use of a kind of Dog’s bane, or Linnæus’s Apocynum cannabinum. The people prepared the stalks of this plant, in the same manner as we prepare those of hemp or flax. It was spun and several kinds of stuffs were woven from it. The savages are said to have had the art of making bags, fishing-nets, and the like, for many centuries together, before the arrival of the Europeans.

I asked Mr. Bartram, whether he had observed in his travels, that the water was fallen, and that the sea had formerly covered any places which were now land. He told me, that from what he had experienced, he was convinced that the greatest part of this country, even for several miles together, had formerly been under water. The reasons which led him to give credit to this opinion, were the following.

1. On digging in the blue mountains, which are above three hundred English miles distant from the sea, you find loose oyster and other sorts of shells, and they are also likewise to be met with in the vallies formed by these mountains.

2. A vast quantity of petrified shells are found in limestone, flint, and sandstone, on the same mountains. Mr. Bartram assured me at the same time, that it was incredible what quantities of them there were in the different kinds of stones of which the mountains consist.

3. The same shells are likewise dug in great quantity, quite entire and not mouldered, in the provinces of Virginia and Maryland, as also in Philadelphia and in New York.

4. On digging wells (not only in Philadelphia, but likewise in other places) the people have met with trees, roots, and leaves of oak, for the greatest part, not yet rotten, at the depth of eighteen feet.

5. The best soil and the richest mould is to be met with in the vallies hereabouts. These vallies are commonly crossed by a rivulet or brook. And on their declivity, a mountain commonly rises, which in those places where the brook passes close to it, looks as if it were cut on purpose. Mr. Bartram believed, that all these vallies formerly were lakes; that the water had by degrees hollowed out the mountain, and opened a passage for itself through it; and that the great quantity of slime which is contained in the water, and which had subsided to the bottom of the lake, was the rich soil which is at present in the vallies, and the cause of their great fertility. But such vallies and cloven mountains are very frequent in the country, and of this kind is the peculiar gap between two mountains, through which a river takes its course or boundaries of New York and Pennsylvania. The people in a jest say, that this opening by the D—l, as he wanted to go out of Pennsylvania into New York.

6. The whole appearance of the blue mountains, plainly shews that the water formerly covered at part of them. For many are broken in a peculiar manner, but the highest are plain.

7. When the savages are told, that shells are found on these high mountains, and that from thence there is reason to believe that the sea must formerly have extended to them, and even in part flown over them; they answer that this is not new to them, they having a tradition from their ancestors among them, that the sea formerly surrounded these mountains.

8. The water in rivers and brooks likewise decreases. Mills, which sixty years ago were built on rivers, and at that time had a sufficient supply of water almost all the year long, have at present so little, that they cannot be used, but after a heavy rain, or when the snow melts in spring. This decrease of water in part arises from the great quantity of land which is now cultivated, and from the extirpation of great forests for that purpose.

9. The sea-shore increases likewise in time. This arises from the quantity of sand continually thrown on shore from the bottom of the sea, by the waves.

Mr. Bartram thought that some peculiar attention should be paid to another thing relating to these observations. The shells which are to be found petrified on the northern mountains, are of such kinds as at present are not to be got in the sea, in the same latitude, and they are not fished on the shore, till you come to South Carolina. Mr. Bartram from hence took an occasion to defend Dr. Thomas Burnet’s opinion, that the earth before the deluge was in a different position towards the sun. He likewise asked whether the great bones which are sometimes found in the ground in Siberia, and which are supposed to be elephant’s bones and tusks, did not confirm this opinion. For at present those animals cannot live in such cold countries; but if according to Dr. Burnet, the sun once formed different zones about our earth, from those it now makes, the elephant may easily be supposed to have lived in Siberia. [24] However it seems that all which we have hitherto mentioned, may have been the effect of different causes. To those belong the universal deluge, the increase of land which is merely the work of time, and the changes of the course of rivers, which when the snow melts and in great floods, leave their first beds, and form new ones.

At some distance from Mr. Bartram’s country house, a little brook flowed through the wood, and likewise ran over a rock. The attentive Mr. Bartram here shewed me several little cavities in the rock, and we plainly saw that they must have been generated in the manner I before described, that is, by supposing a pebble to have remained in a cleft of the rock, and to have been turned round by the violence of the water, till it had formed such cavity in the mountain. For on putting our hands into one of these cavities, we found that it contained numerous small pebbles, whose surface was quite smooth and round. And these stones we found in each of the holes.

Mr. Bartram shewed me a number of plants which he had collected into a herbal on his travels. Among these were the following, which likewise grow in the northern parts of Europe, of which he had either got the whole plants, or only broken branches.

1. Betula alba. The common birch tree, which he had found on the cats-hills. 2. Betula nana. This species of birch grows in several low places towards the hills. 3. Comarum palustre, in the meadows, between the hills in New Jersey. 4. Gentiana lutea, the great Gentian, from the fields near the mountains. It was very like our variety, but had not so many flowers under each leaf. 5. Linnæa borealis, from the mountains in Canada. It creeps along the ground. 6. Myrica Gale, from the neighbourhood of the river Susquehanna, where it grows in a wet soil. 7. Potentilla fruticosa, from the swampy fields and low meadows, between the river Delaware, and the river New York. 8. Trientalis Europæa, from the cats-hills. 9. Triglochin maritimum, from the salt springs towards the country of the five nations.

Mr. Bartram shewed me a letter from East Jersey, in which he got the following account of the discovery of an Indian grave. In the April of the year 1744, as some people were digging a cellar, they came upon a great stone, like a tombstone, which was at last got out with great difficulty, and about four feet deeper under it, they met with a large quantity of human bones and a cake of maize. The latter was yet quite untouched, and several of the people present tasted it out of curiosity. From these circumstances it was concluded that this was a grave of a person of note among the savages. For it is their custom to bury along with the deceased, meat any other things which he liked best. The stone was eight feet long, four feet broad, and even some inches more where it was broadest, and fifteen inches thick at one end, but only twelve inches at the other end. It consisted of the same coarse kind of stone, that is to be got in this country. There were no letters nor other characters visible on it.

The corn which the Indians chiefly cultivate is the Maize, or Zea Mays, Linn. Then have little corn fields for that purpose. But besides this, they likewise plant a great quantity of Squashes, a species of pumpions or melons, which they have always cultivated, even in the remotest ages. The Europeans settled in America, got the seeds of this plant, and at present their gardens are full of it, the fruit has an agreeable taste when it is well prepared. They are commonly boiled, then crushed (as we are used to do with turneps when we make a pulse of them) and some pepper or other spice thrown upon them, and the dish is ready. The Indians likewise sow several kinds of beans, which for the greatest part they have got from the Europeans. But pease which they likewise sow, they have always had amongst them, before any foreigners came into the country. The squashes of the Indians, which now are likewise cultivated by the Europeans, belong to those kinds of gourds (cucurbita,) which ripen before any other. They are a very delicious fruit, but will not keep. I have however seen them kept till pretty laid In winter.

September the 30th. Wheat and rye are sown in autumn about this time, and commonly reaped towards the end of June, or in the beginning of July. These kinds of corn, however, are sometimes ready to be reaped in the middle of June, and there are even examples that they have been mown in the beginning of that month. Barley and oats are sown in April, and they commonly begin to grow ripe towards the end of July. Buck-wheat is sown in the middle or at the end of July, and is about this time, or somewhat later, ready to be reaped. If it be sown before the above-mentioned time, as in May, or in June, it only gives flowers, and little or no corn.

Mr. Bartram and other people assured me, that most of the cows which the English have here, are the offspring of those which they bought of the Swedes when they were masters of the country. The English themselves are said to have brought over but few. The Swedes either brought their cattle from home, or bought them of the Dutch, who were then settled here.

Near the town, I saw an Ivy or Hedera Helix, planted against the wall of a stone building, which was so covered by the fine green leaves of this plant, as almost to conceal the whole. It was doubtless brought over from Europe, for I have never perceived it any where else on my travels through North-America. But in its stead I have often seen wild vines made to run up the walls.

I asked Mr. Bartram, whether he had observed, that trees and plants decreased in proportion as they were brought further to the North, as Catesby pretends? He answered, that the question should be more limited, and then his opinion would prove the true one. There are some trees which grow better in southern countries, and become less as you advance to the north. Their seeds or berries are sometimes brought into colder climates by birds and by other accidents. They gradually decrease in growth, till at last they will not grow at all. On the other hand, there are other trees and herbs which the wise Creator destined for the northern countries, and they grow there to an amazing size. But the further they are transplanted to the south, the less they grow; till at last they degenerate so much as not to be able to grow at all. Other plants love a temperate climate, and if they be carried either south or north, they will not succeed well, but always decrease. Thus for example Pensylvania contains some trees which grow exceedingly well, but always decrease in proportion as they are carried further off either to the north, or to the south.

I afterwards on my travels, had frequent proofs of this truth. The Sassafras, which grows in Pensylvania, under forty deg. of lat. and becomes a pretty tall and thick tree, was so little at Oswego and Fort Nicholson, between forty-three. and forty-four deg. of lat. that it hardly reached the height of two or four feet, and was seldom so thick as the little finger of a full grown person. This was likewise the case with the Tulip tree. For in Pensylvania it grows as high as our tallest oaks and firs, and its thickness is proportionable to its height. But about Oswego it was not above twelve feet high, and no thicker than a man’s arm. The Sugar Maple, or Acer saccharinum, is one of the most common trees in the woods of Canada, and grows very tall. But in the southern provinces, as New Jersey and Pensylvania, it only grows on the northern side of the blue mountains, and on the steep hills which are on the banks of the river, and which are turned to the north. Yet there it does not attain to a third or fourth part of the height which it has in Canada. It is needless to mention more examples.

October the 1st. The gnats which are very troublesome at night here, are called Musquetoes. They are exactly like the gnats in Sweden, only somewhat less, and the description which is to be met with in Dr. Linnæus’s Systema Naturæ, and Fauna Suecica, fully agrees with them, and they are called by him Culex pipiens. In day time or at night they come into the houses, and when the people are gone to bed they begin their disagreeable humming, approach always nearer to the bed, and at last suck up so much blood, that they can hardly fly away. Their bite causes blisters in people of a delicate complexion. When the weather has been cool for some days, the musquetoes disappear. But when it changes again, and especially after a rain, they gather frequently in such quantities about the houses, that their numbers are astonishing. The chimneys of the English which have no valves for shutting them up, afford the gnats a free entrance into the houses. In sultry evenings, they accompany the cattle in great swarms, from the woods to the houses or to town, and when they are drove before the houses, the gnats fly in wherever they can. In the greatest heat of summer, they are so numerous in some places, that the air seems to be quite full of them, especially near swamps and stagnant waters, such as the river Morris in New Jersey. The inhabitants therefore make a fire before their houses to expell these disagreeable guests by the smoak. The old Swedes here, said that gnats had formerly been much more numerous; that even at present they swarmed in vast quantities on the sea shore near the salt water, and that those which troubled us this autumn in Philadelphia were of a more venomous kind, than they commonly used to be. This last quality appeared from the blisters, which were formed on the spots, where the gnats had inserted their sting. In Sweden I never felt any other inconvenience from their sting, than a little itching; whilst they sucked. But when they stung me here at night, my face was so disfigured by little red spots and blisters, that I was almost ashamed to shew myself.

I have already mentioned somewhat about the enclosures usual here; I now add, that most of the planks which are put horizontally, and of which the enclosures in the environs of Philadelphia chiefly consist, are of the red cedar wood, which is here reckoned more durable than any other. But where this could not be got, either white or black oak supplied its place. The people were likewise very glad if they could get cedar wood for the posts, or else they took white oak, or chesnut, as I was told by Mr. Bartram. But it seems that that kind of wood in general does not keep well in the ground for a considerable time. I saw some posts made of chesnut wood, and put into the ground only the year before, which were already for the greatest part rotten below.

The Sassafras tree, or Laurus Sassafras, Linn. grows in abundance in the country, and stands scattered up and down the woods, and near bushes and enclosures. On old grounds, which are left uncultivated, it is one of the first that comes up, and is as plentiful as young birches are on those Swedish fields, which are formed by burning the trees which grew on them. [25] The sassafras grows in a dry loose ground, of a pale brick colour, which consists for the greatest part of sand, mixed with some clay. It seems to be but a poor soil. The mountains round Gothenburgh, in Sweden, would afford many places rich enough for the Sassafras to grow in, and I even fear they would be too rich. I here saw it both in the woods amidst other trees, and more frequently by itself along the enclosures. In both it looks equally fresh. I have never seen it on wet or low places. The people here gather its flowers, and use them instead of tea. But the wood itself is of no use in œconomy; for when it is set on fire, it causes a continual crackling, without making any good fire. The tree spreads its roots very much, and new shoots come up from them in some places; but these shoots are not good for transplanting, because they have so few fibres besides the root, which connects them to the main stem, that they cannot well strike into the ground. If therefore any one would plant Sassafras trees he must endeavour to get their berries, which however is difficult, since the birds eat them before they are half ripe. The cows are very greedy after the tender new shoots, and look for them every where.

The bark of this tree is used by the women here in dying worsted a fine lasting orange colour, which does not fade in the sun. They use urine instead of alum in dying, and boil the dye in a brass boiler, because in an iron vessel it does not yield so fine a colour. A woman in Virginia has successfully employed the berries of the Sassafras against a great pain in one of her feet, which for three years together she had to such a degree, that it almost hindered her from walking. She was advised to broil the berries of sassafras, and to rub the painful parts of her foot with the oil, which by this means would be got from the berries. She did so, but at the same time it made her vomit; yet this was not sufficient to keep her from following the prescription three times more, though as often as she made use thereof, it always had the same effect. However she was entirely freed from that pain, and perfectly recovered.