USA > Maine > The history of the state of Maine; from its first discovery, A. D. 1602, to the separation, A. D. 1820, inclusive, Vol. I > Part 12
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* 1. Pinus Strobus .- 2. Pinus Pinea .- 3 Pinus Taeda .- 4. Pinus Larix. -5. Pinus Balsamea .- 6. Pinus Abies .- 7. Pinus Canadensis -8. Pinus Rupestris, [shrub pinc.]-The Pines, sometimes called the " cone-bearing tree," are all " soft wood."
t Charter of William and Mary, last clauses.
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5. The Fir, which yields a fine balsam, is often called " silver (Fir.) fir." 6. The Hemlock in stature almost vies with the mast-pine ; (Hemlock ) its bark is much used in tannery. 7. The Spruce is of two varie- (Spruce ) ties-the white is a straight and smart wood, fit for spars, ship- knees, and joists, and sometimes grows two feet in diameter ; the black Spruce is used in making beer, and with molasses forms a most wholesome and palatable drink.
Within fifteen years, the white spruce in many places has died in great numbers, so that " where once grew thousands, it is now difficult to procure spars for the use of our own vessels." The cause of this fell destruction, it is supposed, may be attributed to the canker-worm, or some other insect, which in the summer months ravages its foliage and brings on a fatal consumption. Some have supposed the cold seasons, between 1811 and 1816, were in some measure conducive to their ruin.
The Poplar* is of two species, 1. the Aspen or white poplar, Poplar. 2. the Balsam, or black Poplar ; the former is cream coloured and soft, somewhat like bass-wood. Its trunk is seldom more than a foot in diameter, its leaves always tremulous, and its wood is poor fuel. The latter is an elegant tree, of a large size and is particularly celebrated for its balsam, which in the spring may be extracted from its buds, rich and fragrant as that of Peru. Some- times it is called the Sycamore, or Balm of Gilead, and is found in the northern parts of the State.
Sassafrast is a species of the Laurel or bay-tree,# so much used by the ancients in purifications ; of which there are with us, Sassafras. 1 st this Sassafras, and 2d the Fever-bush. The former was much Fever bush. the most celebrated, two centuries ago, of any indigenous tree on our shores. It grows in moist land ; it is of small size ; and its root, bark, buds and leaves have a very aromatic refreshing smell. It possesses powerful and salutary medicinal qualities ; is said to to be a remedy for the stone, the strangury, the scurvy, the plague, the dropsy and rheumatism ; and was a great article of exportation in the early voyages to this country. One of Capt. Gosnold's men, on our shores, was cured by it in twelve hours, of
* 1. Populus Tremula .- 2. Populus Nigra.
+1. Laurus Sassafras :- In York County .- 2. Caurus Benzoin.
[ Cinnamon, Cassia, Camphire-tree, are of the same fami'y. It is a good ingredient in diet-drink ; its volatile oil is of great use .- 2 Bigelow, 146.
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THE TREES OF MAINE.
[INTRODUC.
a surfeit occasioned by feeding excessively on the bellies of the dogfish,* The Fever-bush, or Spice-wood, is more strong scent- ed than the Sassafras, and is a mere shrub ; both are wholesome ingredients in beer, or diet-drink.
Wickape, or Leather wood.
Leatherwood or Indian Wickape is a small treet which grows on the best hardwood land and none other : and its branches have a jointed mode of growth. It has a smooth tough outside bark of a light grey colour, between which and the wood is an inner bark, very white and exceedingly strong ; and when green, pli- ant and soft ; or even when dry, it is sufficiently limber and flexible to be used in lieu of twine or cords. Millers often lay by them a stock of its bark, for bag-strings, in supply of their customers ; and the Indians used it for their cordage. The tree grows some- times two inches in diameter and ten or twelve feet in height. Its wood is elastic and next to the cork for lightness ; it is also bitter. Of its twigs the Natives make beautiful baskets. Its roots are emetic, and its fruit, which consists of small oval, red, one-seeded berries, are quite narcotic.
Willow,
The eighteenth and last kind of indigenous tree we shall men- tion as found in this State, is the Willow.} It is of two species, the swamp, or red, and the white- the former is the first inhabi- tant of the woods to welcome by its blossoms the return of spring.§
The largest and heaviest trees in our forests are the white Pine, the Hemlock, the Elm, the Maple, the Beech, and the Button-wood, The next class in size, embraces the Oak, the Birch, the Bass-wood, and the Ash. The third class is the Larch, Cedar, Fir, Spruce, and Poplar. The oldest trees, are the Oak and Pine ; for by their annual ringlets, formed between the wood and the bark, it has been ascertained that some of them have been growing between 500 and 1000 years. As death is the natural consequence of age; decay begins at the heart of the tree,
* Smith's Hist. + Dirca Palustris, # 1. Salix .- 2. Salix Alba .. § Swamp Sumach (Rhus Toxicodendrum.)
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THE SHRUBS OF MAINE.
SECT, IV.]
SHRUBS.
THESE form a large family in the vegetable republic. But it Shrubs. is not very easy to distinguish what are shrubs from what are trees. Both are perennial; and sometimes a shrub has limbs, or branches. In common parlance, however, that is a shrub, to the top of which when green, a man can reach, provided it be perennial ; if annual, it is a plant.
It is observable that no family is so universally fruitful as that which comes under this appellation, "shrubbery." Some bear nuts, though the most of them bear berries ; and with a few ex- ceptions, they all have something of fruit, which is palatable and esculent. We can do little more than mention their genera and species, and describe a few which are the most important.
The prickly Ash* is a large shrub, having on its branches Prickly sharp prickles. Its bark possesses warming and pungent quali- Ash. ties, and the seed and rind of the capsule are highly fragrant, and smell like the oil of lemons ; it is of considerable efficacy ín cases of chronic rheumatism.
The mountain Asht is a small tree growing in elevated bogs, Mountain having pinnated leaves like Ash and clustered scarlet berries. It Ash. has a five-cleft calyx, five petals, two or three styles and an infe- riour or crowned berry, with a mealy pulp, enclosing three hard seeds, like the pippins of the apple,
The black Aldert is found in swamps, and about streams and Alder. ponds, and ceases to grow when it is about 8 or 10 feet in height. Its leaves are alternate oval and acute at the base, with some hairiness on the veins underneath. The flowers are small and white, growing in little tufts ; the bark is bitter and a decoction of it is reputed to be a tonic. In intermittents, and some other diseases, it has been used with success as a substitute for the Peruvian bark. Small doses taken, and a wash of it applied, serve to cure eruptions on the skin, The black Alder is very attractive to the eye in autumn, for it changes the hue of its leaves from green to a beautiful red ; and in the midst of nature's sur- rounding decays, it becomes one of the most conspicuous indi- viduals of the woods, by its glossy scarlet berries, embracing in bunches, for a long time, the sides of the branches.
* Xanthoxylum Fraxineum.
t Sorbus.
¿ Prinos Verticillatas,-3 Bigelow 141. See Birch.
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THE SHRUBS
[INTRODUC.
Barberry.
Barberry* is a briery bush, found in the western parts of the State, which bears beautiful clusters of red and very acid ber- ries. They are used for making pickles and for preserves.
Bayberry.
The Bayberry, or Wax Myrtle, t grows from 3 to 7 feet high, with its top much branched ; it flowers on the sides of the branches, and bears clusters resembling berries. Father Ralle observes, as to the method of il uminating his chapel at Norridge- wog, that he " found an excellent substitute for wax by boiling the berries of a kind of laurel in water, and skimming off the thick oily substance which rose to the top .- Twenty-four pounds of this beautiful green wax, and an equal quantity of tallow, made one hundred wax candles, (he says) of a foot long." The berry, which consists of a stone enclosing a kernel, is cov- ered with black grains, incrusted with white wax.
Boxwood.
Among the shrubs of the largest size is the Boxwood, or " shad-blossom"§ (sometimes erroneously taken for "common Dogwood.") It grows 15 or 18 feet in height, has a gray bark, flowers in May, about the time the shad and their fellow travellers ascend the rivers in the spring, and is therefore called "shad tree." It is thus among the first tenants of the woods to embellish the vernal scenery by its snow-white blossoms, and it bears red ber- ries : Its bark is used in fevers.
Brambles.
Of the Bramble kind || we have seven species :- 1 and 2, the black and red Raspberry ; 3 and 4, the upright and running Blackberry, or Dewberry ; T 5 the Brambleberry ; 6, the Pigeon- berry, ** and 7, the Cloudberrytt-all which bear fruits succulent ;
* Berberis vulgaris. It is said Corn will not fill well near it.
t Myrica Cerifera. # 8 Coll. Mass. His. Soc. 2d Series, 252.
¿ Aronia -? It bears a berry, having from 5 to 10 cells .- Nuttall's Bot- tany, 114.
|| 1. Rubus Idaens .- 2. Rubus Canadensis .- 3. Rubus Fruticosus.(*)-4. Rubus Moluccanus .- 5. Rubus Occidentalis .- 6. Rubus Caesius .- Rubus Chamaemorus.
(*) High bush Blackberry is sometimes called " Mulberry." Rubus villosus.
T Dewberries are considered by some to be the same as running black- berries, by others, gooseberries.
** It is said to belong to the order of Ivies,-Gr. Kissos [Cissus] hereda .- Quære.
It Cloudberry .- (Rubus chameamorus)-grows on the sides of mountains, or exposed and elevated grounds. The shrub bears a single berry on the
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SECT. IV.] OF MAINE.
and in most places they are abundant. The last is supposed to be the same as the Knotberry. The pigeon-berry bush is as tall as that of a blackberry, bears abundance of small purple berries, the chief food of pigeons.
We have two species of the Corinth :- 1, the black* Cur- Corinths rant, t and 2, the wild Gooseberry.t Of the former, the party that visited the Katahdin found plenty ; and the latter are seen in the borders of the woods, in two varieties, red and white, and both are of a pleasant flavour.
Dogwood, § or Cornel, is a shrub or small tree from 15 to 20 Dogwood. feet in height, bearing flat clusters, or cymes of flowers not un- like those of Elder and commonly white. The flowers are formed into flat heads, compounded and surrounded by four leaves, which grow out and become of a white colour, adding, from the latter end of May to that of June, "one of the most characteristic vegetable features to our vernal landscape." Its wood is hard, bark rough, and has upon some people an effect like the Peruvian bark ; to others it is deleterious, as if possessing a poisonous quality.
Of the Hurtleberry|| genus, there are four species, 1 the Hurtleber- cranberry, 2, the whortleberry, 3, the blueberry and 4, the bilberry, cranberry. ry genus -all of which are plenty, nutritious and delectable to the taste. W'hortle- berry . Blueberry. Bilberry. Cranberries grow about ponds and marshes. Great quantities are gathered every year on the Island Mount Desert and on the Cranberry Islands in that neighborhood. The berries, red and acid, containing many seeds, are borne by slender bushes 3 feet high, and give a most wholesome and palatable zest to meats. Whortleberries are black ; but bilberries, as well as blueberries, are blue, being the largest and sweetest of these three species.
top of the stem. In size and flavour it resembles a strawberry ; having a greater though pleasant smartness, and making excellent preserves. Its colour is at first scarlet ; turning, as it ripens, to a yellow. When eaten with sugar and cream it is delicious, and so cooling as to abate fevers. This fruit lasts about a month.
* Ribes Nigrum. The black Currant-bush is high, its berries are in clusters, one variety has a flat stone within, and the other is without stone, They are drier than English black Currants.
{ Ribes Giosularia. § Cornus Florida.
|| Vaccinium-1 Vaccinium-Oxycoccus. 2 Vaccininm-Corymbosum. 3 Vaccinium amonam. 4 Vaccinium vitisidoca. 5 Vaccinium Tenellum. {Dwarf whortleberry.]
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THE SHRUBS
[INTRODUC.
Hardhack.
The Hardhack, a barren bush, usually chooses poor cold ground for its residence and growth. Some of its individuals may be three feet tall ; being one of the smallest belonging to the shrubby tribe. It branches, and bears flowers of a conical form ; the colour of one variety is yellowish and of the other a light red.
Hazle.
The Hazle* flourishes in the hedges of fields, and on the banks of rivers. It occurs in the south parts of the State, and is common in Bethel, on the Androscoggin. Its nut, is of the size of a pea, enclosed in a shell, light brown coloured and hard, and is very rich and esculent. The Witch Hazel,t which is a plant, is entirely different from the other, and is used by the na- tives as a remedy for inflammations. Its seed is about as large as an apple seed. It is unique in flowering, for it puts forth its blossoms, after the frost has stripped the branches of its leaves.
Ground Hemlock.
Low or Ground hemlockt is a shrub which branches upon the ground, bears berries, transparent, pleasant to the taste, large as currants, and of amber colour. The Indians use a tea made of its boughs steeped, as a sovereign remedy for the rheumatism.
Lamb-kill, or Laurel.
The Lamb-kill,§ on account of its properties and beauties, is a very celebrated shrub. It grows rarely to the height of a man ; its leaves are evergreen, very smooth, and in form, oval. Its flowers, in their sprightly colours from white to red, give it an elevated rank among the kindred beauties, which add brilliancy to the natural scenery of the woods. It has been called mountain Laurel, Spoonwood, Ivy and Calico Bush. Its wood is dense and hard, and is used as a material in constructing musical in- struments, and by mechanics for handles to their tools. Though deer, it is said, feed on its green leaves without harm ; yet when young cattle and sheep eat of them in severe winters, through want of better food, they often die immediately or fall sick and recover with difficulty. Calves, after feeding on its foliage, have been known to swell, foam at the mouth and stagger, and were hardly cured, though gun-powder and other medicines were ap- plied. Large cattle and horses sometimes also sicken for the same cause; and it is said, a decoction of it will produce a sensible inconvenience in the human system : yet we may eat partridges whose crops are distent with laurel buds, without any ill consequences.
* Corylus Americana.
# See Juniper-Ante.
t Hamamelis Virginiana. § Kalmia Latifolia.
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SECT. IV.] OF MAINE.
Moose-bush* is a small tree, or large shrub, not uncommon in Moose bush. the forest, which, with the noble animal whose name it bears, seems to retreat, every where, before the advances of cultivation. To browse upon its berries, buds and small limbs, the moose and deer seem to be especially eager.
The Osiert is of the willow-kind, and always found to be most Osier. flourishing by water-courses. It grows large enough for switches, yields rather an aromatic smell ; and from its freshness, it has been called green Osier.
The Prune genust embraces, 1, the Plum, of which we reckon Prune kind, three varieties, the red, the yellow and the thorn plum, which are Plum. neither plenty nor grateful to the taste. It has five petals, a smooth drupe and a nut with a prominent feature. 2, It also embraces the Cherry, of which we have the black cherry-tree, which bears fruit abundantly of that colour :- and the Choke- Cherry. cherry, or as some may call it the choke-berry of two varieties, the fruit of one being dark brown, the other red. They are larger than currants and quite saturant. The choke-cherry bush is a considerable shrub of six feet in height.
The Rose-bush'S (wild,) holds a distinguished place in our Rose-bush. American shrubbery. It grows about six feet in height, its top is bowing, like that of an upright blackberry, though bolder and more graceful. It branches, and is well fortified with pin-pointed thorns. Its flowers, which are of two varieties, white and pale- red, are endued with a fragrance hardly surpassed by any in the vegetable republic.
One species of our Sumach|| is of a deleterious or poisonous char- Sumach, acter. It has been sometimes called poison Ash, and by mistake, also, " Dogood."" The other is the common Sumach. The lat- ter grows much higher than a man can reach ; its body, near the ground, is three inches in diameter or more, and its plentiful branches bear large conical bunches of berries, which, when ripe, are claret-red, and afford a good ingredient for dyeing, and the branches for tanning.
two species-
* Or " Moosewood," Dirca palustris.
t Vimen Viride .- Or, Salix vimineus.
Prunus-1. Prunus sylvestris. 2. Prunus virginiana .- [Cherry-tree.] § Rosea Sylvestris. || Rhus Vernix.
T Its berries, which are large as peas and of a dark blue, have been call- ed " dogberries."
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THE PLANTS AND HERBS
[INTRODUC.
Poison sumach.
The poison Sumach occurs in the western, but very seldom, if ever, in the eastern parts of the State. It is an elegant shrub, growing 10 or 15 feet high, branching at top and covered with a pale redish bark. Its wood, which contains a great pith, is light and brittle ; its flowers are green, small and fragrant : and what is remarkable, the barren and the fertile flowers grow on different trees. An incision of the bark will exude a juice opaque, strong, and of a disagreeable smell; and when touched by persons of some constitutions will effect them as doth poison ivy. The first effects are an itching and swelling, then a redness and painful burning. But it is seldom fatal ; clothes dipped in lead-water and applied have proved a relief ; and indeed many are regardless of the poison Sumach, as it never injures them. Its fruit is a bunch of dry berries or greenish drupes.
Sweet-fern.
The Sweet-fern* is much smaller and of less notoriety, than the Rose-bush, though its leaves are wholesome in diet-drink, or beer ; and it indicates the land where it grows to be uniformly warm and sweet.
Thorn-bush.
The Thorn-busht seldom grows higher than 10 or 12 feet; its bark is dark brown, its wood very tough, its limbs and shoots are numerous and thick, and upon its branches grow spurs, or slender thorns, an inch and half in length and very sharp-point- ed .¿ Apple-tree shoots engrafted into its body, cut off near the ground, have flourished well. The thorn-bush bears berries en- closing several stones, or seeds, like the haws of the hawthorn in England, though larger. § The meat of the seed is rich and palata- ble.
These are the principal small trees and shrubs which variegate. and adorn our woods, humble it is true, though strongly marked by their peculiarities.
PLANTS AND HERBS.
PLANTS.
THE native individuals of this department are very numerous,. all designed, no doubt, to be of essential and various use to man as well as beast. In China, it is said, every herb is applied to some valuable purpose, and every weed has its well known use.
* Comptonia, Asplenfolia .- Rev. Dr. Cochrane. t Cratoegus Coccinea.
# Of the thorn there are two varictics, one has a purple and the other a white flower.
¿ J. Bennock Esq.
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If the properties of all our plants were scientifically understood, Herbs and the general use of them would save to the State a heavy annual tax, occasioned by the importation of foreign drugs, and probably be equally efficacious to preserve health and prolong life.
These, as distinguished from the preceding classes, liave stems, or stalks, without the contexture and firmness of wood. Such are denominated annual, as produce flowers and fruits only one season and then die, as the golden-rod or the strawberry ; and if the root also dies the same year, and the species is propagated the next season from the seed, it is literally a vegetable. The perennial plant has a root which has within itself a principle of continued life, yielding new flowers and seeds, year after year ; though the stalk dies the root lives, and most plants have this property. Linnaeus calls the whole plant an herb, including the stalk, the leaves, the props and defenders, and the buds. But what are vines and what are, botanically, roots ?- are questions which botanists have not definitely determined, except that the former being more slender and weak, as climbers, are dependent on their stouter neighbours and their own tendrils for supports ; and the latter, while they evince their existence by a rising herb, are remarkable for the esculent or peculiar properties of the parts within the ground.
Of the prodigious number of our indigenous plants, we will now proceed to mention such as have come to our knowledge ; and though the list contains more than 150 individuals, they are probably not a tenth part of the whole. For the sake of con- venience, as a perfectly botanical classification is impracticable, they are arranged in alphabetical order.
We begin with Agrimony* and with the " American Rose- bay."t The latter, though it prefers a warmer climate than ours, has been " observed growing plentifully on the borders of Sebago lake, near Portland." It chooses a damp spungy soil, a shelter from the sunbeams, and always dwindles within a year or two after being transplanted. It is large, straggling, and quite irregular in its manner of growth. The bark is grayish and much cracked ; the leaves are in tufts at the ends of the branches, ever-
* Agrimony [Agrimonia Eupatoria] has yellow blossoms, in long termnin- ating spikes; its root is used by the natives in fevers, and its leaves for diet-drink and the jaundice. t Rhododendron Maximum.
vegetables.
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THE PLANTS
[INTRODUC.
vegetables.
Herbs and green and covered with nap. The flowers form a terminal clus- ter, just above the leaves, each one is elliptical, having a white ground most delicately shaded with lake, the upper and largest are freckled with an assemblage of orange-coloured spots at the centre. This plant is ranked among the first astringents ; but the supposition that it is poisonous is an errour. Both the leaves and bark, digested in alcohol, yield a resinous tincture, quickly turbid when mixed with water, and the fluid ought to be taken sparingly.
Of the three following we can only say, that Adder's-tongue* grows two feet high, in running water, and is said to be a remedy for the hydrophobia ; that Angelicat is a third taller, loves moist ground, and a decoction of it will relieve asthmatic affections ; and that Arsmart,t a well-known low herb, is said to dye a deep yellow, but is too pungent and strong tasted to be eaten green, even by any beast.
The Bearberry, § or Bear's grape, trails on the ground, putting forth roots from its prominent stems, or rising shoots, and has scattered evergreen leaves, finely freckled. Its flowers are little clusters, pale red and white, pending from the ends of the bran- ches. A decoction of this plant is said to be good in strangury, the stone, and the dysentery. But not more than ten grains of its pulverized leaves ought ever to be taken at a time. The taste of the leaves is both astringent and bitter.
Bitter-sweet, || a hardy climbing plant of five feet high and shrubby, is good for the rheumatisin, asthma, and jaundice, and in diet-drink ; Betony, T the stalk of which is much shorter, has long leaves hanging from several branches, and a purple blowth,- a tea of it will relieve the headach. The Brake, ** of which there are several varieties, the root of which is sometimes called the " bog-onion," when boiled in water, to a jelly, is good for sprains. The Bane-berry,tt with a stalk a foot high, has green balls, as large as those of asparagus, and is ill-tasted.
The Blood-roottt is an acrid narcotic ; and a large dose of it occasions nausea, heart-burn, and faintness. It is an emetic ;
* Ophioglossum. + Angelica Sylvestris .- " American Masterwort."
# Polygonum Sagittalis. į Abutus Uva Ursi. | Solanum Dulcamara.
T To wit, Head and Wood Betony.
** Pteris Aquilina.
ff Actea Spicata.
# Sanguinaria Canadensis,
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and has been beneficially used in the incipient stages of pulmo- Herbs and nary consumption, the influenza, and the whooping cough. It has been called Paccoon and Red-root. Its stalk is quite short ; and its beautiful white flowers proceed from a horizontal fleshy root, brownish without, the juice of which is of a bright orange colour, and gives the plant its name.
vegetables.
The Buckbean, or Marsh Trefoil* prefers always wet spongy soils. The root penetrates or runs to a great distance in the bog- earth, with half-inch joints ; its leaves spring from the end of the roots ; it flowers in the middle of May, and its blossoms, on the top of a leafless stalk, are white, with an outer tinge of red. The plant holds a high place as a bitter or tonic.
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