Gazetteer of the State of Maine With Numerous Illustrations, by Geo. J. Varney

BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY B. B. RUSSELL, 57 CORNHILL. 1882. Public domain image from

IQ    GAZETTEER OF MAINE.

stature, but of more embowering foliage. A variety called the Pitch
Pine is sometimes found. It is extremely full of turpentine, and, when
dry, makes exceedingly hot fires.

The Pines, with the Hemlock, Elm, Maple, Beech, and Button-wood,
are our large tres ; the next in size are the Oak, Birch, Basswood, and
Ash ; the third class embraces the Larch, Cedar, Fir, Spruce, Poplar,

Black Cherry, and perhaps a few others. Our oldest trees are the Oak

and the Pine. By their annual rings it has been ascertained that some

of them have been growing from five hundred to one thousand years.    *

We have been too wasteful of our forest treasures, the accumulation of

more than the age of any empire now existing. The forests are still

falling with great rapidity, the amount of lumber prepared for market

each year being very great.

The principal native shrubs of Maine are the Prickly Ash, Mountain
Ash, Black Alder, Barberry, Bayberry, or Wax Myrtle, Boxwood, the
Brambles, viz :—the Raspberry, Blackberry, Brambleberry and Pigeon-
berry; the Currant, Gooseberry; the Brambles and the last two pro-    i

ducing eatable fruit; Dogwood, Cranberry, Whortleberry, Blueberry,    ’ ^

and Bilberry; the Hardhack, Hazle, Ground Hemlock (commonly called    I

the ‘ low Juniper ”), Lambkill (called also Mountain Laurel, Ivy, Calico
Bush), Moosebush (called also Moosewood), Osier, the Plum, the
Choke-Cherry, the Wild-rose (called also the Sweet-briar), Sumach, both
the poison and the common, Sweet-fern, Thorn-bush, and others.

Of Plants, we have Agrimony, American Rose-bay, Adders’-tongue,    .

Bear-berry, or Bear’s-tongue, Bitter-sweet, Brake, Bane-berry, Blood-    ^

root, Buckbean, or Marsh Trefoil, Butterfly-weed, or Pleurisy-root, Cel-    ^

andine, Comfrey, Cat-mint (or Catnip), China-aster, Columbine, Cowslip,

Cuckold, Chequer-berry, or Box-berry, Partridge-berry, Chocolate plant,    >-

Colt’s-foot, or Wild Ginger (Canada Snake-root), Dandelion, Dogsbane,

Dragon-root (Indian Turnip or Wakerobin), Elecampane, or Starwort,

Evergreen, Fire-weed, Fever-root, or Wild Ipecac, the Flags, Sweet,

Cat-tail and Blue, Ginseng, Golden-rod, Golden-thread and many others.

An esteemed writer on agriculture (Samuel Wasson, Esq., of East
Surry, Maine), states in the State Agricultural Report for 1878, that    aV

Maine has one hundred and twenty-five known species of grass. In
New Hampshire ninety species are known, and in Massachusetts, one
hundred and thirty. Mr. Wasson thinks that there is not a doubt that
a proper survey of the State would discover seventy-five species now    <j

unknown here. Of the one hundred and twenty-five known, not more
than thirty have been tamed and found friendly, and not over fifty
are known to be of any • agricultural value. Mr. Wasson says, “When
the Puritans left England in 1620, clover as a cultivated grass was un-
known there, and not till after a century did the English farmers sow
the seed, and then only the chaff from their barn floors. Yellow clover    ^

was introduced in 1659. Perennial rye-grass was first grown in 1677.

This rye, or “ ray ” grass, as it was called, was the first species of peren-
nial grass ever sown artificially in England. It is now the leading
grass in France. In 1700 white clover was introduced. At the close
of the American Revolution timothy was carried to England by the
returning English soldiers. Orchard grass w^ras carried to the northern
country from Virginia in 1764. The sowing of grass seed was not
practised in Scotland until 1792. In the early settlement of the North
Atlantic States, the colonists foraged their cattle upon the wild indig-