FLORA.

An enumeration of indigenous and naturalized plants found growing in Bucks county,

Pennsvlvania.
 

BY I. S. ]\rOYER, M. I)., QUAKERTOWN, PA,
 

Although Bucks county i,s one oftlie oldest in the state, the author is not aware
that an attempt has ever been made to catalogue her rich Flora. There is little doubt
that some of the older botanists have collected within our borders. Bartram, Nuttall,
Durand, Michaux, Schweinitz, and others, illustrious in botanical annals, have most
probably visited portions of our territory, and described new species from typical
specimens, first gatliered from our soil. As an item of interest in this connection,
Professor Porter, of Easton, has kindly furnished an extract from a letter of Zaccheus
Collins (a distinguished botanist of Phila.delphia, and in whose honor Xuttall has
named a genus of Figworts Collinsia) to the eminent botanist Muhlenberg, dated
August 23d, 1813, " I was lately in Bucks county, about five miles north-west of Bris¬
tol, a spot very interesting to me botanically and geologically. Although my oppor¬
tunity was transient from bad weather, I met with several plants for the first time,
such as your Malaxis-ophiogiossoides, Woodsia-onschioides, Orchis, perhaps incisa,
and here some years back I first recognized Hydropeltis-purpurea, Crotonopsis-
linearis, Miclix., and the only Pennsylvania spot known to me of Arbitus-uva-ursi.
In fine the Magnolias, the glabrous Prinos, Ilex, etc., seemed involuntarily to trans¬
port me to Jersey." Botanical nomenclature has changed somewhat in sixty years,
but the botanical student Avill have no difliculty in tracing these plants under their
more recent names, in the catalogue. The plants collected by the veteran Collins, so
manv years ago, are still found in those haunts (save only the Bearberryj, and tliey
are some of the rarest treasures of our Flora. The diversified surface, varying soils,
and marked difierences in geological formation in difterent portions of the county
combine to produce a rich and varied Flora, which compares favorably with that of
any of the neighboring counties. The following is a brief summary of the more in¬
teresting botanical localities of the county. In the upper townships, especially in
Milford, Bichland, llockhill, and Springfield, a series of bogs occur, in which many
fine and peculiar plants are found. In Springfield, in the Flint hill range, an out¬
lying spur of the South mountain, are a succession of deep ravines, having generally
a north-north-east direction. At the bottom of these ravines deep, cold bogs are met
with, which if not genuine peat-bogs, approach very nearly to them in every essential
character. There some rare plants appear not found elsewhere in the county. The
Globe Flower, Cranberry, several fine orchids. Cotton Grass, and some rare sedges
indicate the richness of the Flora. The extensive bogs south of Quakertown differ
widely in character from those of Springfield. Several rare species occur here never
seen in the peat-bogs, or elsewhere iu our district. In Milford, along the headwaters
of Swamp creek, are found low woods and swamps of a somewhat sandy nature, in
which a number of forms are met with never discovered elsewhere. Round-leaved
Violet, small flowered Lady's Slipper, Pendulous Pogonio, Hairy Wood Rush, and a rare
(rlyccria nnist suflicc as examples. The rocky belt extending through the countv
Al