An excerpt from a 1672 book describing plant and bird discoveries in New England.

These excerpts from New England’s Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of That County, by John Josselyn, provide evidence of plants being exchanged across hemispheres. Josselyn, an Englishman who made at least three trips to New England in the seventeenth century, was fascinated by the plant and animal life in the region. His published account is one of the earliest and most complete descriptions of the biodiversity in colonial New England. Among plants being exchanged across hemispheres, Josselyn notes that the dandelion “ha[[object Object]] sprung up since the English planted and kept cattle in New England” (137). He also notes that cabbage and lettuce from England grow exceedingly well in New England.