Bearberry Specimen

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ewis's bearberry is his specimen No. 33. The label in Lewis's hand reads "an evergreen plant which grows usually in the open plains, the natives smoke its leaves mixed with Tobacco; called by the French engages Sacacommé. Obtained at Fort Mandan." Possibly It was collected in the late fall of 1804.¹ More likely the specimen was gathered by a Native American, or perhaps this is a portion of the material sent to Lewis by Heney. The species does not occur anywhere near Fort Mandan. This specimen, which Lewis sent back on the keelboat from Fort Mandan in the spring of 1805, is now in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, http://www.acnatsci.org/research/biodiv/lewis&clark/, at the Academy of Natural Sciences, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

--Joseph Mussulman and James L. Reveal

1. Moulton, 3:464. James L. Reveal, Gary E. Moulton, and Alfred E. Schuyler, "The Lewis and Clark collections of vascular plants: Names, types and comments," Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 149 (January 1999): 9.