42 Rhodora [MARCH 
nate that no explanation is given of the exact identity of the tree 
intended. 
Hutchinson has drawn his statements of ranges chiefly from a. few 
authors, Bell, Macoun, and Low, and states that "the records of the 
explorers mentioned have been even more accurate than has generally 
been conceded." Certainly these records are a good basis but, like 
other records, they cannot be safely copied without careful sifting; 
and, although Bell's personal observations seem to be accurate, his 
generalizations and deductions from others are woefully inaccurate. 
'Thus, Bell's statement that the American Elm occurs in Newfound- 
land goes back to old records of superficial and self-confident English 
travellers who wrote with a disregard of precise taxonomy which 
could commend their publications only to that group of American 
*phytogeographers" who abhor both taxonomic accuracy and the 
painstaking and unending study necessary for its achievement. The 
Elm has been included in various journals of travel in Newfoundland 
through a system of * back-door" determinations but in this case, as 
in most others, the identification of the species merely by looking up 
the local name in the index of a manual has led to confusion. The 
situation is as follows: in Newfoundland Yellow Birch, Betula lutea, is 
known as Wrrca HazkEr while in England the latter name has been 
used for Ulmus montana. Therefore, what more natural than for Sir 
Richard Bonnycastle, writing of Newfoundland trees from a “first- 
hand unfamiliarity” with them, to refer to “ ulmus montana, the wych 
hazel, or elm, which . . . grows all over the island"? Bonnycastle’s 
record was forthwith seized upon as proof that Ulmus americana 
grows in Newfoundland, although others, relying merely on indices of 
American manuals, have treated it as Hamamelis virginiana. Neither 
Ulmus nor Hamamelis is known in Newfoundland! 
By too closely following the now almost ancient paper of Bell! 
and quite disregarding the scores of very accurate and detailed 
accounts by later Canadian explorers, Hutchinson has slipped into 
some errors which a few hours of intelligent search of literature would 
have prevented. Thus he states (p. 476) that “the irregularity of 
the limits of Pinus Banksiana may be explained by the fact that 
although temperature conditions have so changed that this species 
has migrated to 56? N. lat. in the highlands of northern Quebec, it has 
1 Robert Bell, Geol. Surv. Can. Rep. for 1879-80, 44-56C (1881). 
