UNITED STATES. 295 
summer, their cultivation has been abandoned from deficiency of 
seasonable heat. 
My first visit to Montreal, from the 24th to the 26th inclusive, was 
marked by continued dull, chilly, foggy, and rainy weather, with an 
equinoctial gale, not at all answering to my anticipations of the calm 
and clearness of a Canadian autumn. This state of things, however, 
was not so bad as to confine me within doors, and I sallied forth on the 
25th to explore the mountain, a high round-topped hill, or rather a 
group of parallel ridges overlooking the city on the N. and N.W., 
and affording charming views of the surrounding country and the 
noble St. Lawrence. On the way thither I observed a few plants of 
Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), and amongst some potatoes Euphorbia 
helioscopia grew plentifully, but appeared slightly to differ from the 
common European form of the species. Lithospermum officinale was 
also common in pastures and waste places. The trees have as yet put 
on but little of the livery of autumn, the leaves being but slightly and 
partially discoloured, only showing the worn rusty aspect that precedes 
actual decay. The lower part of the Montreal Mountain is an open 
grove, the trees standing detached without the least underwood ; 
higher up, the soil is more rocky, the sides very steep, and covered 
with a rich vegetable mould and loose fragments of rock, producing 
a considerable undergrowth of shrubs, herbaceous plants, and ferns. 
The timber on the mountain, like that all around Montreal, consists 
almost entirely of hard-wood trees, a very few Hemlocks (P. Canadensis) 
here and there, with an occasional white or Weymouth pine (P. Strobus) 
excepted. Those at the base are chiefly Bass-wood (Zilia glabra), one 
of the most prevalent species in the north, Wallnut (Juglans cinerea), 
Hickory (Carye sp.), Sugar-berry (Celtis occidentalis), rare, only one 
specimen observed, but that one of considerable size. This tree must 
here have nearly reached: its polar limit. Sugar Maple (Acer saccha- 
rinum) of fine size and height, and, next to the Bass-wood, the most 
abundant forest-tree hereabouts. The Red Oak, Quercus coccinea, was 
the only species I found of this genus. A little higher up the hill, 
where the ascent becomes steep and stony, the Moose-wood, Acer 
pennsylvanicum, with its ample three-lobed leaves, much like those of 
Rubus odoratus, aud prettily striped bark, first made its appearance as 
a low slender tree or large shrub. Associated with the foregoing 
were the Iron-wood (Ostrya virginica), Hornbeam (Carpinus Ameri- 
