146 LAKE SUPERIOR. 



and evidence will pour in upon us that all creatures are expressions 

 of the thoughts of Him whom we know, love and adore unseen. 



After these general remarks let us consider more closely the 

 vegetation of the temperate and of the colder parts of North Ameri- 

 ca, and compare it with that of the elevated regions forming in 

 Central Europe the ridge which separates the nations of German 

 tongue from the Roman. In these notes I shall, however, limit my- 

 self mostly to trees and forest vegetation, as this is the characteristic 

 vegetation of those tracts of land, and only introduce now and then 

 occasional remarks upon the other plants. It is indeed a peculiarity 

 of the northern temperate regions all over the world, to be wooded, 

 and to afford room for an extensive development of other plants 

 only in those places where permanent accumulations of water ex- 

 clude forests, where a rocky soil does not afford them a genial 

 ground, or where artificial culture has destroyed them, introducing 

 in their place agricultural products. 



A few families, however, constitute the whole arborescent vegeta- 

 tion of temperate regions, and the uniformity of the forests all over 

 that zone in the Old and New World is quite remarkable. In the 

 first rank we find the Amentaceae and Coniferse,with their various sub- 

 families and tribes ; next to them maples, walnut, ashes, linden, wild 

 cherries, &c., &c. In the special distribution of each of these fam- 

 ilies, we observe, however, some peculiarities which will equally claim 

 our attention. 



There is, for instance, a striking contrast within these limits, between 

 the vegetation of Coniferae, which are evergreen, and that of Amen- 

 taceae, Juglandeae, Fraxineae, Acerinae, Tiliaceae, &c., which lose their 

 foliage in the fall. Again taken as a natural assemblage, the plants 

 which constitute the northernmost forests are farther remarkable for 

 covering extensive tracts of land with one and the same species, to 

 the exclusion of others. Or else a few species are combined together 

 in various ways, the Coniferas generally excluding the trees with 

 deciduous leaves, or occurring together but rarely, and vice vers&. 



In the warmer parts of the temperate regions, the diversity of 

 forest trees with deciduous leaves is greater than farther north, 

 where Coniferae appear almost exclusively. Another difference is ob- 

 served in the more continuous distribution of northern forests, while 



