12 Dr. Maclagan on Plants collected in the 



thirty miles north of Kingston ; and Kingston Mills, within five 

 miles of the latter town. At By town itself, although the banks 

 of the Ottawa appear very promising, I could do little in the way 

 of collecting. Cupressus thyoides was then new to me, and the 

 common Juniper is abundant, but except these and one or two 

 Carices, nothing of interest occurred. The prevailing rock here 

 is a compact limestone with numerous large granite boulders on 

 the surface. 



For the first fifty or sixty miles from Bytown the line of 

 canal is extremely uninteresting, passing through what is called 

 drowned land, where the original forest has been killed by the 

 damming up of the Rideau river. Nothing can be conceived 

 more melancholy than the aspect of these extensive tracts of dead 

 trees still erect, but devoid of bark and leaves. I do not know 

 that the cause of death in these so-called drowned lands is well- 

 ascertained, for one would hardly a priori anticipate that the 

 immersion of a tree in water to a depth of three or four feet 

 would prove fatal. The process of decay too, so far as I have 

 seen, appears to be unusually rapid, especially as compared with 

 what takes place after a tree has been killed by burning or gird- 

 ling, i. e. removing a ring of bark near the ground. It was gra- 

 tifying after passing two days of this dismal country to be allowed 

 two or three hours' collecting among the woods near Smith's Falls 

 — a large village in the Bathurst district. In a damp and rich 

 wood there was a profusion of Dentaria diphylla, Panax trifolium, 

 Mitella diphylla, and Erythronium americanum. Mitella nuda, 

 a small delicate species, occurred on a mossy rock ; and in drier 

 portions of the bush, Phlox divaricata, Pedicularis canadensis, 

 Trillium erectum, Trientalis americana and Waldsteinia fraga- 

 rioides occurred in plenty. The form of Trillium erectum which 

 I found was constantly the dark purple variety, nor have I ob- 

 served any other in Canada. Trientalis americana is hardly to 

 be distinguished from the European species except by the more 

 acute form of both the leaves and petals ; though it is possible 

 that discriminating characters might be found on a more minute 

 comparison of the two plants than I have been able to institute. 

 Waldsteinia frag arioides appears to be rather a local species. I 

 have never seen it either in Upper or Lower Canada except in 

 the Kingston district. Convallaria racemosa and pubescens were 

 found sparingly near Smith's Falls; Asarum canadense in its 

 favourite habitat, the darkest recesses of the wood, among rich 

 black mould; and Actcea alba and Leontice thalictroides in 

 broken ground about the margin of the bush. Both these last 

 species are popularly known under the name of Cohoosh — the 

 former white and the latter blue. Blue cohoosh is in some parts 

 of the province a popular remedy in acute rheumatism. The 



