652 Natural Histo?y of Nova Scotia. 



at no very distant period, many large tracts will present 

 nearly the same appearance as the naked heaths and downs 

 of the old world. 



Although the kalmia burns freely in a dry season, it does 

 not seem possible to destroy it by fires where the surface is 

 covered with broken stones. After it is burnt off, a growth 

 of whortles [Faccinium sp.] often springs up, and bears a 

 plentiful crop for two or three years ; but it is finally over- 

 powered by shoots from the roots of the kalmia. It disappears, 

 however, in some situations, where the turf is completely burnt 

 oflf from sand or gravel, and is replaced by a growth of lower 

 or trailing shrubs, which more completely exclude the light 

 and air from the exhausted soil. These are the uva ursi, the 

 crakeberry heath [22'mpetrum nigrum Z#.], the yellow-flow- 

 ering cistus [Hudsonza mcoides £/.], the ceratiola, or Acadian 

 heath [Ceratiola ericbides £.], and (near the sea) the Aca- 

 dian savine. Upon comparing what we observe upon our 

 barren lands with the productions of similar soils in Europe, 

 we shall find reason to believe that the heaths and downs of 

 the old country have formerly been forests ; and that they 

 might again be covered with wood, without any great expense, 

 by imitating the process by which the forest is reproduced on 

 our barrens. It would, for this purpose, be necessary to form 

 such seed-beds as our swamps are, and theirs must have been, 

 at suitable distances, by planting in, and on the edges of, bogs 

 and wet moors, clumps composed of all the trees and shrubs 

 naturally growing in the country ; to which it would be neces- 

 sary to add a sprinkling of such plants as are natives of the 

 woodlands, many of which are necessary to the success of 

 the forest, either as a shelter for seedlings, or for other useful 

 purposes. 



The principal trees of our forests are, the white and red pines 

 [the white is Pinus Strobus L., the red is Pinus resinosa 

 H. £.], the spruces [v^bies alba H. K. 9 rubra Lamb., nigra H. 

 K., and perhaps other species], hemlock [>4 N bies canadensis 

 H.K.~\> beech, sugar maple [^4 N cer saccharinum L.: sugar is pro- 

 cured in North America from other species besides], grey oak 

 [Quercus Pambigua Mr.], yellow birch, and white ash [Prax- 

 inus americana L.~\. The elms, and the large black cherry, com- 

 mon forest trees farther southward, are here nearly confined 

 to alluvial soils. Most of the smaller trees, and many shrubs, 

 are necessary to introduce these upon open land, as they will 

 not succeed unless sheltered when young. Two of these 

 sheltering trees, the red-flowering maple [^4 N cer rubrum Ehrh.~] 

 and the balsam fir, extend their protection to all, as they are 

 to be found upon every kind of soil. The fir is a tree of rapid 



