LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTH AMERICA. " 217 



evidently did not much like the neighbourhood they had got 

 into. 



Having said this in regard to the woods, I need not, were 

 my readers Americans, say any more about them, but as I 

 suppose that amongst my readers may be some one almost as 

 ignorant on this sylvan subject as our legislators are on all 

 that relates to the geography, the laws, and resources of the 

 United States, I shall have to tell what trees are there. There 

 are plenty of hemlocks, spreading their long dark branches ; 

 there are beeches, with leaves of the lightest green ; there are 

 birches too, and maples of various species, and here and 

 there the shad tree [Amelanchier hotryapium) and the bird 

 cherry {Cerasus Virginianus) displayed their snow-white 

 blossoms, and the ravine is bordered by large clusters of giant 

 cedars, often of the most grotesque forms. The elms here 

 attain an enormous size, though I have rarely seen them so 

 beautiful in form as in the more Eastern States. I measured 

 one fallen elm here which was ninety feet before it branched. 

 The sycamore, or button wood, of the Americans [Platanus 

 occidentalis) also occurs here, and the basswood [Tilia 

 Ainericana), is abundant. The undergrowth consists of two 

 or three species of Viburnum, Acer, Lonicera, Ruhus, Sam- 

 hucus ruhens, and young growth of the various hard-wooded 

 trees. On the skirts of the woods, and by the road-sides, the 

 red and purple-berried sumachs {Rhus glabra and Rhtis 

 typhina) abounded, and the beautiful flowering raspbeny 

 {Rubus odoratus) hangs from the sides of the rocks, as if try- 

 ing to bathe its rosy blossoms, or delicious fruit in the amber 

 waves, or forms large thickets on the sunny sides of the 

 wood. 



The spring, the short spring of New York, calls up a host 

 of flowers here. First, the little blue Hepatica peeps from 

 the clefts of the rocks,' and is soon followed by the fragrant 

 Dielytra cucullaria, and the spring beauty [Claytonia Vir- 

 ginica.) Then follow Violce, blue, yellow, and white ; Trillia, 

 Uvulari(B, Convallarim of various species ; Aquilegia Cana- 

 densis, the gold thread {Coptis trifolia), three species of ^c- 

 t(Ba, Tiarella cordifolia, Clintonia borealis, Streptopus roseus, 

 and a variety of other flowers too numerous to mention. 



The march of summer is announced by the flowering of 

 the Compositdd, which continue until late in autumn. In 

 summer, too, various species of Asclepias, Lobelia, Desmo- 



* I have often seen this flower bhie, pale blue, and white, in America, 

 never pink. It is said to be found with pink flowers in the mountains of 

 Carolina. 



