Reproduction of Forests in British North America. 269 



of the soil for a long period. In this state, the burned ground 

 is usually considered a permanent barren ; a name which does 

 not, however, well express its character, for though it may 

 appear bleak and desolate when viewed from a distance, it 

 is a perfect garden of flowering and fruit-bearing plants, and 

 of beautiful mosses and lichens. There are few persons born 

 in the American colonies, who cannot recal the memory of 

 happy youthful days spent in gathering flowers and berries 

 in the burnt barrens. Most of the plants already referred 

 to as appearing soon after fires, continue to grow in these 

 more permanent barrens. In addition to these, however, a 

 great variety of other plants gradually appear, especially the 

 Kalmia angustifolia or sheep laurel, which often becomes 

 the predominant plant over large tracts. Cattle straying into 

 the barrens deposit the seeds of cultivated plants, as the 

 grasses and clovers, as well as of many exotic weeds, which 

 often grow as luxuriantly as any of the native plants. 



Lastly, When the ground is permanently occupied for agri- 

 cultural purposes, the reproduction of the forest is of course 

 entirely prevented. In this case, the greater number of the 

 smaller plants found in the barrens disappear. Some species 

 of the Solidago and Aster, and the Canada thistle, as well as 

 a few smaller plants, remain in the fields, and sometimes be- 

 come troublesome weeds. The most injurious weeds found 

 in the cultivated ground, are not, however, native plants, but 

 foreign species, which have been introduced with the culti- 

 vated grains and grasses ; the ox-eyed daisy or white weed, 

 and the crowsfoot or buttercup, are two of the most abundant 

 of these. 



When a district has undergone the last change, when the 

 sombre woods and the shade-loving plants that grow beneath 

 them, have given place to open fields, clothed with cultivated 

 plants, the metamorphosis which has taken place extends 

 in its efi^ects to the indigenous animals ; and in this depart- 

 ment, its eff'ects are nearly as conspicuous and important as 

 in relation to vegetation. Some wild animals are incapable 

 of accommodating themselves to the change of circumstances ; 

 others at once adapt themselves to new modes of life, and 

 increase greatly in numbers. It was before st«ated that the 



