142 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



ries, elms and a few other kinds of trees. I drew no impor- 

 tant conclusions bearing upon the problems of ecology, it is 

 true, but it was interesting to view the extreme fierceness of 

 the war of existence in territory newly thrown open to a host 

 of competitors for its possession — to contemplate in the sea of 

 struggle the ebb and flow of battle. 



For a long time the hazel'brush and the branches of the 

 felled trees lay unburnt upon the ground and the vegetation 

 was at no time greatly damaged by fire, or by roving herds of 

 live-stock. From year to year as the shrubs and young trees 

 became tall enough to cause trouble they were cut to the 

 ground, so that a fair field was maintained for the herbaceous 

 multitudes. Along the borders of a little springy stream 

 Virginia creeper flourished in great profusion upon the heaps 

 of boughs and until these were burnt or had undergone decay, 

 this vine found conditions better suited to its mode of exist- 

 ence than before. Solomon's-seal {Salomonia comrnutata) 

 likewise grew in abundance on the hillside near the stream, 

 where the soil was rich and damp and its relative, the false 

 spikenard {Vagnera racemosa) bore its- company. Very 

 close to the ditch and hence little or not at all inconvenienced 

 by the deforesting of the land, grew the great Lobelia, tall 

 Ijellflower, germander (Teiicrhtm canadcnsc,) and meadow- 

 rue. Daisy fleabanes {Brigeron anmiiis — the sweet scabious 

 — and Brigeron ranwsits) I noticed at first growing for the 

 most part where the openings among the trees formerly were, 

 but in after years they spread more uniformly over the field 

 Canada cinquefoil {Potentilla canadensis) was soon observed 

 making great headway over the brush piles upon the hills and 

 over the broken banks. On the south portion of the clearing, 

 practically to the very foot of the green forest wall, this plant 

 fairly carpeted the ground, but beyond the boundary line 

 within the dense second-growth wood, how different was the 

 view ! Hardly a specimen of this and very few of any other 



