Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 285 



with the deciduous habit. Every year the ground is covered 

 with a more or less continuous blanket of fallen leaves ; mosses 

 and liverworts may be buried alive, so to speaK, and repeated 

 instances have been observed where without question they have 

 been partially or wholly exterminated in this way. In a general 

 way it may be stated that in the climax forests of northern Cape 

 Breton the abundance of bryophytes is inversely proportional 

 to the abundance of deciduous trees. 



Reproduction of the climax trees. — In the normal course of 

 events, the future character of any forest is determined in large 

 measure by the present character of the immature trees. The 

 nature of the rising generation may be said to furnish a criterion 

 of permanency. A permanent forest is one which is able to 

 perpetuate itself. It is therefore a significant fact that in the 

 primeval forests of this region the composition of the younger 

 generation of trees, at least so far as the dominant species are 

 concerned, is essentially the same as that of the mature stand. 

 Beech, sugar maple, birch, and red maple almost everywhere 

 exhibit good reproduction underneath the forest canopy. The 

 same is true, more locally, of the oak and hemlock, and to a less 

 extent of the ash and white pine. Reproduction in the balsam 

 fir is discussed in subsequent paragraphs. Young trees of 

 paper birch and white spruce are seldom found, and it seems 

 probable that, in general, they either represent relicts of a more 

 primitive type of forest, or that they are able to establish them- 

 selves only under the more favorable light relations which are 

 occasionally created by gaps in the forest canopy overhead. 



The ecological relations of the balsam fir in the climax forest. 

 — The balsam fir may be regarded as the character tree of the 

 northeastern evergreen coniferous climatic forest formation (in 

 this connection, see especially Cooper '13, pp. 36-39). In parts 

 of Cape Breton where this climax formation holds sway, the 

 balsam far outnumbers all other trees. In the competition for 

 supremacy between the deciduous and the evergreen coniferous 

 climax forest-types, the balsam fir, in this region at any rate, 

 is the last element of the more northern type of forest to dis- 

 appear. For this reason, the ecological relations of this tree in 

 the climax forests of the lowland have been given considerable 

 attention, although it must be admitted that the observations 

 have not been wholly conclusive. 



