408 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



burned, the same description of wood is immediately reproduced. 

 This may be easily accounted for. The soil contains abundance 

 of the seeds of these trees, there are even numerous young plants 

 ready to take the place of those which have been destroyed ; and 

 if the trees have been cut in winter, their stumps produce young 

 shoots. Even in cases of this kind, however, a number of shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants, not formerly growing in the place, spring 

 up ; the cause of this may be more properly noticed when describ- 

 ing cases of another kind. This simplest mode of the destruction 

 of the forest may assume another aspect. If the original wood 

 has been of kinds requiring a fertile soil, such as maple or 

 beech, and if this wood be removed, for example, for firewood, it 

 may happen that the quantity of inorganic matter thus removed 

 from the soil may incapacitate it, at least for a long time, from 

 producing the same description of timber. In this case, some 

 species requiring a less fertile soil may occupy the ground. For 

 this reason, forests of beech growing on light soils, when removed 

 for firewood, are sometimes succeeded by spruce and fir. I have 

 observed instances of this kind both in Nova Scotia and Prince 

 Edward Island. 



2nd. When the trees are burned, without the destruction of 

 the whole of the vegetable soil, the woods are reproduced by a 

 more complicated process, which may occupy a number of years. 

 In its first stage, the burned ground bears a luxuriant crop of 

 herbs and shrubs, which, if it be fertile and not of very great 

 extent, may nearly cover its surface in the summer succeeding 

 the fire. This first growth may comprise a considerable variety 

 of species, which we may divide into three groups. The first of 

 these consists of those herbaceous plants which have their roots so 

 deeply buried in the soil as to escape the effects of the fire. Of 

 this kind are the various species of Trillium, whose tubers are 

 deeply embedded in the black mould of the woods, and whose 

 flowers may sometimes be seen thickly spread over the black 

 surface of woodland, very recently burned. Some species of ferns 

 also, in this way, occasionally survive forest fires. A second 

 group is composed of plants whose seeds are readily transported 

 by the wind. Pre-eminent among these is the species of Epilo- 

 bium, known in Nova Scotia as the fire-weed or French willow, 

 (E. angustifoUum), whose feathered seeds are admirably adapted 

 for flying to great distances, and which often covers large tracts 

 of burned ground so completely, that its purple flowers com- 



