440 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



eastern side of the continent from latitude 45° to 55° j it compre- 

 hends the St. Lawrence and Saskatchewan basins; it rises 

 obliquely, in accordance with the course of the isothermal lines, in 

 going westward, and on the Pacific coast it includes the 49th and 

 58th parallels, or Vancouver's and Sitka Islands. It is subdivided 

 into three districts ; viz, the eastern forest country, the eastern 

 prairies, and the country west of the Rocky Mountains" (p. 320). 



It extends a little north of the western part of the Province of 

 Canada. I am informed by those who have resided there, that 

 they have seen it used by the Indians of the Red River ; but my 

 friend, the late Mr. Peter Dease, of Montreal, stated it is not 

 found north of that river. He also observed that it is unknown at 

 Hudson Bay — an observation corroborated by Sir John Richardson. 

 The extreme western range of the plant probably extends to 

 Oregon Territory and California, far to the west of the Mis- 

 sissippi and the Missouri Rivers. The geographical range, 

 therefore, of this plant is most extensive, being found many 

 thousands of miles, over a large proportion of the North 

 American continent — its extreme southern limits being the 

 state of Florida, the most southern in the American Union. 



The seeds obtained by Morrison, prior to 1680, were from 

 Canada and Virginia ; and Dillenius mentions, in 1732, that Blood- 

 root was a native of Canada, the New England States, Pennsyl- 

 vania, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. Subsequent writers and 

 travellers have still further shown its great range. 



The remarkable peculiarity therefore associated with this inter- 

 esting plant, of a wide and extended range over so large a portion 

 of the North American continent, cannot escape notice. It would 

 appear to grow in rich or scanty soil, overlying strata of diverse 

 and various geological epochs. It flourishes in abundance in the 

 vegetable and woody soil above the Silurian rocks, both upper and 

 lower, of Canada, and on their predecessors the granites and Lau- 

 tentian rocks of Canada, and those to the north-west of Carolina, 

 Georgia, and the north-east of Alabama. The trap mountains of 

 Canada, especially the Montreal, the Belceil, the Montarville and 

 Mount Johnson, are extremely favorable to its growth. The 

 Devonian rocks and the Carboniferous series of the States of 

 Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky, 

 as well as those of Canada and New Brunswick, are well covered 

 by it. It is even to be found along the thin belt of New Red 



