16 JOHN MACOUN ON 



CONCLUSION. 



The exaniiiiation of the Canadian fui'ests l)ring.s out some noteworthy points rehitive to 

 the distribution of species. Without referring to the origin of our flora, which it is not in- 

 tended to discuss in this paper, it may l)e interesting to note the seqiience of species in some 

 genera as they pass from east to west. 



Pinus Banksiaiui, P. Miirrayana and P. conforta form a natural group of scrub jiincs 

 that under one form or another pass, without intermixing, from the Atlantic to the Paciiic. 

 The first extends without a break from the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia to the Athabasca 

 River at Fort Assiniboine. Here at its western limit and as far east as Prince Albert on 

 the Saskatchewan it is a fine tree. Scarcely a day's journey west of Fort Assiniboine the 

 writer found the second species in great profusion, but never more than tliree inches in 

 diameter. Mr. McConnell found both species on the Liard River, P. 3fiirni]/nna being near 

 the mountains and P. Banksiana lower down the stream towards the Mackenzie. Throughout 

 the Rocky Mountains P. Murrayana is the principal tree, between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, 

 and in British Columliia on the plateau between lat. 51 ' and 55^, at an altitude of from 

 2,000 to 4,000 feet. Passing from the Coast Range to the valley of the Fraser the third 

 species comes in, but except on the coast it prefers swamps to dry ground. 



Picea alba, P. Engelmanni and P. Sitchensis form another natural group and are dis- 

 tributed in nearly the same way. In this case, however, our knowledge is not so definite, 

 and there may be four species instead of three. Picea albais found in abundance from Nova 

 Scotia westward to the prairie region, and even there occasionally on river banks. It is 

 plentiful, too, in the Cypress Hills. This species enters the Rocky Mountains, and is found 

 in river valleys as far west as the valley of Eagle River, west of the Gold Range. In the 

 higher mountain valleys Picea Engelmanni takes its place, and is the spruce found on nearly 

 all mountains from the Rockies to the Coast Range. Crossing the Coast Range Picea Sit- 

 chensis comes in and is the only coast species. 



The firs have the same distribution and pass from east to west in the same way, the 

 Rocky Mountains and west coast having their own species, the sequence being Abies balsamea, 

 A. suhaljmia and A. grandis. 



The habitat of Juniperus Virgim'ana changes as it passes from east to west. In the 

 east it grows on the rocky banks of streams or on shallow soil on limestone. In the west, 

 on the other hand, it grows in peat bogs or by lake shores, and although so distinct in habit 

 there seems to be no clear character by which it may be separated into two species. 



The only trees that pass from east to west without apparent change are the aspen and 

 the canoe l)irch. The latter, however, never becomes the fine tree on the west coast that it 

 does in the east. On Vancouver Island there are two forms of the aspen, one of which may 

 be the European P. tremula. Both forms grow in clumps, but the leaves of the one 

 supposed to be P. tremula were quite brown in character when I saw them in 1893, while 

 those of the other form which grew near it were the usual light green colour. The old leaves 

 of the former were quite round and seldom pointed, the teeth were sinuate and appressed 

 and not erect and regular as they are in the common aspen. 



In conclusion I may say that including Vancouver Islaiul a coniferous forest may be 

 said to extend from the Pacific to the Atlantic, bounded on the north by the tundra of 



