30 



ON THE 



FLORA AND VEGETATION OF WESTERN 

 CANADA. 



BY 



H. T. MENNELL, Esq., F.L.S., ' 



PRESIDENT OF THE CROYDON MICROSCOPICAL AND NATURAL 

 HISTORY CLUB. 



26M NOVEMBER, 1884. 



Mr. H. T. Mennell followed Mr. Topley; his address, on 

 the Flora and Vegetation of the Canadian Dominion, being 

 chiefly directed to show their dependence on the Geological 

 features of the country as described by Mr. Topley. 



The Eastern and Central regions of Canada, including the 

 Great Lakes (consisting chiefly of Laurentian Rocks, over- 

 laid over a large area by glacial deposits, boulder clay and 

 drift), are still and have formerly been universally clothed 

 with forest ; where the rocks crop out, they are rounded, 

 and worn into hollows of varying size, with little or no 

 drainage from them. The larger ones form lakes and pools, 

 the smaller and more superficial depressions — bogs and 

 marshes, or " swamps," as they are called in America. Here 

 we find the characteristic swamp Flora of the American 

 Continent, consisting largely of flowering ericaceous shrubs, 

 Kaimias, Andromedas, Vacciniums, Ledum, Chiogenes, &c., 

 familiar to us as the " American " plants of the Nurseryman, 

 with these are a rich flora of reeds, sedges, and rushes, 

 three species of Osmunda abound, and the noble carnivorous 

 Sarracenia purpurea is a striking feature of the wetter portions 

 of the bog. 



The forests consist, besides the numerous Coniferous 

 Trees, of a large vai'iety of species of Maples, Birches, Pop- 

 lars, with Oaks, Walnuts, Hickories, &c., in the Southern 



