33 



Among distinctive plants are the three species of 

 Bryanthus or Menziesia, which take the place of our true 

 heaths, here absent. Several liliaceous plants, as Smilacinae, 

 Veratriums, &c. 



The Forest Trees here are almost all Coniferae, and 

 attain a large size, though far short of their brethren on the 

 Pacific slope of the Mountains. We observed ten species of 

 Conifers, amongst which may be noted the Banksian Pine, 

 Douglas' and Engelmann's Spruce, Larix Lyallii, &c. 



Speaking broadly, we find in the journey across the 

 continent, four Floras, viz., the Eastern mixed Flora of the 

 cleared lands ; the forest and swamp Flora of the lake 

 region from Ottawa to Winnipeg ; the Prairie Flora, and the 

 Alpine Flora of the Rocky Mountains. Their boundaries 

 are well-marked and definite. The railway is however a 

 great leveller, and it was interesting, not only to see our 

 common weeds rapidly spreading along the track westward, 

 but also to find some Western types and species travelling 

 eastward, as for example, the very singular grass, Beck- 

 mannia erucasformis, which we found at Port Arthur, on 

 Lake Superior, many hundreds of miles east of any previously 

 recorded habitat. 



