SMALLER FOREST PLANTS. 293 
Small Forest Plants, and Vitality of Seed. 
Another function of the woods, to which I have barely 
alluded, deserves a fuller notice than can be bestowed upon it 
in a treatise the scope of which is purely economical. The 
forest is the native habitat of a large number of humbler plants, 
to the growth and perpetuation of which its shade, its humidi- 
ty, and its vegetable mould appear to be indispensable necessi- 
ties.* We cannot positively say that the felling of the woods 
in a given vegetable province would involve the final extinction 
of the smaller plants which are found only within their pre- 
cincts. Some of these, though not naturally propagating them- 
selves in the open ground, may perhaps germinate and grow 
* “CA hundred and fifty paces from my house is a hill of drift-sand, on 
which stood a few scattered pines (Pinus sylvestris). Sempervivum tecto- 
gum in abundance, Statice armeria, Ammone vernalis, Dianthus carthusiano- 
rum, with other sand-plants, were growing there. I planted the hill with a 
few birches, and all the plants I have mentioned completely disappeared, 
though there were many naked spots of sand between the trees. It should 
be added, however, that the hillock is more thickly wooded than before. 
. . - It seems then that Sempervivum tectorum, etc., will not bear the 
neighborhood of the birch, though growing well near the Pinus sylvestris. I 
have found the large red variety of Agaricus deliciosus only among the roots 
of the pine; the greenish-blue Agaricus deliciosus among alder roots, but not 
near any other tree. Birds have their partialities among trees and shrubs. 
The Stiiie prefer the Pinus Lariz to other trees. In my garden this Pins is 
never without them, but I never saw a bird perch on Thuja occidentalis or 
Juniperus sabina, although the thick foliage of these latter trees affords birds 
a better shelter than the loose leafage of other trees. Not even a wren ever 
finds its way to one of them. Perhaps the scent of the 7uja and the Juni- 
perus is offensive to them. I have spoiled one of my meadows by cutting 
away the bushes. It formerly bore grass four feet high, because many um- 
belliferous plants, such as Heraclewm spondylium, Spirea ulmaria, Laserpi- 
tium latifolia, etc., grew in it. Under the shelter of the bushes these plants 
ripened and bore seed, but they gradually disappeared as the shrubs were ex- 
tirpated, and the grass now does not grow to the height of more than two 
feet, because it is no longer obliged to keep pace with the umbellifera which 
flourished among it.” Seea paper by J. G. BUTTNER, of Kurland, in Bere- 
HAUS'S Geographisches Jahrbuch, 1852, No. 4, pp. 14, 15. 
These facts are interesting as illustrating the multitude of often obsecur 
