WOODY DISTRICT. 275 



beyond the spruce ; but it does so only on the alluvial 

 points of rivers, and not in its tree form. 



Though the species of plants become less numerous as 

 we advance northwards through the woody region, there is 

 no falling off in the number of individuals of the species 

 that remain. For not only is the forest crowded, and often 

 almost impenetrably so, when the trees are young, but on 

 the margins of rivers, and other open places, there is a 

 dense herbaceous vegetation, which clothes the ground in 

 Rupert's Land as perfectly as it is covered in a lower lati- 

 tude, though the vegetation be less rank. On the inun- 

 dated alluvial flats tall carices grow as closely as they can 

 stand, and furnish an abundance of nutritious hay. There is, 

 however, a total absence in the north of the Lianas, Tilland- 

 sia, and parasitic Orchidece, which impart so peculiar an 

 aspect to the forests in some of the warmer districts of 

 the earth. The great hedge bindweed, {Calysteyia^) the 

 Virginia creeper, the hop plant, and the twining herba- 

 ceous Smilacina, with its grape-like clusters of blackberries, 

 disappear on the south side of Lake Winipeg, and the only 

 aerial parasite in the north is the leafless Arceuthobium 

 oxycedri, which seats itself on the branches of the Banksian 

 pine. The graceful UsnecB which hang from the branches 

 of the ancient black spruces in long, thread-like hanks, 

 have, it is true, some resemblance to the Tillandsice, which 

 forms an elegant drapery to the ever-green oaks of Georgia 

 and Florida. 



In the eastern woodland district, from the St. Lawrence 

 to the Saskatchewan, the Composites, are the most nume- 

 rous family of plants, and they form between the sixth and 

 seventh of the whole phgenogamous vegetation. Next to 

 them come the Cyperacea, which, owing to the great 

 development of the genus Carex, constitute more than one- 

 ninth of the Phanerogamia of the district. 



T 2 



