Changes of Timber and Plants, ^c. 303 



ferred to are daily occurring before our eyes, and the 

 fact ought to be familiar to every one of us. Indeed 

 I thought till lately that this^as the case, and that it is 

 not so, must be attributed either to an entire want, or 

 to a very culpable inaccuracy, of observation. 



Though never practically devoted to agriculture 

 myself, I passed my time, till my twentieth year, in aa 

 agricultural and a new country. As the vegetable pro- 

 ductions of the earth were always objects of more than 

 common admiration and amusement to me, my ac- 

 quaintance with them began at a very early period of 

 my life. As to the point which constitutes the imme- 

 diate subject of this letter, the progress of my observa^ 

 tion was as follows. 



When my father and other neighbouring farmers 

 contemplated the clearing of a tract of land for future 

 cultivation, it was their custom, during the mild wea- 

 ther of winter, to grub up the underbrush and throw 

 it together in what they called brush heaps. The large 

 timber was afterwards felled, cut into sections of ten 

 or twelve feet long, and rolled together in large piles 

 called log heaps. Towards spring, when the timber had 

 become somewhat dry, these brush heaps and log /leaps 

 were set on fire and consumed. During the course of 

 the succeeding summer, I frequently, indeed almost 

 uniformly observed, that from among the ashes of these 

 piles of wood, there sprang up certiiin neru plants, which 

 were not to be found, in any part of the surrounding 

 country, except in similar situations, where th^y.had 

 also made their appearance, in the same spojitaneoiis 

 manner. The botanical names of these plants I do not 

 recollect, perhaps I never knew them. I well remem- 



