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Vegetation of the Ottawa and some of its Tributaries. 351 



or <;ven robbed of its forests, it is not probable that tlie fertility of its 

 soil has not even yet been much affected by the disintegration of its 

 rocks, but is rather indebted to the adventitious circumstances, of the 

 vegetable mouldy which its forests have been depositing for ages, 

 and the alluvial wash of its floods and tributary streams, which, when 

 charged with sufficient moisture and subject to tlie warm tempera- 

 ture of the first summer months, is highly favorable to the germina- 

 tion and vegetation of plants, and so rapid is the transition from the 

 cold and desolation of a Canadian winter to the mild, agreeable 

 weather of May, that scarce any period may be called spring, that is 

 unaccompanied by appearances of vegetation ; for no sooner are 

 the rains over, which, with the dissolving snow have swept the ice 

 from the rivers, than signs of vegetation begin to appear ; even in 

 the last days of April, the beautiful plants Hepatica and Sanguina- 

 ria^ which seem to have crept from the earth, are seen basking their 

 delicate flowers in the sun, whilst the snow has scarcely disappeared 

 from the bottom of the ravine- Vegetation may not ])owever be 

 said to have fairly commenced before the second or third week of 

 May, when every tree, bush and plant seems pushing forward in the 

 race of vegetable life, as if conscious of the short period allotted to 

 the renovation of their existence. An ordinary share of exertion 

 will discover to the botanist, that the valleys of the Ottawa are not 

 less rich and luxuriant in vegetable beauty than those of the Mohawk, 

 the Hudson, or other rivers of the eastern or middle states, — he will 

 find himself surrounded by hundreds of plants with the same habit 

 of soil and location, with which they are found in the Northern States.* 

 Several species of the different genera Corydalis^ ConvaUaria, Uvu- 

 laria and Trillium are among the first in tlie flowering of 3Iay, 

 the T, grandiflorum of tlie latter in its greatest perfection of char- 

 acter, whitening acres with its beautiful flower, while as the season 



* After my return from visiting the north eastern part of the province on the coast 

 of Labrador, and the north western, in the direction of the Ottawa river, I was re- 

 quested by the president of the Coh of Nat. Hist. U. C. to look over and give a gen- 

 eral classification to the plants collected by the late Prof. Hall. His collection was 

 the result of years of persevering industry, to which he added great minuteness in 

 the descriptions of their habit, location and time of flowering. Although it embra- 

 ced a vast mass of rubbish, and many of its most interesting things had not escaped 

 the ravages of insects, yet it was still valuable, and I was surprised to observe so ma- 

 ny families of plants found about lake Champlain, coinciding in appearance, habit and 

 ^location with those I found about Tmc de dewc montagneSy and the high land soufli 

 *east of L. Chat. 



