NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 



The white pine red pine type within the area 

 has been practically all removed by lumbering opera- 

 tions and its powers of reproduction greatly reduced 

 by repeated fires, so that its sites are now chiefly 

 occupied by poplar (mostly Populus grandideniata) 

 and paper birch (Betula alba var. papyrifera). The 

 original forest occupied the thin soils covering the 

 granites and crystalline limestones and the deeper 

 gravelly or s'andy glacial and post-glacial deposits. 

 The ground cover of the few stands of pine that 

 remain is usually composed of the following species 

 in order of their abundance: Wintergreen (GauL- 

 theria procumbens) ; bracken fern (Pteris aquilina) ; 

 blueberry (Vaccinium canadense and Vaccinium 

 pennsylvanicum} ; bunch-berry (Cornus canadensis) ; 

 bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) ; beaked hazel- 

 nut (Corylus rostrata) ; pipsissewa (Chimaphila um- 

 bellata) ; partridge-berry (Mitchella repens) ; wild 

 sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) ; trailing arbutus 

 (Epigaea repens). 



The trees of the coniferous swamp type are: 

 Balsam ( Abies balsamea)' ; arbor vitae (Thuja occi- 

 dentalis) ; black spruce (Picea mariana) and larch 

 (Larix laricina). They occur in various mixtures. 

 Any of the first three mentioned may often predom- 

 inate, and more rarely the last. Among the more 

 characteristic subordinate plants of this type may be 

 mentioned: Mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucro- 

 nata) ; winterberry (Ilex verticillata} ; chokeberry 

 (Pyrus arbutifolia) ; cotton grass (Eriophorum vir- 

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