HISTORY OF VERMONT. 81 



CHAPTER V. 



VsGETABLE pRODUC TioN s....i^o;r^^ Tree!;^ 

 Esculent and Medicinal Vegetables. Remarks 

 on the Magnitude^ Number^ Age, Evapora- 

 tion^ Emission of Air ^ Heat^ and Effect of the 

 Trees. 



WHEN the Europeans first took pos- 

 session of North America, it was one continued 

 forest, the greatest upon the earth. The coun- 

 try was every where covered with woods, not 

 planted by the hand of man ; but derived from, 

 and ancient as the powers of nature. The 

 great variety of plants and flow^ers, the immense 

 numbers, dimensions, and kinds of trees, which 

 spread over the hills, valleys and mountains, 

 presented to the eye, a most magnificent and 

 boundless prospect. This is still the case with 

 the uncultivated parts of the country. 



Much the largest part of Vermont is yet in 

 the state, in which nature placed it. Unculti- 

 vated by the hand^f man, it presents to our 

 view a vast tract of woods, abounding witli 

 trees, plants, and flowers, almost infinite in 

 number, and of the most various species and 

 kinds. It would be the employment of many 

 years, to form a complete catalogue of them. 

 I shall not attempt to enumerate any, but 

 those which are the most common and useful. 



FOREST TREES. 



THE Trees which are the most large and com-. 



mon are the 

 '\Yhite Pine, Pinu$ Strobus. 



