48 OUTLINES OF FORESTRY. 



" North. America, in spite of its more continental climate, 

 shares no less in this character of the New World. The 

 beauty and the extent of the vast forests that cover its soil, 

 the variety of the arborescent species composing them, the 

 strong and lofty size of the trees which grow there, all these 

 are too well known for me to stop and describe them. It is 

 because to a more abundant irrigation this continent adds a 

 soil slightly mountainous, almost everywhere fertile, securing 

 it always an equal moisture, a more abundant harvest of all 

 the vegetables useful to man." 



Concerning the growth of trees on mountain 

 slopes, iSlisee Reclus, in his work, " The Ocean," * 

 says on page 383 : 



" The stages of vegetation have been studied with care on 

 the slopes of many other mountains of temperate Europe, 

 especially on the sides of the Ventoux, by M. Charles Martins ; 

 but it is in the Alps, above all, that the most celebrated bota- 

 nists of our country have made their comparative researches 

 on the floras of the various altitudes. The limits of these 

 floras vary, so far as we can understand, according to the form, 

 exposure, and height of the mountains, the nature of the 

 rocks, the moisture of the soil, and abundance of snow, and 

 the meteorological conditions of the surrounding atmosphere. 

 It is, therefore, impossible to give the precise figures on the 

 whole of the Alpine masses, and the averages obtained by 



* Keprinted, by permission, from " The Ocean, Atmosphere, 

 and Life," by Elisee Eeclus. New York : Harper & Brothers, 

 Publishers, Franklin Square, 1874. Pp. 534. 



