EUROPEAN PLANTS IN AMERICA. 109 



Great Britain, and in central Europe generally, there 

 are seen only two kinds of oak, the common British and 

 the sessile-fruited oak, Quercus rohur and Q. sessiliflora. 

 In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick he does not find 

 these oak trees, but in their stead two others, the red and 

 grey oaks, Q. rubra and Q. horealis. If he goes soutli, 

 the number of species increases. In Massachusetts he 

 already meets with eleven, and in New York fifteen 

 species of oak, among which the northern or grey oak is 

 not included. In the whole United States, no less than 

 forty species of oak are already known. 



But probably the most generally interesting fact in 

 regard to American plants is the influence which the 

 introduction of European races and manners, and the 

 frequency of intercourse with European countries, is said 

 to have had upon the prevailing weeds, especially of the 

 Atlantic coasts and river borders of North America. 

 The common plantain, Plantago major ^ was called by the 

 Indians the White-man's-foot. The Canadian, or creep- 

 ing thistle, Cnicus arvensis^ or Cirsium arvense^ the pest 

 of North American farmers, and therefore often called 

 the cursed thistle, Is an importation from Europe. Not 

 only have most of the cultivated plants and grasses been 

 brought from Europe, but, according to Agassiz, all the 

 plants growing by the road-sides are exotics. 



" And the wheat came up, and the bearded rye, 

 Beneath the breath of an unknown sky." 



" Everywhere in the track of the white man we find 

 European plants ; the native weeds have disappeared 

 before him like the Indian. Even along the railroads we 

 find few indigenous species. On the road between Boston 

 and Salem, although the ground is uncultivated, all the 

 plants along the track and In the ditches are foreign."* 



How curious are the reflections which such facts sug- 

 gest ! Would It be irrational in an Indian to suppose 



* Lalce Superior, its Physical Character, &c. p. 10. Boston, 1850. 



