52 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE 



was once the home of a pre-historic flora is not open to question, 

 but our limits forbid more than this mere allusion, leaving the 

 imagination to supply the details of that first world-garden whose 

 leaves fell and whose flowers faded unseen. 



We do not design to add to our description an account of the 

 large number of trees, shrubs, flowers or weeds, not indigenous, 

 but introduced by accident or design, and the writer's limitations 

 preclude any attempt at a scientific botanical essay. From an 

 unpublished " History of Andover," New Hampshire, we ven- 

 ture to make the following extract: "The dwarf willow and 

 white birch were probably our earliest trees, succeeding lichens 

 and mosses, after the climate of the ice-age of this region became 

 sufificiently ameliorated to allow a growth of shrubs. The dwarf 

 willow now grows at the extreme north part of Spitzbergen, 

 within eight degrees of the Arctic pole, and the white birch 

 appears near the north cape of Norway." 



To the foregoing we are tempted to add the Norwegian pine, 

 the mountain cranberry, and the hardy highland blueberry. It 

 is probable that the hemlock, the pines, firs, spruces and hack- 

 matacks, with their congeners, came next, followed later by the 

 remaining deciduous trees which are with us to-day. The little 

 willow, now found growing in cold land, is the descendant of its 

 dwarf ancestor referred to. For thousands of years the struggle 

 for life went on, the law of the survival of the fittest prevailing 

 in this as in other organic kingdoms, until the rich covering of 

 our hill slopes and mountain crests, and the deeper soil of plain, 

 valley and meadow gleamed with verdure. Beneath the forest 

 and field growth of to-day the fallen generations lie, in their de- 

 cay enriching a soil which had scantily served their wants. 



We share with others a deep regret at the destruction, almost 

 extermination, of our forest trees ; throughout nearly the entire 

 area of central and southern New Hampshire there are roundly 

 no old growth trees remaining, while the great timber tracts of 

 Coos are attacked year after year, its wooded acres despoiled by 

 the axe of the lumberman. Appeals and protests have been 



