I 



SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



VI 



James Bryce 



Kerner von 

 Marilaun 

 Univ. of 

 Vienna 



A. F. Schimper 

 Univ. of 

 Bonn 



C. S. Sargent 



L'. S. Forestry 

 Report 



A. R. Wallace 



WILD LIFE AND NATURE C()NSKR\\\TI()N 

 IN THE EASTERN STATES. 



The A])]>alacliiaii region of America eoiilained 

 until lately the iinest temperate-zone forest, and 

 t]ie ricliest in species, in the world. It ranged 

 nnbrokenly from the northern boundary of tlie 

 United States to Alabama and the Red River 

 region of Lonisiana, and it stretched from the 

 Atlantic lowlands to the prairies. Now, comjiara- 

 tively little of this forest is left in an unaltered 

 state ; its area has shrunk to a fraction of what it 

 was, and is still shrinking rapidly. 



It is a forest of immense antiquity. The earliest 

 fossil record of the broad-h'aved, deciduous-leaved 

 type of tree found in tlie world is found in deep- 

 l)laced rock-strata of the southern Appalachians, 

 and the evidence is strong that never since that 

 immeasurably far-off time lias the long succession 

 (^f its trees been broken, south of the limit of ice- 

 sheet invasion. It is iiiii(iue today in species 

 no longer to be found elsewhere, such as the 

 Tulip Tree, of whicli a dozen other species once 

 dwelt Avithin it; the Magnolias — now elsewhere 

 found in eastern Asia only; the Tupelo, the 

 Liquidamber, Sassafras, and others. Anciently 

 as rich as it in these and other forms, the whole 

 continent of Europe at the ]^resent time can 

 scarcely show one-half its wealth in genera and 

 species. 



