8 



James Macnab, and their observations are thus referred to by J. C. 

 Louden : " In the neighbourhood of the falls of Niagara the trees 

 were of various descriptions, of great size, and more intermixed 

 than we had hitherto seen. The tulip trees were of great height, 

 with stems varying from 8 ft. to 1 2 ft. in circumference. Platanus 

 trees, oaks, elms, limes, ashes, walnuts, beeches, poplars and white 

 pines were all equally large and lofty. The hemlock spruce was 

 scarcely seen, but the arbor vitae seemed to take its place, for it is, 

 without exception, the most abundant tree in the neighbourhood 

 of the falls, very tall, and sometimes tapering to a height of 60 ft. 

 Between Niagara and Hamilton was the only district in Canada 

 where the Laurus Sassafras was seen : the trees were all small 

 though remarkably healthy. The great natural forests of the 

 country presented chiefly oaks of great height, and when the 

 ground became in the least degree elevated, white pines abounded. 

 Near New London (now London) the specimens of the trees, par- 

 ticularly of the platanus (plane tree or buttonwood) were very large. 

 Stems were measured of from 15 ft. to 20 ft. in girth, and many of 

 the trees had straight trunks of from 10 ft. to 30 ft. high before 

 branching. The white pine near New London has a trunk varying 

 from 1 3 ft. to 1 8 ft. in circumference, and some trees which had 

 been blown down were measured and found to average 1 60 ft. in 

 length. The oaks here vary from 10 ft. to 15 ft. in circumference 

 of trunk, with 45 ft. and 50 ft. of straight clear stems. Between 

 New London and Goderich, a distance of 60 miles, the road 

 passes through one continued dense forest. The trees were prin- 

 cipally elms, averaging from 10 ft. to 25 ft. in circumference. 

 Mixed with them were beeches, birches and ashes of ordinary 

 dimensions. Horizontal sections of the white pines and hemlock 

 spruce exhibited between 300 and 400 annual layers ; oaks 200; 

 arid elms 300. On the banks of the Maitland River many very 

 noble specimens of platanus are seen with stems varying from 1 8 

 ft. to 36 ft. in circumference." 



The extent to which the different species of timber trees indi- 

 vidually occur in Canada is a matter of great interest in view of 

 the increasing demand for lumber. The PLANE TREE or BUTTON- 



