SECRETARY'S REPORT. Ill 



shades of difference which distinguish, in almost every instance, 

 the plants of America from their kindred species in the old 

 world. A transplanted American maple, for instance, would 

 probably undergo the same splendid transmutations in an Eng- 

 lish park as in ii forest. This supposition has been 

 formed on much consideration, and is, besides, sanctioned by 

 opinion of an eminent English botanist who has resided in 

 ;his country for several years. 



I have observed that scarcely any considerable portion of this 

 country is entirely devoid of magnificent forest trees. But what- 

 ever striking instances of the truth of this remark we may find 

 in Xew England, and more especially in Vermont and Maine, it 

 must be admitted that he who would behold sylvan scenery on 

 its most magnificent scale should cross the Alleghanics and 

 visit the great valley of the Mississippi. Here he will find 

 vast tracts into which the axe of the woodman has never pene- 

 trated. These are covered with a coat of vegetable mould, 

 exceeding in many places the depths of our richest soils. We 

 find accordingly a luxuriance of vegetation to which nothing in 

 our own State affords a parallel. It is true that with us there 

 is here and there a gigantic elm or buttonwood which might 

 take rank with the noblest specimens of western growth; but 

 in travelling in Kentucky or Indiana we find trees at every 

 step of six or seven feet in diameter; so that most of our 

 woods, compared as a whole with theirs, seem to be but the 

 product of yesterday- Every plant appears to partake of this 

 gigantic character. Thus the wild grape vine, which with us 

 rarely grows larger than a stout walking stick, in our Western 

 States sometimes surpasses in diameter the body of a full- 

 grown man. 



The majesty of our western forests is not a little increased 

 by the circumstance that they arc generally free from under- 

 growth. The banks of the Upper Mississippi especially are 

 covered with trees of the largest size, shooting up to a lofty 

 height, from the smooth levels or gentle swells of the green 

 prairies beneath, like the oaks in the finest parks of England. 

 So tastefully are these trees grouped by the hand of Nature, 

 and so entirely clear is the green prairie grass from undcr- 

 jgrovthj that the spectator can hardly avoid imagining that he 



