THE COLDER TEMPERATE ZONE. 51 



The indigenous fruits of Canada are the Plum and the 

 Grape ; but the Grapes are crude and sour in their present 

 uncultivated state. " Raspberries, good enough for dessert, 

 grow more plentifully than blackberries do in England, 

 about the snake-fences, and are delicious fruit." In the 

 Huron Tract we hear of meadows producing enormous 

 quantities of hay and pasture, and of fine fields of rice on 

 some of the lake islands; "but the so-called wild rice of 

 Canada is a totally different plant, namely, Zizania aqua- 

 tica." 



There are openings in the forests sometimes of several 

 acres in extent, dotted with clumps of Oak and Pine, which 

 in spring are gay with wild flowers. Amongst the first to 

 appear are the red, white, and blue Hepaticas, and white 

 and yellow Violets; and later in the season are seen Lo- 

 belias, Lupines, and Tiger Lilies; the beautiful climbing 

 plant called Maurandia grows wild here too, which is now 

 well known in English gardens. It is well perhaps that we 

 have no longer list of flowers to detail, though the few which 

 have been mentioned can convey but a faint idea of the 

 truth; but we have already spent too much time in North 

 America, so that we cannot now visit Labrador; it may 

 just be stated however, that the vegetation therais far behind 



