112 POPULAR GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



On the banks of the Ohio grow evergreen forests like 

 those of Southern Europe. There are also Chestnuts, and 

 vast woods of Oak, Hazel, Beech, and Ash; and Plane-trees 

 (Platanus occidentalis) of immense size, " whose pale green 

 foliage contrasts beautifully with the other dark green trees." 

 Trees called Gleditschia grow also on the banks of this 

 river, which are quite overgrown with climbing Bignonias ; 

 both the trees and the climbers bearing showy red blossoms. 

 There is a correspondence with the Old World portion of 

 this zone in the plentiful appearance of thorny shrubs; 

 there are, for instance, several different kinds of a plant 

 called Smilax, the root of one of which supplies the medi- 

 cine called Sarsaparilla. 



As we travel further south we first begin to observe 

 gigantic reeds something of the nature of Bamboo, which, 

 even here, reach the height of small trees. Now too we 

 meet with some very grand relations of our Crowfoot family. 

 Who would think, when looking at an English meadow 

 covered with Buttercups, that these humble, every-day 

 flowers have the honour of reckoning the superb Magnolias 

 as being near akin ? And yet the structure is very much 

 the same, the chief difference being that the leaves of the 

 Magnolia are provided with a spur-like appendage called a 



