FORESTS. 287 



oak, and the other deciduous trees, form the chief 

 characteristics of the forests in the temperate 

 countries ; and the box and holly are found among 

 the evergreens. About the same time the ivy 

 and the honey-suckle are found native ; and in 

 proceeding from the regions of the snow they may 

 be considered as the first plants which hang their 

 festoons upon other trees. The honey-suckle is 

 not, however, a parasite ; and although the ivy 

 certainly does destroy trees, it is more by stran- 

 gulation than by any other means ; for when the 

 roots which connect it with the ground are divided 

 it soon withers. 



As we advance still farther to the southward 

 new trees make their appearance, and give a new 

 character to the scenery; but as the continents 

 become more and more separated from each other 

 by the great ocean, their vegetable productions 

 become more and more dissimilar. The pines of 

 Siberia, and Norway, and New Brunswick, are not 

 quite the same ; neither are the junipers and other 

 evergreens of more humble growth ; but still they 

 have a considerable resemblance. But when we 

 advance to about the latitude of the Mediterranean 

 we find far more dissimilarity. The deciduous 

 cypress (Taxodium disticha), which is so majestic 

 a tree in the lower valley of the Mississippi, is not 

 found either in Europe or Asia ; neither is there 

 in America any plant resembling the cork oak of 

 Portugal and Spain, or the cypress or cedar of the 

 Levant. 



Somewhere about the same parallel we meet 

 with particular spots which set all arrangements 

 at defiance, and forbid us to attempt tracing any 

 general connexion between latitude, or almost any 



