GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST TREES IN CANADA. 283 



there be any defect, it may be the omission of small outliers, patches, or 

 colonies beyond the general boundary of a species, or of small inliers in 

 the form of blank spaces within such boundary in which no trees of the 

 species may occur ; but it is probable that if areas such as the former do 

 exist they are of no great extent, while the occurrence of the latter will 

 not alter the general boundaries. As a rule, we may assume that if 

 we select any particular spot on the map we shall find near at hand 

 specimens of all the trees whose limits lie to the northward of it. 



FORMER ERRONEOUS CONCEPTIONS. 



In the southern portions of Quebec and Ontario, which were the first 

 to be colonised by Europeans, it was observed that the tree-lines ran 

 nearly east and west, and, before the subject had been investigated, it was 

 supposed that the northern limits of the trees of Canada in general ran 

 nearly in this direction ; but, as the present map shows, there are great 

 divergencies in the contours of the limit-lines of many species, proving 

 that these contours are governed by other causes than mere latitude. 



Only one out of the 340 species of trees above referred to is almost 

 entirely confined to Canada, namely, the widely dispersed Banksian pine, 

 whose southern boundary only touches the south shore of Lake Superior 

 and takes in a small part of the State of Minnesota. 



CANADA AS A WHOLE. 



In the descriptions to follow, the geographical distribution of our 

 forest trees is treated without reference to provincial boundaries, the in- 

 troduction of which would only complicate matters and serve no good 

 purpose. 



EEGION OF LUXURIANT MIXED FOKEST. 



In Canada and the United States the forests are more commonly 

 called " woods " and " bush." The finest forests of North America, both 

 as to variety of species and luxuriance of growth, were those of the 

 middle and northern states, of which Ohio is about the centre. These 

 splendid woods, which have been largely destroyed in the progress of the 

 settlement of the country, extend into Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ten- 

 nessee, Indiana, Michigan, and southern Ontario. On any uncleared 

 farm lot in the last-named region, one might find fifty or more kinds 

 of native trees, all mingled together. This is in marked contrast to the 

 poverty in species of the indigenous forests of the British Islands, where 

 only about a dozen are represented, or indeed to the small number occur- 

 ring in the forests of Europe in general. 



BOTANIC LIMITS OF TREES. 



The tree-lines on the map represent the limits of each species from 

 a botanic rather than an economic point of view ; for in some parts of 

 its range the trees of any species may be so small or scattered as to have 

 no commercial value. But as the public know so little as yet about such 



