NORTH AMERICAN FLORA. 275 



The chain of the great fresh-water lakes, which are dis- 

 charged by the brimming St. Lawrence, seems to have little 

 effect upon our botany, beyond the bringing down of a few 

 northwestern species. But you may note with interest that 

 they harbor sundry maritime species, mementoes of the for- 

 mer saltness of these interior seas. Cakile Americana, much 

 like the European Sea Rocket, Hudsonia tomentosa (a pe- 

 culiar Cistaceous genus imitating a Heath), Lathyrus mari- 

 timus, and Ammophila arenaria, are the principal. Salicor- 

 nia, Glaux, Scirpus maritimus, Ranunculus Cymbalaria, 

 and some others, may be associated with them. But these 

 are widely diffused over the saline soil which characterizes 

 the plains beyond our wooded region. 



I have thought that some general considerations like these 

 might have more interest for the biological section at large 

 than any particular indications of our most interesting plants, 

 and of how and where the botanist might find them. Those 

 who in these busy days can find time to herborize will be in 

 the excellent hands of the Canadian botanists. At Philadel- 

 phia their brethren of the United States will be assembled to 

 meet their visitors, and the Philadelphians will escort them to 

 their classic ground, the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. To 

 have an idea of this peculiar phytogeographical district, you 

 may suppose a long wedge of the Carolina coast to be thrust 

 up northward quite to New York harbor, bringing into a com- 

 paratively cool climate many of the interesting low-country 

 plants of the south, which, at this season, you would not care 

 to seek in their sultry proper homes. Years ago, when Pursh 

 and Leconte and Torrey used to visit it, and in my own 

 younger days, it was wholly primitive and upsoiled. Now, 

 when the shore is lined with huge summer hotels, the Pitch 

 Pines carried off for firewood, the bogs converted into Cran- 

 berry-grounds, and much of the light sandy or gravelly soil 

 planted with wine-yards or converted into Melon and Sweet- 

 potato patches, I fear it may have lost some of its botanical 

 attractions. But large tracts are still nearly in a state of 

 nature. Drosera Jiliformls, so unlike any European species, 

 and the beautiful Sabbatias, the yellow Fringed Orchis, 



