216 ESS A YS. 



sweeping winds, might prevent that. The difficulty of re-for- 

 esting bleak New England coasts, which were originally well 

 wooded, is well known. It is equally but probably not more 

 difficult to establish forest on an Iowa prairie, with proper 

 selection of trees. 



The difference in the composition of the Atlantic and Pa- 

 cific forests is not less marked than that of the climate and 

 geographical configuration to which the two are respectively 

 adapted. 



With some very notable exceptions, the forests of the whole 

 northern hemisphere in the temperate zone (those that we are 

 concerned with) are mainly made up of the same or similar 

 kinds. Not of the same species ; for rarely do identical trees 

 occur in any two or more widely separated regions. But all 

 round the world in our zone, the woods contain Pines and 

 Firs and Larches, Cypresses and Junipers, Oaks and Birches, 

 Willows and Poplars, Maples and Ashes, and the like. Yet 

 with all these family likenesses throughout, each region has 

 some peculiar features, some trees by which the country may 

 at once be distinguished. 



Beginning by a comparison of our Pacific with our Atlantic 

 forest, I need not take the time to enumerate the trees of the 

 latter, as we all may be supposed to know.t! em, and many of 

 the genera will have to be mentioned in drawing the contrast 

 to which I invite your attention. In this you will be impressed 

 most of all, I think, with the fact that, the greater part of our 

 familiar trees are " conspicuous by their absence " from the 

 Pacific forest. 



For example, it has no Magnolias, no Tulip-tree, no Papaw, 

 no Linden or Basswood, and is very poor in Maples ; no Lo- 

 cust-tree — neither Flowering Locust nor Honey Locust — 

 nor any Leguminous tree ; no Cherry large enough for a tim- v 

 ber-tree, like our wild Black Cherry ; no Gum-trees (Nyssa 

 nor Liquidambar), nor Sorrel-tree, nor Kahnia ; no Persim- 

 som, or Bumelia ; not a Holly ; only one Ash that may be 

 called a timber-tree ; no Catalpa, or Sassafras ; not a single 

 Elm, nor Hackberry ; not a Mulberry, nor Planer-tree, nor 

 Madura ; not a Hickory, nor a Beech, nor a true Chestnut, 



