200 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL 



patch of original woodland is to be found. In other dis- 

 tricts there is plenty of land covered with trees, but these 

 are usually new growths, the timber having been felled 

 again and again, as required for firewood, for fencing, or 

 for other purposes. This wholesale clearing of the original 

 forest-covering of the soil has led, no doubt, to the 

 destruction of many lowly plants, some of which have 

 become exterminated altogether, while others have been 

 able to survive only in the few spots that still offer suit- 

 able conditions for their existence. Such places are com- 

 paratively rare, and often difficult of access ; and hence 

 the country, for a considerable distance round the larger 

 cities and towns, affords but few of the really native 

 plants, while common European weeds often abound. 

 The old hedgerows, the shady banks and moist ditches, 

 the deep-cut lanes, and the numerous footpaths of our 

 own country, which afford abundant stations where wild 

 flowers have been preserved to us from prehistoric times, 

 are almost wholly wanting in America. There the seeker 

 after wild flowers must usually be prepared to walk long 

 distances over rough and pathless fields or hills in order 

 to reach the places where alone he has any chance of 

 finding the rarer or the more beautiful species. Owing 

 to this absence of pleasant rural pathways the inhabitants 

 of the towns rarely walk far into the country for exercise 

 or pleasure unless they have some special pursuit of sport 

 or natural history, and that want of interest in the natural 

 productions of the district which is sufficiently common 

 in England is still more prevalent in America. 



The relations of the entire flora of temperate North 

 America to that of Europe and Northern Asia have been 

 the subject of much discussion among botanists. The late 

 Professor Asa Gray made known, and, to some extent, 

 popularised, the curious anomalies which these relations 

 present, especially as regards the close affinity of the plants 

 (more especially of the trees and shrubs) of the Eastern 

 United States with those of Eastern Asia and Japan. 

 Some account of Asa Gray's researches was given by my- 

 self, in 1878, in an article on " Epping Forest " (which 

 is reprinted in Vol. II. of this work), and they are only 



