82 



FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



still in Europe where oft-recurring fires are yearly lessen- 

 ing its range. In Calluna we have probably an example 

 of a species on the verge of extinction as an American 

 species, vvliUe maintaining a vigorous and abundant 

 growth in Europe. If so, may not Europe be indebted 

 to America for Calluna, and not America to Europe V 



With such scanty data, however, valuable indeed as 

 they are in building up theories, but few and uncertain 

 steps can be made towards solving so important a ques- 

 tion. An irresistible conclusion is however forced on the 

 mind of the naturalist that in many of the analogies he 

 meets with in animal or vegetable life in this portion of 

 the New World it is not fair to call them even types of 

 those of the Old ; they are analogous species. 



