Reproduction of Forests in British North America. 165 



- ■ 



1st, Where the wood is merely cut down and not burned, the 

 same description of wood is immediately reproduced, and this 

 may be easily accounted for. The soil contains abundance of the 

 seeds of these trees ; there are even numerous young plants ready 

 to take the place of those which have been destroyed ; and if 

 the trees have been cut in winter, their stumps produce young 

 shoots. Even in cases of this kind, however, a number of shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants, not formerly growing in the place, spring 

 up; the cause of this may be more properly noticed when de- 

 scribing cases of another kind. This simplest mode of the de- 

 struction of the forest, may assume another aspect. If the orig- 

 inal wood have been of kinds requiring a fertile soil, such as 

 maple or beech, and if this wood be removed, for example, for 

 firewood, it may happen that the quantity of inorganic matter 

 thus removed from the soil may incapacitate it, at least for a long 

 time, from producing the same description of timber. In this case, 

 some species requiring a less fertile soil may occupy the ground. 

 * or this reason, forests of beach growing on light soils, when 

 removed for firewood, are some times succeeded by spruce and 

 to. I have observed instances of this kind, both in Nova Scotia 

 and Prince Edward Island. 



™ty, When the trees are burned, without the destruction of 

 the whole of the vegetable soil, the woods are reproduced by a 

 more complicated process, which may occupy a number of years. 

 in its first stage, the burned ground bears a luxuriant crop of herbs 

 an d shrubs, which if it be fertile and not of very great extent, 

 Jj^y nearly cover its surface in the summer succeeding the fire. 

 1 his first growth may comprise a considerable variety of species, 

 which we may divide into three groups. The first of these con- 

 sists of herbaceous plants, which have their roots so deeply 

 buried in thp cml o* t^ M ~ a ™ th* offivts nf thp. fim. Of this 



icape 



kind 



bedded in the black mould of the woods, and whose flowers 

 ^y sometimes be seen thickly sprinkled over the black surface 

 ot wo 0( Jl an d very recently burned. Some species of ferns, also 

 ln thls way, occasionally survive forest fires. A second group is 

 composed of plants whose seeds are readily transported by the 

 wind. Of this kind, is the species of Epilobium, known in 



°^ a Scotia as the fire-weed or French willow, whose feathered 

 *?<k are admirably adapted for flying to great distances, and 

 winch often covers laree tracts of burned ground so completely, 

 * a J lts purple flowers communicate their own color to the whole 

 ^rtace, when viewed from a distance. This plant appears to 

 P* 5 "* the less fertile soils, and the name of fire-weed has been 

 gjven to it, in consequence of its occupying these when their 



°°d has been destroyed by fire. Various species of Solidago 

 411(1 Aster, and other composite plants, and Ferns, Lycopodia, and 



