166 Mr. J. W. Dawson on the Destruction and 



Mosses, are also among the first occupants of burned ground, and 

 their presence may be explained in the same way with that of 

 Epilobium ; their seeds and sporules being easily scattered over 

 the surface of the barren by wind. A third group of species, 

 found abundantly on burned ground, consists of plants bearing 

 edible fruits. The seeds of these are scattered over the barren 

 by birds which feed on the fruits, and finding a rich and congen- 

 ial soil, soon bear abundantly and attract more birds, bringing 

 with them the seeds of other species. In this way it sometimes 

 happens that a patch of burned ground, only a few acres in ex- 

 tent, may, in a few years, contain specimens of nearly all the 

 fruit-bearing shrubs and herbs indigenous in the country. Among 

 the most common plants which overspread the burned ground in 

 this manner, are the raspberry, which, in good soils, is one of the 

 first to make its appearance ; two species of vaccinium, called in 

 Nova Scotia, blueberries ; the tea-berry wintergreen ( Gaidtheria 



proevmbens)] the 



anadensis) 



wild strawberry. It is not denied that some plants may be found 

 in recently burned districts, whose presence may not be explica- 

 ble in the above modes ; but no person acquainted with the facts, 

 can deny that all the plants which appear, in any considerable 

 quantity, within a few years after the occurrence of a fire, may 

 readily be included in the groups which have been mentioned. 

 By the simple means which have been described, a clothing ot 

 vegetation is speedily furnished to the burned district ; the un- 

 sightliness of its appearauce is thus removed, abundant supplies 

 of food are furnished to a great variety of animals, and the fer- 

 tility of the soil is preserved, until a new forest has' time to over- 

 spread it. 



With 



7 



ble 



great numbers of seedling trees spring up, and these, though for 

 a few years not very conspicuous, eventually overtop, and, J 

 numerous, suffocate the humbler vegetation. Many of these 

 young trees are of the species which composed the original wood, 

 but the majority are usually different from the former occupants 

 of the soil. The original forest may have consisted of white or 

 red pine ; black, white, or hemlock spruce ; maple, beech, black 

 or yellow birch, or of other trees of large dimensions, and capa u ° 

 of attaining to a great age. The " second growth" which suc- 

 ceeds these, usually consists of poplar, white or poplar birch, 

 wild cherry, balsam fir, scrub pine, alder, and other trees of small 

 stature, and usually of rapid growth, which, in good soils, prepay 

 the way for the larger forest trees, and occupy permanently, only 

 the less fertile soils. A few examples will show the contrast 

 which thus appears between the primeval forest and that whicn 

 succeeds it after a fire. Near the town of Pictou, woods chienV 

 consisting of beech, maple, and hemlock, have been succeeded 



