ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FLORA. 559 



of phlox, coreopsis, &c, so familiar in his gardens ; or, when, crossing 

 the continent, he comes upon large tracts of ground yellow with esch- 

 scholtzia or blue with nemophilas. But with a sentimental difference ; in 

 that primroses, daises and heaths, like nightingales and larks, are in- 

 wrought into our common literature and poetry, whereas our native 

 flowers and birds, if not altogether unsung, have attained at the most to 

 only local celebrity. 



Turning now from similarities, and from that which interchange has 

 made familiar, to that which is different or peculiar, I suppose that an 

 observant botanist upon a survey of the Atlantic border of North America 

 (which naturally first and mainly attracts our attention) would be im- 

 pressed by the comparative wealth of this, flora in trees and shrubs. Not 

 so much so in the Canadian dominion, at least in its eastern part ; but 

 even here the difference will be striking enough on comparing Canada with 

 Great Britain. 



The coniferaa, native to the British Islands, are one pine, one juniper, 

 and a yew ; those of Canada proper are four or five pines, four firs, a 

 larch, an arbor-vita?, three junipers, and a yew, — fourteen or fifteen to 

 three. Of amentaceous trees and shrnbs, Great Britain counts one oak 

 (in two marked forms), a beech, a hazel, a hornbeam, two birches, an 

 alder, a myrica, eighteen willows, and two poplars, — twenty-eight species 

 in nine genera, and under four natural orders. In Canada there are at 

 least eight oaks, a chestnut, a beech, two hazels, two hornbeams of distinct 

 genera, six birches, two alders, about fourteen willows and five poplars, 

 also a plane tree, two walnuts and four hickories ; say forty-eight species, 

 in thirteen genera, and belonging to seven natural orders. The comparison 

 may not be altogether fair ; for the British flora is exceptionally poor, even 

 for islands so situated. But if we extend it to Scandinavia, so as to have 

 a continental and an equivalent area, the native coniferas would be 

 augmented only by one fir, the amentaceaa by several more willows, a 

 poplar, and one or two more birches ; — no additional orders nor genera. 



If we take in the Atlantic United States, east of the Mississippi, and 

 compare this area with Europe, we should find the species and the types 

 increasing as we proceed southward, but about the same numerical pro- 

 portion would hold. 



But, more interesting than this numerical preponderance — which is 

 practically confined to the trees and shrubs — will be the extra-European 

 types, which, intermixed with familiar old-world forms, give peculiar 

 features to the North American flora, — features discernible in Canada, but 

 more and more prominent as we proceed southward. Still confining our 

 survey to the Atlantic district, that is, without crossing the Mississippi, 

 the following are among the notable points : — 



1. Leguminous trees of peculiar types. Europe abounds in leguminous 

 shrubs or under-shrubs, mostly of the Genisteous tribe, which is wanting 

 in all North America, but has no leguminous tree of more pretence than 

 the cercis and laburnum. Our Atlantic forest is distinguished by acercis 

 of its own, three species of locust, two cf them fine trees, and two honey 

 locusts, the beautiful cladrastis, and the stately gymnocladus. Only the 

 cnrcis has any European relationship. For relatives of the others we 

 must look to the Chino-Japanese region. 



2. The great development of the Ericaceae (taking the order in its 

 widest sense), along with the absence of the ericeous tribe, that is, of the 

 heaths themselves. We possess on this side of the Mississippi thirty 



