NOTES ON THE FLORA OF HAMILTON. 285 



CO be covered with it. I was told by a native of the county that it 

 was originally brought there from Italy by a Roman Catholic ecclesi- 

 astic as a garden flower, and that from so small a beginning it had 

 become the pest it now is. Though my informant was a thoroughly 

 reliable man, he probably had his information from an ultra-Protestant 

 source, and it may therefore be necessary to add a grain of salt to 

 correct the odium theologicum. At any rate — 



" I cannot tell how the truth may be; 

 I tell the tale as 'twas told to me." 



According to Grisebach, the continent of North America contains 

 five distinct vegetable provinces. These are : the Arctic Province, the 

 Oreat Wooded Province, the Prairie Province, California, and Mexico. 

 The Great Wooded Province, commencing at the northern limit of 

 trees, descends on the west coast to Oregon and on the east coast to 

 the Gulf of Mexico, but is nearly split in two by the prairies of the 

 central plateau. The conncpting link between the eastern and western 

 divisions is the zone of the White Spruce, which extends across the 

 continent and finds its sovithorn limit about 54° North latitude. To 

 the south of the zone of the White Spruce lie, on the west coast, the 

 sub-province of the Oregon Spruces; and on the east coast, the sub- 

 provinces of the Deciduous -leaved Trees, Newfoundland, and the 

 Southern States. The sub-province of the Deciduous-leaved Trees 

 stretches from Lake Winnipeg to the mouth of the Chesapeake, and 

 from the piouth of the St. Lawrence to the southern border of Ken- 

 tucky. The climate of this vast sub-province is afiected on the sea 

 coast by the sea, and in the interior by the Great Lakes, and roughly 

 corresponds to that of the centre and east of Europe. The inhabited 

 portion of Ontario is evidently near the centre of this vegetable sub- 

 province; and the western peninsula of Ontario, being exposed in 

 the completest manner to the influence of the Great Lakes, may be 

 regarded as typical of the sub -province of Deciduous-leaved Trees. 



The portion of country roamed over by Judge Logie, and to a less 

 extent by myself, in search of plants, does not form a natural botanical 

 divisioiL of Western Ontario. The differences of soil, elevation and 

 exposure to be met with about Hamilton in the compass of a few 

 mUes rather favoiir the intermixture of the plants of different regions, 

 and I believe that in consequence the flora of the County of Went- 

 worth, when thoroughly worked up, will prove to be one of the 

 richest in the Domiiaion. Hamilton certainly seems to lie near the 



