Ontario, probably on account of its being a peninsula partly 

 surrounded by the Great Lakes. In the level lake plains, and 

 also in the rolling country between Ridgetown and Brownsville, 

 all the streams crossed were muddy, as in Illinois, Ohio, and 

 farther south. But between Brownsville and Welland, where 

 the vegetation indicates poorer soil, as just stated, only clear 

 streams (as in New England and most other glaciated regions) 

 were seen; and they were also more frequent there than in the 

 other parts of my route. 



On account of the generally fertile soil about nine-tenths of 

 the flat country and three-fourths of the rolling country has been 

 cleared (with more hay and pasture than plowed fields, ap- 

 parently, at least in the rolling country), and there is very little 

 of what might be called virgin forest to be seen from the train. 

 Besides the difficulties already mentioned (snow and speed, which 

 might have been avoided by taking a slower train in warmer 

 weather), in the more open country some of the trees seen were 

 too far away to be identified with certainty. For these reasons 

 my notes are not as full as might be desired. But as there seem 

 to have been very few attempts heretofore to study Canadian 

 vegetation quantitatively, these superficial observations ought 

 to be better than none at all. If one could go through the same 

 region by another route, or by the same route earlier in the 

 season, or take notes from the other (south) side of the train at 

 the same season, and put the notes of two or more trips together, 

 the results would be more accurate ; but no such opportunity can 

 be counted on in the near future. 



In the next few pages the plants seen on three different por- 

 tions of the route will be divided into trees, shrubs and herbs, 

 and arranged as nearly as possible in order of abundance, with 

 the names of evergreens in heavy type, and weeds in parenthesis. 

 Species seen only once are omitted in most cases. 



As in many other regions with fertile soil and hardwood 

 forests, most of the herbs recognizable from a moving train are 

 weeds. 



In the level lake plains of Kent, Essex and Welland Counties 

 Ulmus Americana is now more abundant than all other trees 

 combined. As in the northeastern United States, it grows usu- 

 ally solitary or in rather open pastured groves. Next in order 

 seem to be Quercus macrocarpa, Ilicoria ovata and Quercus pal- 



