Botany in the Island of Montreal. So 



cliiced plants grow luxuriantly, the seed of which the 

 Grand Trunk no doubt first carried thither ; and any 

 observant person who travels by the Canada Pacific will 

 find crrowino; alono- its line in the Eastern Provinces 

 not a few species whose native home is in the Western 

 Prairies ; and vice versa, our eastern plants are making 

 their way westward, aided by the same agency. Then, 

 birds, it is established, carry seeds both on their claws and 

 in their crops ; and Mount Eoyal, it is well known, is a 

 favourite temporary resting-place for birds of passage, as 

 well as an attractive whole season's residence for not a 

 few of the species that come annually northward for 

 breeding purposes. They, too, have doubtless brought 

 their quota of the plants belonging to other latitudes and 

 longitudes that have made their home on our island. 



To the Ottawa and its tributaries we owe most likely 

 the somewhat numerous northern species that are col- 

 lected in the district ; while the St. Lawrence, fed by 

 streams not only from Western Ontario, but also from the 

 States bordering on its south shores, and the great inland 

 lakes, from which it obtains its waters, casts upon our 

 shores the germs of species which originally belonged to a 

 warmer temperature. 



The geological conditions obtaining in the island of 

 Montreal are no less favourable than the geographical for 

 a rich flora. There are first the alluvial plains, bounded 

 by the present shoreline, formed by the recession of the 

 waters which at one time covered no inconsiderable por- 

 tion of what is now^ the island, forming a succession of 

 terraces. These constitute the splendid agricultural lands 

 of the district, and of course sustain a well-developed and 

 varied plant-life. The great expanse of limestone under- 

 lying so much of the island affords a fine bed for a flora to 

 which that particular rock is partial ; while the slopes of 

 Mount Eoyal, crowned with its dyked eruptive rocks, offer a 

 great variety of soils, each of which nurses its own favourite 



