NOTES ON THE BOTANY OF MANITOBA, 278 
which pictures Manitoba as an icy and inhospitable region is 
i ce Of 
until the early frosts of autumn have set in, the Manitoban prairies 
form in fact a gigantic natural flower-garden, in which a most 
isi i pt up. An ordinary 
English meadow cannot in any respect compete with the prairies, 
so far as floral display is concerned. By no means a few of our 
are 
n 
the latitude of Paris than of London. 
I have elsewhere published* strong reasons for believing that 
the prairies of the Canadian North-West cannot be regarded as due 
‘to natural causes. Their treelessness and their black fertile soil 
are unquestionably due largely (if not entirely) to the action of the 
fires, which for generations past have annually swept over vast 
North A li 
. 
with the distribution of various species of animals now living on 
the prairies are in all probability due to the action of the fires ; 
ee 
Manitoba Described,’ p. 20, 
Journat or Borany.—Vou. 25. [Sepr., 1887.] T 
