NATURAL HISTORY, TORONTO REGION 
The white pine—red pine type within the area 
has been practically all removed by lumbering opera- 
tions and its powers of reproduction greatly reduced 
by repeated fires, so that its sites are now chiefly 
occupied by poplar (mostly Populus grandidentata) 
and paper birch (Betula alba var. papyrifera). The 
original forest occupied the thin soils covering the 
granites and crystalline limestones and the deeper 
gravelly or sandy glacial and post-glacial deposits. 
The ground cover of the few stands of pine that 
remain is usually composed of the following species 
in order of their abundance: Wintergreen (Gaul- 
theria procumbens) ; bracken fern (Pteris aquilina) ; 
blueberry (Vaccinium canadense and Vaccinium 
pennsylvanicum) ; bunch-berry (Cornus canadensis) ; 
bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) ; beaked hazel- 
nut (Corylus rostrata) ; pipsissewa (Chimaphila um- 
bellata) ; partridge-berry (Mitchella repens); wild 
sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis); trailing arbutus 
(Hpigaea repens). 
The trees of the coniferous swamp type are: 
Balsam (Abies balsamea) ; arbor vitae (Thuja occi- 
dentalis) ; black spruce (Picea mariana) and larch 
(Larix laricina). They occur in various mixtures. 
Any of the first three mentioned may often predom- 
inate, and more rarely the last. Among the more 
characteristic subordinate plants of this type may be 
mentioned: Mountain holly (Nemopanthus mucro- 
nata); winterberry (Ilex verticillata) ; chokeberry 
(Pyrus arbutifolia) ; cotton grass (Hriophorum vir- 
94 
