CHAPTER VI. 
THE SEED PLANTS OF TORONTO 
AND VICINITY. 
By 
PRINCIPAL WILLIAM SCOTT. 
Toronto has a great variety of soil and surface. 
The soil varies from the purest of sand to the heaviest 
of clay. The Island, which faces the city, is com- 
posed of almost pure sand; the valleys of the Don 
and the Humber are almost pure clay. In the imme- 
diate vicinity of the city are to be found cold bogs 
and swamps. ; 
The elevation of the land above the sea level varies 
from 250 feet at the lake front to 577 feet at the 
Forest Hill station on the Belt Line railway, and 
817 feet at Richmond Hill. These conditions com- 
bine to produce a great variety of flowering plants. 
It is needless to say that man and the domestic 
animals have destroyed many plants that at one time 
were abundant here. Many rare and beautiful spe- 
cies that formerly flourished on the Island are, if 
not entirely extinct, rarely to be met with. “ Ladies’ 
tresses ” could always be found in abundance. The 
exact locality where they were so common is now 
several feet under the sand which was pumped over 
the land to raise it. The only locality in which 
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