130 Field and Forest Rambles. 



ripe fruit, for the reason that the summers are not hot enough. 

 This, however, is not seemingly a permanent condition, and is 

 probably easily overcome after one or two generations. Pre- 

 cisely the same thing takes place in Canada with the seeds of 

 maize imported from Florida, which, moreover, do not produce 

 the same returns as such as have grown for many generations 

 in the country,* and probably a like consequence would result 

 from the transference of apples from England to Canada, and 

 of Indian corn from the latter to the Southern States. ' Most 

 unquestionably, however, the effects of climate, as shown in 

 these cases, have considerably modified the organization of 

 the plant. 



One of the most pernicious weeds in New Brunswick 

 pastures is the well-known ox-eye daisy, introduced by the 

 first settlers, who are said to have respected it in consequence 

 of its resemblance to the modest denizen of the glades and 

 fields of the old country. At all events, it has prospered and 

 taken advantage of their consideration, so much so that in many 

 farms it chokes up and exterminates the grasses and native 

 plants. Whether it is that the plant enjoys greater advan- 

 tages in the climate, or that the soil is better suited to it, or is 

 hardy, and therefore more calculated to struggle and compete 

 with the other herbs of the field, or that its fecundity is the 

 result of neglect on the part of the husbandman, there can be 

 no doubt that it prospers where the daisy {B. perennis) is 

 starved to death, as neither it nor ivy will grow in the open. 



In connection with the crows and thrushes of the region, it 

 may be remarked that the Raven (C. carnivorus) of the New 

 World differs from its congener of Europe and Asia in having a 

 more slender bill. I do not know how far this is a universal 

 characteristic throughout the continent ; but as there are no 

 other distinctions, it may be a question how far such a slight 



* This grain is put in the ground at the end of June, and reaped about 

 the middle of September. 



