Josselyn Botanical Society 



i i 



The New England Flora of the Future, or Changes 

 in our Flora Due to the Destruction of the Forests. 



[The following abstract is from notes taken by Miss Lucretia Pack- 

 ard, and revised by Prof. Fernald. — E. B. C.]. 



The subject of the address to-night is really that of weeds, 

 since the introduced species of plants, or weeds, sooner or . 

 later come to occupy the clearings in the forest. Whenever 

 the trees are cut off, the shade-loving species of plants that 

 formed the forest undergrowth at first give way to such sun- 

 loving native species as the white birch, the golden-rods, and 

 fireweeds, but in the neighborhood of towns too often to the 

 hardier immigrants from other countries. The cutting of the 

 forest also permits the drying up and destruction of the 

 humus layer, in the absence of which such woodland plants 

 as the pyrolas, coral roots, and rattlesnake plantains find it 

 impossible to develop at the root-tips that micorrhizal layer 

 upon which their absorption of moisture depends. Such 

 species, therefore, are the first to disappear upon the clearing 

 of the forests, and in the long-settled countries have often 

 become restricted to a few favored localities. 



Had this country been free from outside influences, the 

 changes thus brought about would have been much less 

 marked, since it is most probable that American species, 

 natives of the river beaches and natural meadows, would 

 shortly have extended their ranges into the new clearings. 

 But at the same time that the first settlers cleared the land, 

 they unconsciously introduced hardy old-world weeds, which 

 in the new surroundings speedily ran riot to the exclusion of 

 the native plants. This process has been steadily operative 

 to change the character of our flora. While there is no 

 record of the earliest introduction of European plants, the 

 list published in 1672 by John Josselyn in his "New England's 



