236 



UNITED STATES. 



Paris, 1786, there does not exist in France more 

 than thirty-seven species of trees higher than thirty 

 feet ; while in North America there are ninety 

 above forty feet high. Of the thirty-seven species 

 which France possesses, there are, according to the 

 above memoir, only eighteen which form the mass 

 of the forests of the country ; while there are ninety 

 in America, so that the difference amonncs to seventy^ 

 two. Of the eighteen species whicli form the forests 

 of France, sixteen grow in all parts of that country, 

 and two in the middle of it : in the United States 

 there are seventy-six, v^hich are equally found in the 

 north and the south, and which will bear a degree of 

 cold equal to the north of Germany. 



Of the eighteen species of trees, we can fairly con- 

 fine the number of those which are suitable for the 

 carpenter, and to civil and Ucival purposes, to nine 

 species ; the vv^oods of North America proper for the 

 same purposes are fifty-one. 



In a memoir expressly written on the subject of 

 the naturalization of the forest trees of the United 

 States in France, Mr. Michaux has inserted a table 

 of all the trees, the importation of which would be 

 useful to France ; with their common heights, diame- 

 ters, places of abode, quality of the wood, and nature 

 of the soil in which they grow, and concludes by say- 

 ing, " The whole number is ninety, composed chiefly 

 of tv/enty species of oaks, sixteen of walnut, seven of 

 reshious trees, five of poplars, three of birch^ four of 

 maple, three of ash, two of cypress, two of elms, two 

 of nyssa or tupelo, two of honey locust, three magno- 

 liasj two of celtis or nettle tree,* The rest belong to 

 * Or hackberry tree. 



