SIEUR DE MONTS PUBLICATIONS 



VI 



James Bryce 



Kerner von 

 Marilaun 

 Univ. of 

 Vienna 



A. F. Schimper 

 Univ. of 

 Bonn 



C. S. Sargent 



U. S. Forestry 

 Report 



A. R. Wallace 



WILD LIFE AND NATUEP;] CONSEEVATION 

 IN THE EASTERN STATES. 



The Appalaeliian region of America contained 

 nntil lately the finest temperate-zone forest, and 

 the richest in species, in the world. It ranged 

 nnbrokenly from the northern boundary of the 

 LTnited States to Alabama and the Red River 

 region of Louisiana, and it stretched from the 

 Atlantic lowlands to the prairies. Now, compara- 

 tively little of this forest is left in an unaltered 

 state; its area has shrunk to a fraction of what it 

 was, and is still shrinking rapidly. 



It is a forest of immense antiquity. The earliest 

 fossil record of the broad-leaved, deciduous-leaved 

 type of tree found in the world is found in deep- 

 placed rock-strata of the southern Appalachians, 

 and the evidence is strong that never since that 

 immeasurably far-off time has the long succession 

 of its trees been broken, south of the limit of ice- 

 sheet invasion. It is unique today in species 

 no longer to be found elsewhere, such as the 

 Tulip Tree, of which a dozen other species once 

 dwelt within it; the Magnolias — now elsewhere 

 found in eastern Asia only; the Tupelo, the 

 Liquidamber, Sassafras, and others. Anciently 

 as rich as it in these and other forms, the whole 

 continent of Europe at the present time can 

 scarcely sliow one-lialf its wealth in genera and 

 species. 



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