165 
NOTES ON THE FOREST SCENERY OF NORTH AMERICA, 
MADE BY MR. JAMES M'NAB, OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN, EDINBURGH, AND MR. 
R. BROWN, LATE OF PERTH, DURING A JOURNEY TAKEN FOR THE EXPRESS 
PURPOSE OF OBSERVING THE CHARACTERS OF TREES IN THEIR NATURAL 
WOODS. 
Extracted from the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 
Every individual who has been accustomed, during his home travels, to pay 
any attention to the forest scenery in his native country, must be astonished at the 
great difference which a foreign land presents. 
In tropical regions, the whole aspect of a country is changed by the total alter- 
ation in habit, and the luxuriancy of the forests, compared with those seen in tem- 
perate climates. 
In North America the forest scenery is sublime, and upon a very extensive 
scale. When looked upon by the inexperienced observer, it may not seem to afford 
forms different from what he has been accustomed to witness in other countries ; 
but the practised eye must at once perceive the wonderful difference of form which 
the American trees present. 
Before landing upon the shore at New York, the head-lands appear to the 
stranger from the old country of a very dark and dismal hue, from the quantity of 
pines and red cedars (Juniperus Virginiana) , which seem to be the chief inhabitants 
of the soils around ; but on landing, the whole city and neighbourhood seems like a 
vast garden, from the number of beautiful trees, which either grow spontaneously, 
or have been introduced into the avenues of the city from more southern climes. 
It is here that the observing stranger is first impressed with the great diversity 
of form and the variety of foliage furnished by American trees ; but it is not to be 
expected that throughout the country this diversity of form is everywhere to be 
seen. It is much the contrary. Near the large cities none of the natural forests 
remain, nor can they be expected till we penetrate beyond the reach of internal 
communication of rivers and lakes : for the demand of wood, as fuel and otherwise^ 
in the neighbourhood of such places, is very great. 
About Hobochen, in New Jersey, many very ornamental forest trees of great 
size are seen, and frequently covered to their summits with wild vines. Of these 
the Platanus occidentalis (button wood or false sycamore), Liriodendron tulipifera 
(white wood or tulip tree), Liquidambar styraciflua (sweet gum), with some 
splendid oaks, chestnuts, limes, and honey-locusts (Gleditschia triacanthos) , are 
pre-eminent. There are also many magnificent Catalpa trees ( Catalpa syringifolia) , 
with a great number of fine old weeping willows and Lombardy poplars. These 
last appear to be universal favourites, for they are everywhere to be seen, and are 
indeed almost the only exotic forest trees which the Americans think of planting. 
These Lombardy poplars, from their great abundance, give to a place a very curious 
but by no means a picturesque appearance. 
All over the northern parts of New Jersey the soil is good, and the vegetation 
very various. In the southern parts, however, the soils are poor, and covered chiefly 
