70 
fact be so, it will have at least a gradual influence on the 
vegetation of the country.* 
As the plants of this country, which are generally known, 
may be found in catalogues formed on purpose to embrace 
them, I shall notice them but slightly and imperfectly, in 
mentioning some vegetable productions for the illustration 
of the point before us. 
The forest trees in North America are almost beyond 
number. Those which are already arranged and classified, 
amount to more than one hundred and fifty species, while 
in all Europe, botanists reckon but forty.t The Chesnut, the 
Walnut, the Hickory and Gum, here grow to an enormous 
bulk, and are nearly of every species. The Elm, the Pop¬ 
lar, the Beech, the Maple and the mountain Ash, are very 
common ; and both for size and beauty are no where ex¬ 
celled. Many varieties of the Oak are here profusely plant¬ 
ed by the hand of nature. Our sandy tracts, unlike the 
wastes of Zaara or Arabia, are quite productive. Here 
flourishes the Pine in all its varieties, the Hemlock, Spruce 
and Juniper, the Cedar, the Fir, and a species of the Larch. 
Among the smaller plants may be found the Geranium, 
CeanthuSjGulthseria procumbens, Monarda, Cunilla and Soii- 
dago Odoria, most of which are frequently substituted for 
tea. The Lobelia cardinalis, the Aster, Syringa, and many 
beautiful species of the Lonicera or Honeysuckle, which 
spread their flowery garlands from tree to tree.—The Phle- 
um, Avena Elatior, Myosotis, Sinosurus, Aira, Briza, Draba, 
and the far famed Agrostis—The Galium, the Sanguisorba, 
the Quercitron Oak, the Soph-ora, and the Rhus Toxicoden¬ 
dron, may be mentioned as some of our vegetable dyes. 
* The number of swamps in the United States, and which 
frequently occupy a large and valuable extent of country, might ea¬ 
sily be converted into productive soil, by strewing lime over them— 
The putrid effluvia which they exhale is destroyed by this process, 
and the decaying vegetable matter, is reduced to a solid fertile mould. 
Linnaeus first suggested this plan, and in England many of the fens 
and bogs are made to yield abundantly. The practice is the limmg 
nf sivamps. 
f Michaux—Med. Repos. 
