SMALLER FOREST PLANTS. 
285 
land, its injurious effects upon climate, health, facility of 
internal communication, and the like. Thus resentful memory 
of the wrongs associated with the forest, popular ignorance, 
and the cupidity of speculators cunning enough to turn these 
circumstances to profitable account, combined to hasten the 
sacrifice of the remaining woods, and a waste was produced 
which hundreds of years and millions of treasure will hardly 
repair. 
Small Forest Plants , and Yitality of Seed. 
Another function of the woods to which I have barely 
alluded deserves a fuller notice than can be bestowed upon it 
in a treatise the scope of which is purely economical. The 
forest is the native habitat of a large number of humbler 
plants, to the growth and perpetuation of which its shade, its 
humidity, and its vegetable mould appear to be indispensable 
necessities.* We cannot positively say that the felling of the 
* “ A hundred and fifty paces from my house is a hill of drift sand, on 
which stood a few scattered pines. Pinus sylvestris , and Sempervivum tec- 
torum in abundance, Statice armeria , Ammone vernalis , Dianthus carthusi- 
anorum , with other sand plants, were growing there. I planted the hill 
with a few birches, and all the plants I have mentioned completely disap¬ 
peared, though there were many naked spots of sand between the trees. 
It should be added, however, that the hillock is more thickly wooded than 
before. * * * It seems then that Sempervivum tectorum , &c., will not 
bear the neighborhood of the birch, though growing well near the Pinus 
sylvestris. I have found the large red variety of Agaricus deliciosus only 
among the roots of the pine; the greenish-blue Agaricus deliciosus among 
alder roots, but not near any other tree. Birds have their partialities 
among trees and shrubs. The Silvia} prefer the Pinus Larix to other trees. 
In my garden this Pinus is never without them, but I never saw a bird 
perch on Thuja occidentalis or Juniperus sabina , although the thick foliage 
of these latter trees affords birds a better shelter than the loose leafage of 
other trees. Not even a wren ever finds its way to one of them. Perhaps 
the scent of the Thuja and the Juniperus is offensive to them. I have 
spoiled one of my meadows by cutting away the bushes. It formerly bore 
grass four feet high, because many umbelliferous plants, such as Heracleum 
spondylium , Spiraea ulmaria , Laserpitium latifolia , &c., grew in it. Under 
the shelter of the bushes these plants ripened and bore seed, but they grad¬ 
ually disappeared as the shrubs were extirpated, and the grass now does 
