works upon these departments of botany. But I am obliged to confess, that I have been able to do very little in regard to them. Since the commencement of this Survey, my friend, Rev. J. L. Russell, of Hingham, has carefully prepared a catalogue of the mosses in the eastern part of the State, which he was kind enough to place at my disposal. I was not willing that its publication should be delayed till the appearance of this volume, and it has been published in the Boston Journal of Natural History. Mr. Edward Tuckerman also prepared, at my request, a catalogue of the lichens found on the bark of trees in this State. As it is to be hoped that he will soon give us a complete account of the lichens of New England, for which work he is amply prepared, it would be doing him injustice to publish an imperfect catalogue. The deficiency in the history of the Algae is likely to be soon supplied, by Prof. Bailey, of West Point, in the thorough manner of which he has given evidence in the Scientific Journal." p. 8.

Through the kindly coöperation of many friends of the author, and to the general subject, by personal inquiry and inspection in various manufactories, ship-yards, saw-mills, on farms, and in wood-lots, amidst primitive forests, and on mountain ranges, Mr. E. was thus enabled to present a mass of information, which will be received with that interest, which it demands. The labor of preparation, it is to be seen, must have been great, and the pursuit profitable as well as interesting, in giving opportunities for personal acquaintance with scenery, and also with habits of social life, to be found in our State; it remains for us to express our conviction that, in a scientific or more practical point of view, this concluding report will serve the noble purpose for which it was intended, and help, with the aid of others of the entire series, to fulfil the idea, which originally projected the Zoological and Botanical Survey of Massachusetts.

To the lover of nature, to the highly cultivated taste, there is scarcely any object so attractive as forest scenery, when considered in all its merits, proportions and parts. At all times of the year, the forests are objects of interest. When full of leafy honors, their masses of vegetation afford indescribable charms; when the summer heats have abated, and quiet autumn steals on apace, the innumerable tints of foliage render so peculiar the American autumnal landscape, as to appear to those unfamiliar with the fact, in foreign countries, as a pleasing tale, as some fancy of the painter or imagination of the poet. When denuded and bare, their contour, outline or the

sober colors of their spray, render them no less interesting amid the snows of winter: and when spring awakens her floral beauties to renewed life, the new-born garniture of the forests, from the delicate and pleasant green of its infancy to the rapidly changing verdure and dark foliage of its matured vigor, is full of wondrous charms. The great variety of woody plants found in the United States of America, and even in our own little State of Massachusetts, affect most materially the diversified scenery of the country. The most rugged and bleakest hills, whether on our own sea-coast or more inland, if covered with forest growth, are interesting objects at all seasons of the year, and equally, according to their peculiar merits, the deciduous forests, or the evergreen woods, are full of sylvan charms. Stretching for many a mile, the craggy and precipitous range of low hills in Saugus and Lynn are picturesque in winter or summer, for their black forests of Juniper and Red Cedar, clinging among the fissures of the rocks, and disputing with struggling pertinacity with each other, or with some chance species beside, for food and nutriment; while, in the lighter and more sandy soils, the rich and towering White Pines give an air of comfort and elegance to the surrounding country. The little village in which we reside, seems surrounded almost, with a belt of this fine tree; and now, while the lingering snow of winter is lying about us, the different colors and tints of the masses of spray, branches and groups of trees, afford pleasing subjects for observation. In the distance and background, two or three shades and variations of green, from the evergreen woods; nearer, the grey branches of a young copse of some species of oak, surmounted with the reddish hue of the last summer's growth, relieves agreeably the dull and prim drab color of the dead grass, where the absence of the snow allows it to be seen. One familiar with the appearance of trees and shrubs finds, in his mid-winter walks, more tints and even strongly expressed colors in the twigs, branches and trunks of the forests, than the skilful painter could imitate: and, from the "hybernal vestiges" of some tall annual, to the sempervirent or continued vital beauty of stronger and more enduring forms of vegetable life, he can find many pleasing subjects, which escape the careless eye.

But, besides being objects of admiration, the forests afford other subjects, of which let the author speak in the following fine passage:

"The immense variety, the many and important uses, and the great beauty of our forests, must, naturally, attract the attention of an observer; and, as the preservation and improvement of the forests, in their highest degree, are above private effort, require joint action, and must be effected on a large scale, on a system wisely begun and long continued, by the men of one generation for those of the next; and by the application of science, taste and skill, not by one but by many men, not in one village or town, but in a county and state; it is wise in a government, not acting merely for the present, but extending its forethought generously onwards, making its knowledge and wisdom an invested capital for future use, and desiring to do for coming generations what they, when looking back, shall wish it had done,—it is wise, prudent and patriotic for such a government to order a survey of the forests, among its other domains, that the people may know the sources of their wealth and its extent, and learn how to value, enlarge and enjoy it. The conception and ordering of this general survey was worthy of the descendants of those who established free schools, free courts of justice, and freedom in religion. The idea was a noble one, with whatever success the work may have been executed."

P. 1.

In a journal devoted, as is this, to one of the most useful and important branches of agriculture, the important uses, which forests subserve, in the great enonomy of nature, should find place. We feel that it is benefiting and advancing the subject of Horticulture, by our presenting to our readers the following valuable facts::

"Forests protect a country from the violence of winds. The lively author of Life in Mexico' writes: 'M. de Humboldt, who examined the will of Cortes, informs us that the conqueror had left sugar plantations near Cuyoacan, in the valley of Mexico, where now, owing, it is supposed, to the cutting down of the trees, the cold is too great for sugar-cane or any other tropical production to thrive.' And a most intelligent gentleman in Worcester tells me, that he attributes the greater difficulty now experienced in the cultivation of the more delicate fruits in that town, to the fact, that the encircling hills, formerly crowned with trees, are now, to a considerable degree, laid bare. The laws of the motion of the atmosphere are similar to those of water. A bare hill gives no protection. The wind pours over it as water pours over a dam. But if the hill be capped with trees, the windy cascade will be broken as into spray. Its violence will be sensibly diminished. We are not aware, on the now protected and irregular surface of New England, how important are the screens furnished by the forests. Travel

lers from Illinois tell us, that, on the vast prairies in that and some of the other western States, the wind is almost always fresh, and often blows a gale, before which men can hardly stand. The new settlers are glad to shelter their habitations under the lee of the spurs of forest which stretch like promontories into the prairie lands. A forest near the coast, in any part of New England, protects those farther inland from the chilling east winds; and, while such winds prevail, a person passing towards the sea, experiences a marked change of temperature, upon crossing the last wood and especially the last wood-covered hill. One who would have his house screened from the northerly winds, must take care to have behind it a hill crowned with trees, or at least to have a wood stretching from the northwest to the northeast. A garden surrounded by tall trees admits the cultivation, even in our severe climate, of plants almost tropical." p. 6.

And while on this subject, let us introduce to notice a somewhat novel material for clipped hedges, and its proved utility, in the hemlock, (Abies canadénsis.) Michaux.

"It bears pruning to almost any degree, without suffering injury; it is well suited to form screens for the protection of more tender trees and plants, or for concealing disagreeable objects. By being planted in double or triple rows, it may, in a few years, be made to assume the appearance of an impenetrable evergreen wall,--really impenetrable to the wind and to domestic animals. A hedge of this kind, seven or eight feet high, on a bleak, barren plain exposed to the northwest winds, gave Dr. Greene of Mansfield a warm, sunny, sheltered spot for the cultivation of delicate annual plants. When I saw it, the annuals, several of which were rare exotics, were beautiful, but the hemlock screen was much more so." p. 79.

Until within a few years, very little, if any attention has been paid to the preservation or reproduction of forests; a want of prudence and foresight very remarkable for so calculating a people as are New Englanders in general. With some rare exceptions, we are not aware that any thing has been effected in restoring old and barren lands to utility. There are thousands of acres in every town in the state, where scarcely any thing can grow as they exist now, and which might be rendered productive of distant indeed, but of almost certain value. The simplest kind of labor oftentimes produces this; and we know of instances where, in about twenty years, a return of marketable White Pine, useful for wooden-ware manufacture, was obtained from simply ploughing up the land, from which operation alone, innumerable young plants of that tree instant

ly sprang. We know of knobs, so to speak, of the most rocky land, rendered productively valuable by the careful preservation and pruning of the Red Cedar, which sprang up spontaneously upon them, and which would have remained as shrubs, if browsed by cattle, and have continued to be as useless for food, as unsightly to the eye. From the success which has attended the experiments in France, on the most barren sands, and in Scotland, on the bleakest highlands, as well as from our actual knowledge of what humbler and more limited operations have effected in this vicinity, we are persuaded that the sterile and mossy ridges of gravel, stretching around some of our maritime towns, for instance, Duxbury, which is particularly in our mind now, and the sandy plains of Hingham, and of the more interior towns, could become of a future value, which scarcely can be calculated now. The importance of forests, and indeed of every tree and shrub, in improving the soil, is too great to be overlooked, while their own. intrinsic value is by no means small. This is effected by the decomposition of the original soil through the roots; by the gradual decay of the foliage, and through the prevention of the winds carrying the particles of soil from spot to spot. Many an acre would resemble the moving sands of an Arabian desert, were it not for the thick carpet, of pine leaves which lie under the trees, which such a shifting soil bears and not a few such we know, where entire days are required to dig out the walls and fences, buried, year by year, by the drift sand; a species of husbandry of most improvident character, and an evil which soon could be remedied, by the judicious planting of various species of pine. De Candolle tells us that he herborized for a whole day, in similar artificial "forests sown by Brementier on sand completely arid, and on which, before, scarce a trace of vegetation could be seen." It is well known, too, that the shade of the yellow Locust, (Robinia psuedacacia,) is most favorable to the growth of nutritious grass, even on spots where, before the planting of this tree, it was impossible to make it grow, and numerous such facts only tend to exhibit the facilities, as well as advantages, which this kind of agricultural pursuit offers.

Those who are fond of vegetable statistics, whether in the economical employment of the various kinds of woods, or in