Macoun, John (1894) The Forests of Canada and their distribution, with notes on the more interesting species. Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada. Section IV: 3-20.

John Macoun visited Prince Edward Island in 7888 in his role as the official botanist for the Canadian Geological Survey. Basing himself at Brackley Point, he travelled all over the province from Tignish to East Point, making the first major collection of island plants, the specimens from which are deposited in the National Museum in Ottawa. His list of the island ’s trees is extensive though not complete: missing are jack pine, bigtooth aspen, choke cherry, and ironwood ~ all of which he does record for the adjacent main/and provinces. Although his descriptive comments on the island’s forests are somewhat general in nature, when we consider the national scope of the paper, the amount of coverage given to the island is generous. In the introduction to his paper he deplores the wanton destruction of Canadian forests then going on, and it is evident that one of his principal aims is to encourage the adoption of a program of forest conservation.

REFERENCE: Erskine, D. S. (1960) The Plants of Prince Edward Island. Publication 1088, Canada Department of Agriculture.

On the sea coast, cutting away the forests has let in the sea air, and to-day the soil of Prince Edward Island and parts of Nova Scotia is wetter than when the timber was Tamarack. first cut off. As proof of this, tamarack is now growing in pastures and meadows where hardwood once covered the land, and under—drainage has become an absolute necessity. ip. 31

THE FORESTS OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND.

The original forests of Prince Edward Island differ in no particular from those of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as regards species except that their distribution is different. The species enumerated below are the only trees indigenous to the island.

Tree species. Acer saccharinum, Wang. (Sugar maple). Ouercus rubra, Linn. (Red oak). ” rubrum, Linn (Red maple). Popu/us tremu/oides, Michx. (Aspen).

Pennsylvanicum, Linn. (Striped Maple). ” balsamifera, Linn. (Balsam poplar). Prunus serotina, Ehrh. (Black cherry). Pinus Strobus, Linn. (White pine).

” Pennsylvanica, L. f. (Bird cherry). resinosa, Ait. (Red pine). Fraxinus sambucifo/ia, Lam. (Black ash). Picea alba, Link. (White spruce).

” Americana, Linn. (White ash). nigra, Link. (Black spruce). U/mus Americana, Linn. (Common elm). rubra, Lam. (Red spruce).

1/

u

1/

u

Betu/a papyrifera, Marsh. (Canoe birch). Abies balsamea, Mill. (Balsam fir).

” Alba, var. populifo/ia, Spach. (White birch). Tsuga Canadensis, Carr. (Hemlock).

” lutea, Michx. f. (Yellow birch). Larix Americana, Michx. (Larch, tamarack). Fagus ferruginea, Ait. (Beech). Thuya occidental/s, Linn. (White cedar).

Sugar maple and A few words may be said regarding the distribution of the twenty-four species

beech at low enumerated above. While sugar maples and beeches grow on ridges and the more

elevations. elevated parts on the mainland of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick they are found throughout Prince Edward Island on the general level only a few feet above the level of the sea. This one fact shows that the island has a better climate than the mainland and is much less subject to cold fogs. The sugar maple is more sensitive than most of our trees to the damp atmosphere and as it approaches its northern limit invariably occupies dry ridges, leaving the lower ground to birches and conifers.

Fine specimens of Prince Edward Island produces finer specumens of balsam and the three spruces than

spruce and fir. are to be seen elsewhere in the Dominion. The air and soil seem to suit them perfectly, and a drive from Charlottetown to Brackley Point will show more beautiful

220