lakes are but portions of great excavated channels locally filled with drift material, the fiords of the northern Atlantic and Pacific coast present remarkable parallels to them; and I would suggest Puget's Sound, Hood's Canal, and other portions of that wonderful system of navigable channels about Vancouver's Island, as affording interesting and instructive subjects for comparison. Like our lakes their channels are for the most part excavated from sedimentary strata which form a low and comparatively level margin to the bases of mountain chains and peaks. They too have their depths and shallows, their basins and bars, and probably all who have seen them will assent to Professor Dana's view, that they are the "result of subaërial excavation," in which glaciers performed an important part.

The "Loess" of the Mississippi Valley. The "Bluff formation" of the West, sometimes called "Loess," from its resemblance to the Loess of the Rhine, I have on a preceding page designated as a lacustrine non-glacial Drift deposit. It seems to be the sediment precipitated from the waters of our great inland sea in its shallow and more quiet portions, to which icebergs, with their gravel and boulders, had no access, and where the glacial mud was represented only by an impalpable powder, which mingled with the wash of the adjacent land, land shells, etc.

It is evidently one of the most recent of the deposits which come into the series of Drift phenomena, and was apparently thrown down while the broad water surface which once stretched over the region where it is found was narrowing by drainage and evaporation, till, by its total disappearance, this sheet of calcareous mud was left.

It underlies much of the prairie region, and once filled, often to the brim, the troughs of the Mississippi and Missouri, so deeply excavated during the glacial epoch. When the system of drainage was re-established the new rivers began the excavation of their ancient valleys in the Loess. When they had cut into or through this stratum, so that it

stood up in escarpments on either side, man came and called it the Bluff formation, because it composed or capped the bold bluffs of the river-banks. It is often, however, only a facing to the rocky cliffs, which are the true walls of these valleys, and which are monuments of an age long anterior to the date of its deposition.—Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 1869.

OUR NATIVE TREES AND SHRUBS.

BY REV. J. W. CHICKERING, JR.

IT has long been a favorite aspiration of the writer, at some time in life, to have an arboretum collected from our woods and waysides. But despairing of that, I would in this article give a list of those native shrubs and trees, which seem to promise to repay transplanting, and which would in beauty, and many of them in novelty, to any but the botanist, vie with those imported.

Of the trees of early spring, it is a pity that the Silver Maple (Acer dasycarpum), and the Sugar Maple (A. saccharinum), were not more generally known and valued, as flowering trees. The former is the earliest tree I know in this latitude, and the beauty of the long, yellow tassels of the latter, commends itself to every observer. Then for grounds of any extent the different Birches, the White (Betula alba), the Paper (B. papyracea), the Yellow (B. excelsa), and the Black (B. lenta), are in early spring most attractive ornaments, for the grace and variety of the spray of their delicate catkins. Then the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), and the Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata), both perfectly hardy in New York and New England, should be seen much more frequently in cultivated grounds. The Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) forms a pleasing clump

whether it hang out its bright yellow flowers or its crimson berries.

Of course the Sumachs would claim a place with their variety of flower, fruit and leaf, at least the Staghorn Sumach (Rhus typhina), with its red velvety branches; R. glabra, as smooth as the last is shaggy, and R. copallina, with its leaves looking as if varnished.

The New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus Americanus), with its spikes of delicate white flowers, demands a place, as well as admiration.

Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), also called Roxbury Waxwork, so well known as having given a name to one of the most charming rural poems in our language, is a hardy climber, vigorous and luxuriant in summer, and very conspicuous in autumn, with its scarlet seed coverings set in orange linings, as is its first cousin the Waahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus), with its crimson drooping fruit, not uncommon in cultivation.

The Red-bud, or Judas Tree (Cercis Canadensis), with its branches all aflame in early spring, is a small, graceful

tree.

Spirea opulifolia, is an attractive variety, while the Meadow Sweet (S. salicifolia), and the Hardhack (S. tomentosa), so valuable as a medicine, were they only less common, would be eagerly sought for their beauty.

The Shad-bush (Amelanchier Canadensis), heralding along the Connecticut, "the first run of shad," is a favorite whereever known, while the Witch Hazel (Hamamelis Virginica), closing the floral procession of the season with its weird, wrinkled yellow flowers in October, and even November, is not to be neglected.

The Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), beautiful alike in its snowy profusion of flowers and its bright red berries, is less known and far less cultivated than its merits deserve. It is hardy, with bright green leaves, and ought to become common, as our most showy shrub or small tree.

Several other species of this genus are worthy a place in our collections: Cornus circinata, sericea, stolonifera, paniculata, alternifolia, all of which may be found either in thickets or swampy places.

The Honeysuckle family is already introduced, but some members of it need a special introduction.

The Snowberry (Symphoricarpus racemosus), with its fruit so well known to children as far from liability to stain; and the Coral-berry (S. vulgaris), are in general cultivation, especially the former.

The Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera semperivirens), and the delicate little Fly Honeysuckles (L. ciliata and cœrulea), are equally as charming as some of their foreign sisters. The Viburnum too is a beautiful genus. The Cranberry Tree (V. Opulus), whose fruit is better to look at than to eat, and the Hobble-bush (V. lantanoides), so called from the facility with which its procumbent branches trip the incautious traveller, are well known in early spring, with their broad cymes of mainly sterile flowers; and the flower-buds of the latter forming in early autumn, afford a beautiful study of nature's care in affording protection against the winter's cold; while the rusty down upon the leaf-stalks affords under the microscope a most beautiful specimen of stellate hairs. But the other species, V. nudum, prunifolium, dentatum, pubescens, acerifolium, and especially Lentago, while by no means rare in the woods and copses, are very beautiful, with enough of variety to render it desirable to have them all.

The Button-bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is odd, with its buttons of white flowers, and worthy of cultivation.

Many of the Ericaca are no less beautiful than unknown. The Swamp Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) with its great variety of forms, is a very attractive shrub, with pubescent leaves, large flowers, and conspicuous and delicious fruit. The Deerberry (V. stamineum) is very peculiar in its habit of flowering, and would be very ornamental. Doubt

less this genus will eventually be taken up by the nurserymen, as have the different species of Rubus.

The Leather Leaf (Cassandra calyculata), and Andromeda polifolia, are both worthy of attention. White Alder (Clethra alnifolia) is already somewhat known, and is covered in August with handsome blossoms so fragrant that a clump may be detected at many rods distance.

Mountain Laurel, Calico-bush, Spoon-wood (Kalmia latifolia), is one of the most beautiful shrubs ever created, as seen in profusion in its varying shades, in parts of Massachusetts, but very seldom in cultivation. Kalmia glauca, or Pale Laurel, is less showy, but of great beauty. The Azaleas (A. viscosa and nudiflora) are very common, very beautiful and fragrant, but very seldom cultivated.

The Great Laurel (Rhododendron maximum), though magnificent in its native thickets, cannot probably compete with the foreign species, now so generally introduced, but Rhodora Canadensis, with its rose-purple blossoms, covering the leafless branches, is one of the pleasantest sights of early spring, and Labrador Tea (Ledum latifolium) with its delicate white clusters and leaves rusty-woolly beneath, is likewise full of beauty.

The Fringe-tree (Chionanthus Virginica) with its delicate white drooping panicles, ought to be seen much more frequently than it is.

Sassafras officicinale with its curiously lobed leaves, yellow racemes of flowers, and spicy aroma; Leather-wood (Dirca palustris), also called Wicopy, with pale yellowish flowers is a curious shrub, its wood soft and brittle, its bark so tough that it can be used for thongs, requiring a strong man to break even its slenderest twigs.

From this list have been omitted very many trees and shrubs in common cultivation. The object has been to call attention to those less generally known. Many of these have their natural station in swampy ground; many resist attempts at transplanting. But a little care in choosing from