the conifers. This was because the natural forest cover of most of France was broad-leaved forest, with any coniferous forest being restricted to the mountain regions or the Mediterranean coast.57 And although the island had substantial areas covered by conifer forest, the predominant forest- type was also broad-leaved forest.5E3 Within this forest almost every tree species had a European equivalent with which the early recorders would have already been familiar. There was also the additional advantage for the recorders that the number of broad-leaved trees occurring on the island was comparatively low (only 20), which is similar to the number in France (about 26 excluding the Mediterranean and mountain zones”). This lower level of identification and nomenclatural problems (in comparison with the conifers), makes it easier for us to interpret the broad-leaved records some two to three centuries later.

BEECH (Fagus grandifalial [French name : hétre]

Identification - Beech trees should not have presented any identification problems for the early recorders as the leaves and bark of the North American species (Fagus grandifo/ia) resemble those of the single European species of beech (F.

sy/vatica), except that — as its Latin name indicates — the North American species has somewhat larger leaves. It was also easily

distinguished from all other tree species on ile Saint-Jean.

Nomenclature — It is listed by all recorders as hétre (the French name for beech — often in the form of hestre — the circonflex of the modern spelling marking the dropped 3). Two recorders (Roma 1750, Franquet 1751) also mention hétriéres [beech woods], implying a single-species stand, or at least a type of forest dominated by beech.

57 For example, see Eyre 1963.

58

For example, see Sobey & Glen 1999 (Figure 10).

59 The count of 26 is based on the tree distribution maps and other information in Press & Hosking (1992). This number is much less than in the North American Deciduous Summer Forest: e.g. in the area where this forest enters Canada - which is only in the extreme south of Ontario just to the north of Lake Erie, about 70 broad-leaved tree species occur (Farrar 1995) — over three times as many as the 20 species that occur on Prince Edward Island.

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The tree lists — It is the most frequently listed of all the tree species, OCCurring in seven of the eight lists (Table 1-2). Only Cartier (1534) did not record it — which is not surprising, given that his visit to Prince Edward Island was short (a matter of hours) and appears to have been confined to the immediate coastal area in the west. With the exception of pine and oak, beech also tops all of the species in the total tally (Table 1-3).

Specific areas — Roma (1734) recorded hétre as one of the trees occurring near the site of his fishing station at Saint-Pierre (perhaps near the mouth of St. Peters Bay), and he also mentioned hétrie‘res as occurring along the trail (at least in part) that he had run through the woods to connect his settlement at Trois Rivie‘res He at Brudenell Point) with Saint-Pierre.

Franquet (1751) specifically listed hétre in the hardwoods above the cleared land on either side of the rivie‘re de Pagedieg [Pisquid River], while La Roque (1752) recorded it as one of the species occurring in the ’fort beaux bo/s’ [very fine woods] around Malpeque Bay.60

In a comment on the plagues of field mice that periodically afflicted the settlements, Franquet (1751) noted that the mice came from the beech woods [he‘triers], adding that the local people believed the build-up of mice numbers to be connected with a year of beech mast [fame] production, and that when future forest clearance would take place such plagues would diminish. La Roque (1752) stated more precisely (in his section on Macpec — though he seems to be making a point that applies more generally) that mouse plagues occurred in the year following a mast [fesne] year. (This comment is repeated by Pichon (1760F), but, as noted elsewhere, he appears to be using La Roque’s report.) Since both Franquet and La Roque had only been on ile Saint-Jean a short time (a matter of weeks), their information must have come from local people — Franquet cites as his source '/a tradition du pays' [the tradition of the country]. However, whether the details of what Franquet and La Roque record be true or not“, it appears that the perception of the local

5° The three records of beech in the English translation of Pichon (1760E) (at Naufrage, Courtin Island and on the cart track across the Malpeque-Bedeque isthmus) are all mis-translations of the French bois francs — which means ‘hardwoods‘ and not beech (Massignon 1962, p. 214; Bélisle 1979).

6‘ For example, Roma (1750), in a detailed account of the causes of the mouse plagues (see the Addendum to Appendix 2 of this report), which is clearly the product of extensive observation during