[Bain, Francis] (1882) ’Notes of a Naturalist’. The Daily Examiner, Charlottetown. 31 August 1882, p. 1.

The extract below comes from an article printed in the Charlottetown paper The Daily Examiner in 7882. The author, who signs himself only as ’B. ’ (see Bain 1883) has to be the naturalist Francis Bain Most of the article is taken up with a description of the hardwood trees of the island ’s forests — for each tree / have included below only the ecological or landscape comments. It is evident from the article that the undisturbed ’primitive forest’ was by the 78805 of very limited extent in the island ’3 landscape, and Bain ends with an evocative description of such a remnant of “ancient forest’ that he had visited.

Forest remnants

in the landscape.

The hardwood trees of the island ’5 forests:

Beech.

The birches.

The maples.

The minor trees.

A remnant of ’ancient forest’.

Our woodland scenery is now in its full summer glory. Along the highway side, on the rear of the farms, in clustered groups in the clearances, or deep in the bosoming valley, shadowing the hidden courses of the stream, how the rich—draped sentinels of the forest wander about our land, bearing features of beauty to every landscape! it is where the primitive forest remains unbroken, however, as in tracts about the headwaters of the Elliot and the Dunk rivers, that we see our forest trees in their true magnificence. What grand billowy swells of verdure they roll over the crowded hills

On our driest lands, where the fullest wheat harvests are reaped, the beech (Fagus ferruginea) flourishes most plentifully. As a second-growth tree, the clean trunk, broad-spreading limbs, and ample folds of dark, rich foliage make it a most beautiful shade tree. In the primitive forest, its great trunk, silvery grey, lashed with purple, mounts aloft with but few tortuous arms from its summit.

We have three birches[:] the White Birch (Betula papyracea) the popular birch (Betula populifolia) both these trees delight in damp soils and are most beautiful when seen growing along the banks of a river. The yellow birch (Betula excelsa) is the giant of our deciduous forests. Its great trunk, occasionally ten or twelve feet in circumference, buttressed with roots, mounts aloft, sometimes straight as a Grecian column laced with golden bark, or embossed with lichens;

The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharinum) is a large tree with very firm wood . The Red Maple (Acer rubrum) is a smaller tree The Pennsylvanian Maple (Acer Pennsylvanicum), the dwarfed Mountain Maple (Acer Montanum).

Our wild cherries (Prunus Virginia and P. Pennsylvanica) are small trees We have a few oaks (Ouercus rubra), elms (U/mus Americana), and ashes (Fraxinus Sambucifo/ia) but they form a very inconspicuous feature of our forest. The shrubby mountain ash (Sorbus Americana) and sumac (Rhus Glabra). The aspen (Populus tremu/oides) loves the borders of the swamps but Popu/us grandidentata affects dryer lands. We have three small native willows, (Sal/x Mulenb[er]giana, S. recurvata and S. conifera). The alders (A/nus serru/ata) darken the course of every stream throughout the land. Aron/a Arbutifo/ia and Aron/a botryapium (Wild Pear) are handsome flowering shrubs in May;

We went out on the Wiltshire road, about the head—waters of Howell’s Brook, to see the ancient forest in its solemn grandeur. Everywhere [the stream] was buried in crimped leaved alders, and the thick crowded spires of firs and spruces, which filled the valley. But the grand old forest of birches and silvery maples rolled over the hills. We left the road, and penetrated into the twilight of its shadowy recesses. High overhead, in the far-extending roof of foliage, ran a deep swelling murmur, like the far off voice of the sea. Underneath, the giant trunks, crowded thick in shaded gloom, or standing more open, admitted stray glimpses of sunshine to gild the mighty hulks, twisted and gnarled, or mounting straight as cathedral columns. There were whisperings and rustlings of lighter foliage, pendant from the lofty arches. And the brown carpet ’neath our feet, woven by a thousand autumns, was gay with fairy plumes of delicate asphedum, and the lobed satiny leaves of the Pennsylvanian maple, and the little drooping oxalis, which, in June, bears snowy blossoms, like white rows of choristers, bending low in the cathedral of nature.

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