Excerpt from The Forests of Canada

Rivers and lakes, by supplying heat and moisture and warding off summer frosts, often promote the growth of trees on their immediate banks which are not found elsewhere in the surrounding country. Instances of this may be seen along the North Saskatchewan, where the negundo, green ash, grey elm, white birch, alder, etc., thrive only on the river banks. In the cold regions, the white spruce grows to a much larger size on the shores and islands of rivers flowing north than elsewhere. It has been found that exotic fruit trees and other introduced plants can be successfully cultivated around the shores of the larger lakes, especially on their southern sides, which will not grow at a short distance inland. On the other hand, the immediate proximity of the sea, with a lower summer temperature than the land, is unfavourable to the growth of timber in the north. The habits of some trees are much modified in different latitudes. Species which grow in warm dry soil in the north may be found in cold, heavy, or Wet land in the south. The larch, balsam, white cedar, white pine, white birch, etc., are examples of this tendency. Some species extend far to the south of their general home along mountain ridges, while others seem to refuse to follow such lines. The existence of extensive swamps, the shelter of bills, or the elevations which they afi'ord, are therefore to be regarded as among the minor conditions governing the distribution of trees.

The peculiarities in the outline of the northward limit of the white cedar and other species of trees, may throw some light on questions as to the direction from which they have migrated or been dispersed. In some cases which the author has studied, the trees appear to have reached the most north ern limit possible. For example, in its most northern range.

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