Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 75.djvu/388

384 but being an annual it was rapidly destroyed by the cattle, that were turned into the woods by the settlers, before it had time to seed itself. Kalm further remarks:

From the same writer it appears that the woods about this Delaware region originally had a scant undergrowth, for he speaks of their open character—" so that one could ride on horseback without inconvenience . . . and even with a cart in most places."

It is a significant fact that most of the native wild flowers of our Atlantic region, excepting those that grow along the river banks and in wet meadows, are woodland species. We go to the woods to find our early spring flowers—hepatica, bloodroot, the anemones, the mayflower, dogstooth violet, saxifrage, bluets and spring-beauty. These species probably acquired the habit of vernal blooming as a necessity imposed by their forest life—unfolding their blossoms in the sunshine of bare woods before the leafage cast its heavy shade. It is possible also that the habit may be, in part, an inheritance from the glacial time, the then short summer period of vegetative activity corresponding with our present spring. In certain groups of plants which are eminently characteristic of eastern North America the larger number of species are of woodland distribution. This is the case with the golden-rods and asters. In glancing over these two groups one is struck by the preponderance of species that are found in woods or along wood borders. Those that grow in the more open lands, as in fields, are for the most part either of northern or western distribution or are inhabitants of moist soil districts, such as meadows and swampy glades.

Every boy who has indulged a natural propensity to haunt the wild and delectable spots of his neighborhood, to pursue shy birds and pry into the secrets of their nests, knows that there are some birds that dwell in the woods and others that make their homes in the fields. A student of ornithology, likewise, soon learns that certain species of birds are peculiar either to the woods or to the fields, and that the structure and habits of life in each are in accordance with the nature of the surroundings. Among eastern North American birds there are several species of sparrows, as the vesper sparrow or grass finch, the savanna and grasshopper sparrows, that are strictly grassland birds. The same is also true of the meadow lark, the bob-white, the cowbird, the redwinged blackbird, and the bobolink. These are all birds of open grassland country.