considered common on the island. He also observed that the érable provided sugar and noted that the plaine was the female form of the érab/e — a piece of botanical folklore recorded in other contemporary accounts.80

Specific areas — Roma recorded érab/e as one of the species found near his habitation at Saint- Pierre [St. Peters Bay] while La Roque recorded both érab/es and p/eines [sic] among the hardwoods found on Isle a Monsieur Court/n [Courtin Island] and in the area around the havre de Macpec [Malpeque Bay].

Conclusion — Despite its current status as the most common broadleaved genus on Prince Edward Island (largely due to the ubiquity of red maple“), the records of the French period seem to suggest that in the eighteenth century maples may not have been as predominant as they are today.

OTHER MINOR BROADLEAVES

Five other broad-leaved tree and shrub genera appear in the surviving records, all mentioned only by a few of the more meticulous recorders. Because all have European equivalents, which are widely distributed in France”, none should have presented problems with their recognition and identification, or have been confused with other genera.

THE POPLARS (Populus species) [French name : tremble]

Although three poplars occur on Prince Edward Island (Popu/us tremu/oides, trembling aspen, P. grandidentata, large-toothed aspen, and P. balsamifera, balsam poplar), the genus appears only once in the records: Roma (1750) included tremble in his list of trees occurring on lle Saint- Jean. It is most likely that he was referring to Popu/us tremu/oides — tremble is the standard French name for the European aspen (P. tremu/a), a very similar species.

so See Massignon 1962, p. 188. 51 See, for example, Sobey 1993.

82 Jalas & Suominen 1976; Fitter 1978.

138

ELM (Ulmus americana) [French name : orme]

The elm occurs twice in the records from the French period for lle Saint-Jean — it is in Cartier's (1534) list as orme blame, and it is also listed by Roma (1750). Although elms now occur more frequently in the western part of the island than elsewhere, its listing by Cartier is a bit of a surprise given the fact that he only skirted along the coast during a two—day period.

THE ASHES (Fraxinus species) [French name : fréne]

Two ash species (Fraxinus americana, white ash and F. nigra, black ash) occur on Prince Edward Island, though given their present scarcity, it is likely that neither was ever widely abundant. It is thus surprising that ash occurs in Cartier's (1534) list, though it is less surprising that it appears in the lists of two of the more meticulous recorders, Roma (1750) and La Roque (1752) — La Roque's list is for the environs of Malpeque Bay.

HAZEL (Cory/us cornuta) [French name : coudre]

Hazel, being a shrub rather than a full-sized tree, would have been overlooked by most of the observers. Thus its presence in only one list, that of Roma (1750), is more a tribute to his completeness than an indicator of its scarcity.

THE WILLOWS (Salix species) [French names : saule, asier]

Willows are listed only by Cartier (1534) (as sau/dres) — presumably other recorders ignored them because the willows native to the island are usually insignificant shrubs.

Discussion — Why are these species so rare in the records? Two (hazel and the willows) are generally shrubs and this is sufficient reason for their absence from most of the tree lists. But the others, the ashes, poplars and elm (comprising six species), do grow to tree size, and we should expect that if they had been at all common, they would have made a more frequent appearance in the lists. One factor contributing to their low frequency in the records may be that two of them (the ashes and elm) have a localised distribution on Prince Edward Island — the 1991 Forest Inventory indicated that they are more abundant, though not exclusively so, in the western part of the island