Arboretum Nova Scotia: Titus Smith Jr’s “observations of the nature and uses of trees”

Abstract

The focus of this essay is Smith’s unpublished manuscript on the Observations of the Nature and Uses of Trees that he attached to the final report of his 1801-1802 colonial surveys tabled by the treasurer Mr. Michael Wallace in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly on 9 March 1802. The existence and importance of this unpublished manuscript was noted on 26 June 1866 at the Field Meeting of the Nova Scotian Institute of Science held at Ashbourne. Smith uses common names and Linnaeus’s taxonomic system of classification to identify and describe the distribution, habitats, and European and Indigenous uses of specific tree wood, bark, leaves, and fruit.