IRbobora 



JOURNAL OF 



THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 



Vol. 6 May, 1904 No. 65 



SOME CASUAL ELEMP:NTS IN THE FLORA OF 

 WESTERN MAINE. 



J. C. Parlin. 



Any lover of plants, one who is looking for species new to his 

 experience, should, if resident near a woolen mill, carefully watch the 

 waste-heap for species native in those regions forming the source of 

 the wool supply. 



For thirteen years, I have had the pleasure of studying the flora 

 of the waste-heap of the North Berwick Manufacturing Company's 

 plant, during which time the factory has used wool from Arizona, 

 California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, the 

 Middle West, and, in 1892, a few pounds from Australia. 



Not many of the " sheep ticks " have adapted themselves to our 

 soil and climate. Perhaps the treatment and use of the wool-waste 

 will somewhat explain this. The waste is heaped into a natural 

 hollow, the outlet of which is closed; for several years, it there 

 collects moisture, is mixed with night-soil, rots, and is finally carted 

 away to form a compost heap before being used for a fertilizer. 

 Atriplex patuliim, L., var. littorale, Gray, Medkago /itpu/ina, L., and 

 Erodium tnoschatum, Willd., are the only species seeming to have 

 been introduced in the wool that are at all permanently located here. 

 The first is abundant in waste ground around the storehouses of the 

 factory; the medick is well established in the surrounding grass- 

 land; while the heron's-bill is occasionally found around the 

 buildings and along the river-bank below the mill. Madia glome- 

 rata, Hook., Hymcnaiherum aureum, Gray, Erodium circuiarium, 

 L'He'r., and Helenium nudiflorum, Nutt., have occurred along the 

 river, the last species remaining several years in grassland, but have 



