1907] Fernald,— Soil Preferences of Alpine Plants 153 
For several years the writer has realized that, in the available in- 
formation on the occurrence of these plants, a most important factor 
is missing; and since 1893 much of his field-observation has been 
directed toward a possible solution of the problem. During the past 
fourteen summers he has examined over thirty of the mountains of 
New England and eastern Canada which support more or less pro- 
nounced arctic-alpine floras; the cold cliffs of the Maine coast at 
various points from York to Cutler; the shores of the Bay of Fundy 
and the southern and eastern coasts of Nova Scotia at remote points; 
the coast of northeastern New Brunswick and of the Gaspé Peninsula; 
and the sea-cliffs of the south shore of the St. Lawrence westward to 
Temiscouata County, Quebec. The studies of these areas and of 
many river cliffs of northern Maine and eastern Quebec, supplemented 
by the detailed collections of other botanists and their publications 
upon the floras of various cliffs and alpine summits, especially of the 
White and Green Mountains, have furnished the basis for the conclu- 
sions here to be presented. In the explorations of the past few sum- 
mers the writer has had the enthusiastic coóperation of Professor J. 
Franklin Collins, without whose ever ready ingenuity at “roping” 
difficult cliffs, it would have been impossible to secure many of these 
observations. 
One of the first impressions gained in botanizing on Willoughby 
Cliffs or in Smuggler's Notch or on the sea-cliffs of Bic or of Percé, for 
instance, then on Mt. Washington or Katahdin or Table-top Mt., 
and then on Mt. Albert, is that alpine floras are very dissimilar. "This 
difference has often been remarked. Dr. A. J. Grout, for example, 
in describing an ascent of Mt. Washington through Tuckerman’s 
Ravine, says: 
“After a climb of about two hours we came into "Tuckerman's 
Ravine proper where the alpine plants began to appear. This reminds 
one strongly of the Smuggler’s Notch ravines, on a much larger scale 
and the path to the summit zigzags back and forth over towering 
cliffs similar but less abrupt. One of the most striking things to me 
was the difference in the flora here and elsewhere on Mt. Washington 
and that of Smuggler’s Notch and Mt. Mansfield. Here in Tucker- 
man’s Ravine were Salix phylicifolia both sexes, Alnus alnobetula 
[A. erispa] and a number of more common alpine plants, but no 
Pinguicula, neither of our alpine Saxifrages, nor did I see any of our 
