1910] Fernald and Wiegand,— Botanizing in Maine 115 
35 
we returned to “the Fort” with enough material to keep us busy until 
midnight. 
At Fort Fairfield one who is familiar with the meagre soil and small 
farms of southern New England receives a sudden awakening, for in 
"the Aroostook,” shut off from central Maine by the * Maine woods,” 
the cultivated fields stretch in undulations over the hills and plains 
as far as the eve can reach and the return they yield through their 
potatoes and grain 1s annually counted in millions of dollars. But a 
greater surprise to those who have been unfamiliar with the tremendous 
development and activities of eastern Aroostook County is the metro- 
politan character of the shire-town, Houlton, where the large stone 
and brick business blocks, attractive stores, and commodious houses 
and private grounds are in marked contrast to the appearance of 
agricultural communities in southern New England. 
We reached Houlton in the middle of the afternoon of August 12th 
and having three hours before supper-time followed the Meduxnekeag 
River for a couple of miles toward the New Brunswick border. For 
the most part the banks were wooded or bushy to the water's edge 
and only such plants as are general in the thickets along most Maine 
rivers were seen, but on the occasional ledgy outcrops near the water 
were Carex aurea Nutt., Tofieldia glutinosa (Michx.) Pers., Viola 
nephrophylla Greene, Primula mistassiniea Michx., and some other 
species which indicated the calcareous nature of the rock. In the wet 
sedgy spots along the river and in springy spots on the hillsides was one 
plant which was entirely unlooked for. This was Carex flava L., 
var. gaspensis Fernald,' a distinctive extreme of the species in which 
the perigynia are subulate and but slightly inflated and which had 
been known only from marly bogs and calcareous gravels of the Gaspé 
Peninsula. 
Wishing to spend some hours on the extensive Caribou Bog in 
Crystal, which had been “discovered” by one of the writers in 1898, 
we had planned to leave Houlton early on the morning of August 13; 
but the discovery of the characteristic Gaspé Carex induced us to 
sacrifice half the time planned for Crystal in order to spend the fore- 
noon in further exploration of the region. The reputed station for 
9 
Scoloperdrium vulgare Sm. at Woodstock, New Brunswick,’ is near 
1 Ruopora, viii. 200 (1906). 
2 See Hay, Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. N. B. no. ii. 31 (1883). 
