Soil Tests of Ericaceae and Other Families 37 
1920] Wherry, 
M. Denslow, at the time residing at Fairlee, who acted as guides to 
the Vermont localities; to Messrs. Edward and Kenneth Gillett, who 
demonstrated how they grow native plants in their nursery at South- 
wick, Massachusetts; and to Harry W. Trudell and Louis H. Koch, 
who took part in the expedition as voluntary associates, and aided 
materially in collecting the data. 
SUMMITS OF THE Warre Mountains, NEw HAMPSHIRE. 
The flora of the White Mountains has been described by Flint,! 
by Grout? and by Fernald.’ The underlying rock is dominantly 
mica gneiss, with considerable granitic intrusions and quartz veins. 
The first few hundred feet of ascent of the Presidential Range is 
through the spruce-fir forest, where the upland peat is mostly subacid 
in reaction, and ericaeous plants are rare, only Chiogenes hispidula 
and Vaccinium canadense being noted. At about 1200 meters elevation 
the conifers become smaller in stature, the soils blacker and more 
acid, and Ericaceae more abundant, Rhododendron (Rhodora) cana- 
dense and Vaccinium | pennsylvanicum var. angustifolium appearing 
at the upper limit of trees. Above the tree line the ground is carpeted 
by vast numbers of ericaceous plants, growing in autogenous, black, 
damp or even wet humus, which may be designated for convenience 
as “alpine peat.” Here were found, in addition to those already 
listed: Ledum groenlandicum, Kalmia angustifolia, Kalmia polifolia, 
Arctostaphylos alpina, Vaccinium uliginosum, V. Vitis-Idaea var. 
minus, and the heath-like Empetrum nigrum. In occasional colonies 
of sphagnum Vaccinium Oxycoccos was also found. On the rocky 
ledges, in similar but somewhat drier soil, besides many of the above 
list, were observed: Loiseleuria (Chamaecistus) procumbens, Phyllo- 
doce coerulea, Cassiope (Harrimanella) hypnoides, Vaccinium caespi- 
tosum, and the pubescent Empetrum atropurpureum (E. nigrum var. 
andinum of the Manual). The alpine peat supporting all of these 
species showed uniformly mediacid reaction. Only exceptionally 
were lower values, down to subacid, observed, where occasional 
colonies of the same species had spread down into the upland peat of 
the forest floor. . One species reported from the region, Andromeda 
!Flint, W. F. The distribution of plants in New Hampshire. In: Geology of 
New Hampshire, by C. H. Hitchcock, i. 381 (1874). 
? Grout, A. J. A botanist's day on Mt. Washington. Plant World ii. 116 (1899). 
3 Fernald, M. L. The soil preferences of certain alpine and subalpine plants, 
Ruopora ix, 149 (1907). 
