132 Rhodora [AUGUST 
their feet in the water for a considerable part of the year. The soil 
of the rocky shore consists of a little gravel in the crevices between the 
rocks, which are kept well washed out, and there is not much her- 
baceous growth except Osmunda regalis, which unrolls its fronds at 
the edge of low water in July. 
In October when the red maple is scarlet, the poplar and black ash 
golden, the dogwood and blueberry assorted shades of red and yellow, 
and the shad-bush a mixture of the two, the royal fern forms a cinna- 
mon-colored edging at the water line around a large part of the island, 
as well as of many of the other islands of Attean. As one looks upon 
one of the small islands from a boat, one sees a border of royal fern 
and sweet gale at the water’s edge, then dogwood and other low 
shrubs, then a continuous row of alder, above which arise the Jack 
pine and the white birch, the Jack occasionally stepping nearer the 
lake than any of the birches. 
In the reentrant angles of the island, at the base of three of the lar- 
ger coves, there are marshes of some size. Their soil consists of a 
layer two or three inches deep of muck over an underlying deposit of 
gravel. Much of their surface is dried out enough in August to be 
walked upon dry shod, but not for a sufficiently long time to permit 
the growth of any but strictly marsh plants. One of the marshes is 
filled for much of its area with big tussocks of Carex stricta, interspersed 
with Spiraea latifolia and Salix pellita, with an occasional bunch 
of Calamogrostis, and it runs out into the water with a border of Scir- 
pus cyperinus. Another marsh contains uniform growth of Osmunda 
regalis, mixed with Carex arcta, and interspersed with Alnus incana, 
Spiraea latifolia, Viburnum dentatum, Ilex verticillata, Myrica Gale, 
Cornus stolonifera, Salix pellita, etc. Another marsh has a portion of 
it filled exclusively with Osmunda regalis, Carex vesicaria and Salix 
pellita. Along the shore edge of these last two marshes are narrow 
gravel beaches a little raised above the marsh, making a kind of bar. 
At the base of the smaller indentations of the shore are gravel 
beaches, some of which have behind them wet places containing a few 
marsh plants. These gravel beaches bear a few special plants of their 
own. 
The larger coves with their shallow water and gravel bottoms are 
well filled with water weeds and other pond plants. 
The cleared slope in front of the row of camps that extends along 
part of the ridge of the island affords a habitat for numerous field and 
