150 



p'hylicifolia, L.? Fries ! Tuck ! " then under this " 5. rcpens 



/ 



Who can not imagine tlie writer's per- 



plexity ? The ink recordini^ one determination is not dry before 

 the alternative is written, and then, as if some decision must be 

 reached, with a bold dash (such as only an old fashioned quill 

 pen wath a soft nib ever could make) the ** 5. repcn^^' etc, is al- 

 most completely obliterated.- Then follows ** White Mts., 1842, 

 A. Gr.! " Think of it ! Not another spot in America has been 

 so frequently explored by botanists as Tuckerman's Ravine, and 

 yet here is a willow, conspicuous enough to be distinguished ''at 

 a distance of one hundred feet," collected by Dr. Gray half a 

 century ago, and thenceforth completely neglected until Mr, 

 Faxon entered the field with the purpose of investigating its 



willows. 



Salix herhacca, L. '' This grows in small, rather dense 



patches, scattered over a large area about the Lake of the Clouds, 

 between Mt. Waslnngton and Mt. Monroe, and is especially abun- 

 dant on the steep flowery slopes about the upper edge of the 

 Great Gulf, Mt. Washington and on the Great Gulf side of Mt. 

 Clay, usually intermingled with alpine grasses and other alpine 



plants. Altitude 5,000-5 



(Faxon). 



It is noticeable diat the 5*. herbacea of the White Mountains 

 does not differ in the least from the plants of Greenland and 

 Scandinavia. It occurs in the same form on Mt. Katahdin ; on 

 Mt. Albert, Lower Canada; at the sea level on the coast of Lab- 

 rador ; shores west of Davis Strait ; Greenland, and on all the 

 islands across the North Atlantic to Northern and Arctic Eu- 

 rope everywhere the same little 5. herbacea. Shall we then re- 



<Tard the White Mountain colony, the outermost station for the 

 species ui North America, as having, through this fixity of th 

 specific type, survived unchanged since the close of the glacial 

 epoch ? Or Is it not much more probable that it owes its origin to 

 wind-carried seeds, and that subsequent and frequent dispersals 



♦Anderson has written on the sheet " S. pc'dicciinris ? '* Here then we have the 

 specimen referred to in DC. Prod. 16.2, 234, as indicalln^^ the ])rol)abllIty of a hy- 

 brid between .S". argyrotarjya and S. />i\iicrl!iins ; but as S./t'i/ut'/Za/is dues not grow 

 in the alpine region of the Wliite Afountains, such a cross could not occur sponta- 

 neously. Why was not the l>roadhinl given by Cany's ticket accepted as a clue to 

 the probable parentage of a supposed hybrid ? 



