1914] Knowlton,— Flora of the Sandy River Valley 13 
adding a graceful beauty to the scenery. Acer saccharinum is abun- 
dant in the thickets, often reaching out over the river, and people call 
it the river maple. It bears the first flowers of spring, for that other 
harbinger of spring, the skunk cabbage, I have never found in the 
valley, although it flourishes along the Androscoggin, less than fifteen 
miles away. Populus balsamifera is frequent, and there are numerous 
willows — Salix cordata, S. lucida, S. rostrata, a little of S. sericea and 
near the villages, many staminate trees of Salix alba, var. vitellina. 
Tilia americana is not rare, and there are many other forest trees here 
and there, for when the first settlers came the intervales were mostly 
covered with hardwood forest. 
On the edges of these thickets are such shrubs as Alnus incana, 
Corylus rostrata, Cornus stolonifera, and more rarely, at Farmington, 
C. Amomum. Prunus virginiana is exceedingly common, and almost 
always fruits heavily. The cherries are large, and in August as they 
ripen, are very handsome. I have never seen them so well developed 
anywhere else. Among the herbaceous plants in such places may be 
mentioned Lilium canadense, Heracleum lanatum, Eupatorium urticae- 
folium, Helianthus decapetalus in great abundance, Aster macro- 
phyllus var. ianthinus, A. paniculatus, A. umbellatus and A. punicens, 
and much less frequent, Conioselinum chinense and Angelica atropur- 
purea. 
There is also a wonderful growth of lianes, binding everything 
herbaceous and frutescent into almost impenetrable masses. Vitis 
vulpina, Psedera vitacea, Clematis virginiana, Polygonum Convolvulus, 
Apios tuberosa and Convolvulus sepium are the most vigorous of these. 
Near Farmington there are occasional strands of Echinocystis lobata, 
evidently escaped, and two vigorous thickets of Celastrus scandens, 
which I have seen only in one other place in the region — on Day Mt., 
at an altitude of 1000 feet or more.! 
Inside these thickets, where the trees are taller, may be found 
Laportea canadensis, Boehmeria cylindrica, Onoclea Struthiopteris and 
O. sensibilis, Elymus canadensis, Panicum clandestinum, Muhlenbergia 
foliosa, Bromus altissimus and large quantities of Veratrum viride. 
Where the alluvial soil is of the finest sand, with but little humus, 
there are fine colonies of Circaea intermedia, a delicate but distinct 
shade plant which is well worth the finding. At Farmington I have 
found in these shady places Carex cephaloidea and C. longirostris, the 
1 Ruopora, VI, 208, 1904. 
