16 Rhodora [JANUARY 
into the towns of Mercer and Stark. I expected to find a continuation 
of the flora above described, but it proved to be very different. The 
river flows through a plain laid down in the Champlain estuary. 
There is a big fall at New Sharon, below which the Sandy has cut a 
channel through 10 to 40 feet of alluvial overwash and estuarine clays 
to the ground moraine, and in a few places to the metamorphic bed- 
rock. The Sandy River thus flows in a high-walled channel over 
boulders, with coarse, shingly beaches. It is here about as large as 
the Deerfield at Hoosac Tunnel, or the White River just above its 
mouth. 
Along the shore are several species which I have never seen up- 
river. There is a good deal of a low non-fruiting Equisetum which 
seems to be E. littorale. It is frequent on the St. John and the Penob- 
scot, but so far as I know, has not been reported on the Kennebec. 
Cyperus strigosus appears for the first time, in limited quantity, and 
there is everywhere a great deal of Rynchospora glomerata. Carex 
vulpinoidea I had not missed up-river till I found it here. Clumps of 
Deschampsia caespitosa are very numerous.  Stellaria longifolia, Cicuta 
maculata and Lycopus virginicus are also new to the region. In 
Stark I found a fine colony of Habenaria flava flourishing in wet gravel. 
This has been found in Chesterville, about fifteen miles from here, by 
Miss Eaton,! but I do not know of any other station for it. In the 
drier places above the shingle Andropogon furcatus crowds out all 
other species where it grows, and it occupies large areas of light soil 
above the banks. Where there is light shade I found Danthonia 
compressa in some abundance. I have found one or two specimens 
only of this at Farmington. Another good find was Hypericum 
punctatum. Along a tributary brook under the alders the ground 
was densely carpeted with Leersia virginica, to the exclusion of other 
species. 
The dry woods covering the terraces and fringing the few intervales 
were especially interesting. Acer saccharinum is infrequent and small, 
as it is not adapted for such dry soil. Its place is taken by Tilia, 
Quercus rubra, Juglans cinerea, Populus tremuloides and Fraxinus penn- 
sylvanica in all sizes. Prunus virginiana is still abundant. Lianes 
were not vigorous, and much to my surprise, I found no traces of 
Celastrus. In an open place in sand I found Trisetum spicatum, 
which I had found only at Phillips, 30 miles up stream, on ledges. 
1 L. O. Eaton, Rnuopona V, 82-3, 1903 (As H. virescens Spreng.). 
