The Plant World 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR BOTANY. 



Vol. II. APRIL, 1899. No. 7. 



A TRIP TO MT. MANSFIELD IN JUNE.*' 

 By Carrie E. Bigclow. 



AT THE field meeting of the Vermont Botanical Club in 1897, 

 one of our eminent botanists remarked that, although he had 

 visited Mt. Mansfield ten times, he had never found Diapcnsia 

 Lappouica. This is why I venture in the presence of so many- 

 distinguished botanists to attempt a description of a few of the things 

 one may see from carriage road and beaten path on a trip to Ml. 

 Mansfield in June. 



The ascent was made from the Stowe side on the 13th of June, 

 1898. The mountain rises nearly four thousand feet above the valley, 

 where at that date summer was almost at its height. Arriving at the 

 summit of the mountain, we found ourselves in the early days of 

 spring. The change in vegetation was so gradual at first that it was 

 not apparent. In the open spaces of the lower mountain slopes, ranks 

 of wind-blown, dishevelled Trilliums were growing, their blossoms 

 long since fallen. Low Cornel {Corniis Canadensis) and Wood Oxalis 

 {Oxalis Acctosclhi) blossomed along the road. At Half-Way House 

 Spring, blue and white violets, Tiarella and Clintonia were in blossom, 

 and the slender wands of Habenaria dilatata showed whitened buds, 

 a few of the lower ones beginning to open. 



At " the last chance to water" the two-leaved Maianthemum put 

 forth buds instead of blossoms, as it had done before, and not far from 

 here a Wild Red Cherry tree {Primus Pennsylvanicum) was in full 

 blossom. 



About a mile from the summit the forest region gives way to 

 rocky slopes, and vegetation here begins to assume a distinctive moun- 

 tain character, and the change of season was marked. At the wind- 

 mill, among other spring flowers, the Painted Trillium {T. nndula- 



*Read before the Vermont Botanical Club at Burlington, Vt., January 2S, iSgg. 



