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striking contrast to other types of swamp. The conditions here 

 are essentially similar to those that prevail throughout our 

 northern states and to a considerable extent in Canada. 



The plant-population of all bogs, no matter in what section 

 of the country they occur, is very much alike. In fact, this is so 

 much the case that a bog can usually be recognized from the 

 character of its vegetation alone. Especially striking is the bushy 

 element in the vegetation. Almost invariably this is made up very 

 largely of members of the Heath Family: such plants as the bog 

 laurel and bog rosemary, the cassandra, the Labrador tea, and 

 the cranberries. These are mostly absent from swamps of the 

 ordinary description. In eastern Maine a bog is commonly 

 referred to as a heath, although in Maine this word, which in 

 Europe is commonly used with reference to similar areas, has 

 been yanke ized to "haythe." In Europe a bog is also called 

 a moor. 



The characteristic tree in bogs is the black spruce. Farther 

 north, as in Maine and the Adirondacks, this tree is by no means 

 confined ^o bogs, but in southern New England it almost never 

 grows anywhere else. Such trees as the elm and the ash, which 

 are common in ordinary swamps, are conspicuously absent from 

 bogs. Bogs are also the home of such bizarre forms as the 

 pitcher plant and the sundews, plants which possess the insect- 

 catching habit. But from our point of view the outstanding 

 feature of a bog is the wonderful development of the sphagnums. 

 Almost invariably they constitute one of the most prominent 

 elements in the vegetation. 



To a certain extent the sphagnums may grow in almost any 

 wet, springy swamp, whether it is open or wooded. But in 

 swamps which are situated along rivers, where the ground is 

 flooded from time to time with muddy water, they are not apt 

 to occur in any profusion. Even farther north, in regions like 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where climatic conditions are 

 most congenial to their development and where they are much 

 more generally distributed than farther south, the sphagnums 

 grow best in the bogs. So abundant as a rule are the sphagnums 

 in this particular type of swamp that many bogs are popularly 

 referred to as moss bogs. 



