THE MOUNT DESERT REGION 17 



Prof. M, L, Fernald,^ in referring to the diversity of the 

 island flora, says: ''The flora of the Mount Desert region is 

 not by any means entirely arctic or subarctic. There we 

 find essentially all of the common plants of the Canadian zone 

 and mingling with them in sheltered nooks and meadows or 

 on warm slopes, many scores of plants which reach their 

 extreme northern or northeastern limit on Mount Desert or 

 the immediate coast — such plants as the Pitch Pine, Piniis 

 rigida; the Bear Oak, Qucrcus ilicifolia; the Sweet Pepper- 

 bush, Clef lira alnifolia; the Swamp Loosestrife, Decodon ver- 

 ticillatus; the Meadow Beauty, RJiexia virginica, and the 

 maple-leaved Viburnum, Viburnum acerifoliiwi. This extraor- 

 dinary accumulation within one small area of the typical 

 plants of the arctic realm, of the Canadian Zone and in many 

 cases of the southern coastal plain, cannot be duplicated at 

 any point known to the writer." 



This diversity and the temperature of the Island are aptly 

 pointed out by Mr. Barrington Moore,^ editor of Ecology, 

 who says : "From the forestry point of view I can state that 

 on no area of this size have I seen growing together forests 

 representing such different conditions and consequently with 

 such different requirements. The vegetation in general ap- 

 pears to be even more remarkable than the forests. Rand 

 has found on the Island 230 species of plants common to the 

 arctic. The crowberry (Empetruni nigrum) grows here at 

 sea level, while inland at this latitude and even further north 

 it is found only on the summits of the high mountains above 

 timber line under truly arctic alpine conditions, and still the 

 southern sweet fern {Myrica asplenifolia) grows here in 

 actual contact with these boreal plants. 



''An indication of the comparative mildness of the Mt. 

 Desert climate in spite of its arctic flora, is to be found in a 

 group of Japanese pines growing at one of the gateways 

 north of the village of Bar Harbor, a tree so sensitive to cold 

 that it is killed at the latitude of New York, which yet has 



""An Acadian plant sanctuary." Sieur de Monts Publication, vol. 5, p. 6. 

 ^"Scientific aspects of Mt. Desert Island." The Maine Naturalist, vol. 1, 

 p. 100, 1921. 



