Vegetation of Northern Cape Breton. 381 



brackish and salt swamps, on the one hand, and between brackish 

 and fresh swamps, on the other. In the character of the pre- 

 dominant plants, the vegetation of the higher, shoreward 

 reaches of a well developed salt marsh almost invariably 

 resembles that of a brackish meadow, and it commonly includes 

 various species characteristic of fresh water swamps. Along 

 the shoreward edge of a salt marsh, for example, in places where 

 unquestionably they are subject to partial submergence in salt 

 water, at least by the high, semi-monthly "spring-tides," com- 

 monly grow such non-halophytic swamp species as Iris versi- 

 color, Sanguisorha canadensis, and Lysimachia terrestris; 

 Vaccinium macrocarpon, Alnus incana, Myrica Gale, and 

 Spiraea la ti folia. By way of further illustration, two specific 

 transitional series will be briefly described. 



MacDonald's Pond, near the mouth of the Barrasois, affords 

 an unusually interesting illustration of this sort. At the present 

 time the pond, which is perhaps half a mile long, is completely 

 shut in by a barrier beach and its water is brackish ; but within 

 twelve years it communicated with the sea by a narrow outlet. 

 Around much of the margin the vegetation is similar to that 

 described in preceding paragraphs. The area of particular 

 interest is a sheltered cove, connected with the main pond by a 

 shallow open channel a dozen feet wide, presumably fed by 

 springs, and occasionally (probably every spring) the recipient 

 of the flood waters of the Barrasois, which reach it through a 

 channel ordinarily dry. This cove has been for the most part 

 filled in to a depth of more than a dozen feet with a mixture 

 of peat and silt. From a small but deep pool near the center 

 of the swamp thus formed to the outlet of the cove runs the open 

 channel already referred to. Toward the outlet of the swamp, the 

 vegetation is predominantly that of a slightly brackish marsh, 

 consisting largely of Spartina Michauxiana, Agrostis alba 

 maritima, Scirpus americanus, and Eleocharis palustris, together 

 with Potentilla pacifica, Triglochin palustris, and Carcx 

 maritima. In the open water of the channel grow Ruppia 

 maritima and Potamogeton pectinatus. Bordering the pool is a 

 zone of Typha latifolia, followed by a zone of Juncus balticus 

 littoralis. But throughout the remainder of the area the vegeta- 

 tion is predominantly that of a fresh swamp, the more prominent 

 herbs including Calamagrostis canadensis, Scirpus cyperinus, S. 



