88 Dr» Dawson on the Flora 



here, and a number of insects, conspicuous among which was a 



brown butterfly of the genus Hipparchia, Shortly before sun- 

 down, when the thermometer at the summit house was fast set- 

 tling toward the freezing point, a number of swallows were hawk- 

 ing for flies at a great height above the highest peak. To 

 what species they belonged I could not ascertain. Possibly the 

 cliflF swallows find breeding places in the sides of the ravines, and 

 rise over the hill top to bask in the sunbeams, after the mountain 

 has thrown its shadows over their homes. 



To return to the alpine flora which is peculiar to the peaks of 

 these mountains — are the species comprising it autochthones 

 originating on these hill tops and confined to them, or are they 

 plants occurring elsewhere, and if so where ; and how and when 

 did they migrate to their present abodes ? These are questions 

 which must occur to every one interested in geology, botany, or 

 physical geography. They have been answered in various ways; 

 but without entering into controversy, I shall merely state a few 

 facts, bearing on and illustrating that view which I myself prefer. 



Not one of the alpine plants of Mount Washington is peculiar 

 to the place. Nearly all of them are distinct from the plants of 

 the neighboring lowlands, but they occur on other hills of New 

 England and New York, and on the distant coasts of Labrador 

 and Greenland, and some of them are distributed over the Arctic 

 regions of Europe, Asia and America. In short they are strag- 

 glers from that Arctic flora which encompasses the north polar 

 region, and extends in promontories and islands, along the high 

 cold mountain summits far to the southward. 



Some of the humble flowerless plants of these hills are of nearly 

 world wide distribution. I have already noticed the pale green 

 map lichen which tints the rocks of the Pyrenees, the Alps, and 

 the Scottish Highlands ; and the curious ring lichen {Parmelia 

 centrifuga) paints its conspicuous rings and arcs of circles 

 alike on Mount Washington and the Scottish hills. A little club 

 moss {Lycopodium selago) is not only widely distributed over 

 the northern hemisphere, but Hooker has recognised it in the 

 Antarctic regions. Not long ago we unrolled in Montreal an 

 Egyptian mummy preserved in the oldest style of embalming, 

 and found that, to preserve the odour of the spices, quantities of 

 a lichen (Evernia furfuracea) had been wrapped around the 

 body and had no doubt been imported into Egypt from Lebanon 

 or the hills of Macedonia for such uses. Yet the specimens 



