areas of central and southern Maine are sand-plains, and 

 sand-hills, which were originally covered with white pine 

 forest. Sand and clay are alternated along our highways. 

 With the acid soil of countless bogs and of granite hills, 

 there is lime enough in some regions, especially on parts of 

 the coast, to satisfy the most exacting calciphiles. 



The whole northern half of Maine is swept by the so- 

 called Canadian forest, Vv^hose dominant trees are fir, arbor 

 vitae, and the spruces. The central and southern parts had 

 originally great stands of white pine, occupying the sandy 

 places and more fertile ground as well, alternating with 

 rich deciduous woods, of which the typical trees are yellow 

 birch, rock maple, beech and white ash. To this easterr 

 deciduous forest and the pine associated with it has been 

 given the name of Alleghanian forest. In the middle part of 

 the state these two great forest systems alternate or are 

 mingled, according to the conditions of altitude and soil in 

 each locality. 



In the mean time some species of the Atlantic coastal 

 plain flora come up into the southern beaches and woods of 

 the state, and touch some of the islands which are the an- 

 cient hills of the submerged coastal plain of Maine, on their 

 way to their northernmost outposts in Nova Scotia. These 

 represent the Carolinian flora of the great eastern coastal 

 plain of the country. There are more than 400 islands off 

 our coast containing 11000 acres and over, besides innumera- 

 ble smaller ones, and upon the seaward cliffs of many of 

 them may be found plants of this coastal plain flora, strag- 

 glers from the southward. These numerous islands, and a 

 tidal coast line of 3000 miles which represents a straight 

 ocean border of 226 miles, give to Maine a seaside nearly 

 equal to the combined Atlantic and Pacific shores of the 

 United States, and a seashore flora of conspicuous import- 

 ance. 



While the Carolinian flora steps into the edge of south- 

 ern Maine, and touches lightly the seaward islands, the coast 

 of Washington County, the upper part of the ocean border 

 of the state, exposed to the cold winds and fogs and icy 

 waters of the Labrador current, harbors a northern or Hud- 

 sonian flora, as it is called, and even subarctic and arctic 

 plants, characteristic of the far north. Boreal species are 

 found again upon our higher mountains, Katahdin, Abraham, 

 Bigelow, and others. The upper slopes of Katahdin, which 

 is said to be distinctly more arctic than Mt. Washington, 

 bear an arctic — alpine flora. By what seems like a strange 

 floral affinity this same arctic-alpine flora is also found on 



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