8o8 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Minor Associations 



Red Pine. — Red pine often grows in mixture with the pitch pine, but 

 ahnost as often forms a distinct but small association at the edge of the 

 pitch pine, where there is more soil or more moisture. This association 

 is interesting as affording an opportunity for studying the factors gov- 

 erning red pine as compared with those governing white pine and pitch 

 pine. So far as could be ascertained from general observations, red 

 pine is intermediate between the white and the pitch, but more nearly 

 related in its requirements to the former. Curiously enough, red pine 

 is uncommon in the white-pine region adjacent to Mt. Desert Island,® 

 and occurs only scatteringly in the spruce region, yet is abundant on 

 the island and in the white-pine region of the Lake States. Why should 

 this island resemble the Lake States more closely than it does the neigh- 

 boring country? The occurrence of jack pine on the island and ad- 

 jacent mainland, but not elsewhere in New England, is another instance 

 of this curious resemblance, the causes of which would throw light on 

 many of the problems of ecology and forestry. 



Balsam Fir. — The higher elevations, before fires swept oyer them, 

 seem to have borne a forest which consisted chiefly of balsam fir {Abies 

 halsauica). A remnant of this forest, containing 80 per cent fir arid 

 20 per cent spruce, may be seen near the top of Green Mountain in a 

 little pocket at about 1,500 feet elevation. 



Spruce and Northern Hardzvoods. — There is on the island a small 

 patch of forest composed of spruce, yellow birch, beech, and sugar 

 maple, resembling the spruce and northern hardwood association of the 

 spruce region of northern Maine, New Hampshire, and the Adirondack 

 Mountains. The place where this patch of forest occurs is cut off 

 from sea winds by high hills ; the same kind of forest is not found, with 

 small exceptions, nearer than 50 miles from the coast. It would appear, 

 therefore, that the occurrence of this association is correlated with 

 absence of sea winds and prevalence of fluctuation in temperature. 



Succession 



The island of Mt. Desert, because of the rocky character of much of 

 its surface, offers exceptional opportunities for studying succession, 

 particularly the earlier stages. Such a study will, it is hoped, be made 

 eventually; meanwhile the results of a few observations are given. 



The first stage after the lichens consists chiefly of three-toothed 

 cinquefoil (Sibbaldiopsis tridentata), different species of blueberry. 



* Hawley and Hawes speak of red pine as being a comparatively rare tree in 

 New England. "Forestry in New England," p. 41. 



