468 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the slopes of mountains, be observes the same order of succession of poplar, 

 oaks, maples, &c., followed by forests of pines and birch to the limit of 

 wooded growth. IBeyond this, both towards the polar regions, and higher on 

 the mountain side, the Alpine vegetation, before referred to, succeeds. A 

 detailed comparison of nortiicrn and Alpine vegetation would show that they 

 agree in almost every respect, and that in general corresponding species exist 

 under similar circumstances in different parts of the Old and New World, follow- 

 ing each other in the same succession from south to north, as well as from the 

 plains to the mountain summits. 



Illustrations drawn from observations made in our own country arc always 

 more interesting, and, perhaps, more convincing than those brought from distant 

 regions. Many of our readers may have had the opportunity of witnessing to 

 the truth of the following detailed description of changes in the conditions 

 of vegetation by increase of height and consequent increase of cold, as ob- 

 served on the sides of Mount Washington and in the district at its base. 



The traveller who has visited the White Mountains of New Hampshire, from 

 the south, will observe, on ascending from the lower districts towards the bead- 

 waters of the Connecticut river, that the forest vegetation begins to assume a 

 character differing from that lower down the main valley or that nearer the 

 ocean. At Windsor, three hundred feet above the level of the sea, the chestnut 

 has already disappeared. Between Windsor and Littleton the hemlock spruce, 

 the white pine, arborvita", larch, the buttonwood, the beech, the white, the 

 black, the yellow, and canoe birches, the white, the red, and swamp white 

 oaks, the elm, white ash, aspen poplar, the linden or basswood, sugar maple, 

 and a few other species of maples and less important trees may be seen. At 

 Littleton the buttonwood and hog walnut or pig nut disappear, the oaks are fewer 

 and smaller, and the mountain maple, which is not found below here, makes its 

 appearance. From Littleton, eight hundred and seventeen feet above the sea 

 level, to Fabyan's, which is fifteen hundred and eighty-three feet above the 

 sea, he will notice the white spruce, balsam spruce, hemlock spruce, white pine, 

 larch, linden, white ash, sugar maple, mountain maple, elm, the birches above- 

 named, and some others. The cup-bearing trees, or the oaks, the chestnut and 

 the birch have disappeared, and the pitch pine is no longer observed. This 

 vegetation continues from Fabyan's to a level of two thousand and eighty feet, 

 where the pines are the prevailing features of the forest. From this level the 

 slope becomes much steeper, and the variety of trees is much reduced. Above 

 this, to the height of four thousand two hundred and fifty feet, the vegetation 

 consists almost entirely of white and balsam spruce,* the lofty or yellow birch 

 and the canoe birch, which become gradually more and more stunted till at 

 the height above named, the species which form tall and splendid trees one or 

 two thousand feet lower, appear here as mere shrubs or low bushes with crooked 

 branches so interwoven as almost entirely to hedge up the way, excepting in 

 places where a bridle-path has been cut through. Above this level, which is 

 almost as elevated as the summit of Mount Clinton, and higher than Eagle 

 Head, near Eagle pond, of the Francouia mountains, the mountain is destitute 

 of forest trees. Many minor plants, however, appear which remind the well- 

 infonned and philosophic botanist of the flora of Greenland, and many of which 

 have been found growing on the sub-ai'ctic northern shores of Lake Superior. 



* Most of the high mountain tops in western North Carolina and East Tennessee are cov- 

 ered with Abies nigra and Abies Fraseri, the former the black spruce, the latter the balsam 

 fir. The black spruce grows at a lower elevation than the balsam, but neither of them are 

 often met with beneath a height of 4,000 feet. Eight degrees of lower latitude causes them 

 to ascend to a greater height.— S. B. Buckley, Silliman"s Jovu-nal, XXVII, pp. 2«6-294. 



