PAPERS OX BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 219 



and, while it is possible that there may be one or more 

 specimens in the heart of the forest, its presence has not 

 as yet been confirmed. On the other hand, Andromeda 

 polifolia, not included in the first report, has been found 

 to be rather common. The winterberry (Ilex verticillata) 

 is a prominent shrub on the west border of the forest and 

 there are a few small specimens of yellow birch and oaks 

 in the western part of the tamaracks. The inner edge of 

 the swamp zone, especially in the west and north, carries 

 a dense growth of Bidens and other ruderals, which grow 

 so luxuriantly to a height of five feet or more as to make 

 passage through them rather disagreeable. 



The pond in the center of the forest was found to be 

 oval in shape and about 100 yards in length by fifty in 

 width, and surrounded by a quaking mat of from 50 to 

 100 yards in width. Old inhabitants say that the pond 

 occupied the whole of the open area when first visited 

 about fifty years ago, and that the quaking mat has in- 

 creased to its present width since that time, reducing the 

 pond to its present size (Fig. 7). The open mat is made 

 up of sedges, sphagnum, buckbean (Menyanthes trifoli- 

 ata), marsh fern (Aspidium thelypteris), and large colo- 

 nies of cattail on the edge of the pond itself. The clear 

 water in the pond is not over a foot or two in depth and 

 its bottom is apparently composed of soft peat. 



Northeast of the Saver bog but separated from it by a 

 low ridge about 200 yards wide, traversed by an east and 

 west road, is an oval depression about one quarter of a 

 mile long by one eighth wide extending northeast and 

 southwest, which formerly carried a tamarack forest 

 growing on a sphagnum mat. The tamaracks were cut 

 some time ago and their stumps are buried a foot or more 

 by a thick growth of chamaedaphne and of sphagnum, 

 which is climbing vigorously among the stems of the 

 chamaedaphne. There are several small colonies of 

 pitcher plant and occasional patches of sedges with cran- 

 berry and some blueberries. There are scattered speci- 

 mens of dwarf birch, one large dead tamarack and five 

 or six very young living trees near the center of the bog, 

 and eight' or ten others at the northwest corner. On the 

 east side of the bog is a long belt of dense dwarf birch, 



