i888.] Brewster on Birds of Winchendon, Massachusetts. 3 §7 



The region about Winchendon — that is, within five or six 

 miles on every side — varies in elevation from about S50 to 

 1300 feet.* There are no mountains nearer than Monad- 

 nock, but the surface of the country is everywhere broken 

 and hilly, very wild and picturesque, and mainly wooded, the 

 farms being comparatively few and far between, and the forest 

 areas often miles in extent. On the hills and throughout the 

 drier portions of the lowlands, the forests are composed chiefly of 

 white pine, hemlock, and various deciduous trees. The swamps, 

 nearly without exception, are covered with a dense, almost im- 

 penetrable and rather stunted growth of black spruces, balsams, 

 and larches, with a very few white spruces. The black spruces 

 and balsams also grow abundantly about the edges of the hill 

 pastures, along the roadsides, and wherever there is young 

 second growth. On sandy levels in the valleys one finds a few 

 red and pitch pines. The hardwood timber on the uplands is 

 composed" chiefly of beech, red and sugar maple, yellow and 

 paper birch, with a sprinkling of red oaks and basswoods, a rery 

 few chestnuts, and more or less scattering, old-growth spruces. 

 The trees in these upland woods are often of large size, and 

 there are a few tracts which have never been touched by the 

 axe. The underwood is chiefly of hobble bush ( Viburnutn 

 lantiifioides) and striped and mountain maples, the last two 

 being especially abundant along the borders of streams and open- 

 ings. In places yew is also found, but I saw no extensive or 

 very vigorous beds of it. About the swamp edges the beautiful 

 pink azalia {A. nudijlord) is everywhere common. Ferns of 

 various species flourish in great luxuriance wherever the soil is 

 damp enough for them, and a deep, soggy carpet of sphagnum 

 covers the gi-ound in the swamps. On the hillsides, especially 

 under white pines, the exquisite little Linncea borealis is 

 frequently met with, and Clhiionia borealis abounds everywhere. 



In more general terms the flora may be characterized as 

 resembling that of the valleys and foot hills about the confines of 

 the White Mountains. It lacks, however, as far as I could learn, 

 one northern tree which is common and very generally dis- 

 tributed throughout northern New England, viz., the arbor vitae. 



*This generalization is based on the following altitudes furnished me by Mr. H. W 

 Henshaw from the Coast Survey records at Washington ; " Winchendon Centre, 1225 

 ft. ; depot, 978 ft. ; Bullardville, 845 ft. 



