ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 427 



North American lichens.^ I was aided in this by the kindness 

 of a gentleman of Boston, well acquainted with these hills, and 

 passionately fond of their scenery.^ Our party, in addition to 

 this gentleman and myself, consisted of two ladies, two children, 

 and two experienced guides, whose services were of the utmost 

 importance, not only in indicating the path, but in removing 

 windfalls and other obstructions, and in assisting members of 

 the party over difficult and dangerous places. 



We followed the carriage road for two miles, and then struck 

 off to the left by a bridle path that seemed not to have been 

 used for several years — the gentlemen and guides on foot, the 

 ladies and children mounted on the sure-footed ponies Used in 

 these ascents. Our path wound around a spur of the mountain, 

 over rocky and uneven ground, much of the rock being mica 

 slate, with beautiful cruciform crystals of andalusite, which 

 seemed larger and finer here than in any other part of the 

 mountain which I visited. At first the vegetation was not 

 materially different from that of the lower grounds, but as we 

 gradually ascended we entered the " evergreen zone," and passed 

 through dense thickets of small spruces and firs, the ground 

 beneath which was carpeted with. moss, and studded with an 

 immense profusion of the delicate little mountain wood sorrel 

 {Oxalis acetosella), a characteristic plant of wooded hills on 

 both sides of the Atlantic, and which I had not before seen in 

 such profusion since I had roamed on the hills of Lochaber 

 Lake in Nova Scotia. Other herbaceous plants were rare, ex- 

 cept ferns and club mosses ; but we picked up an aster {A. 

 acuminatus), a golden rod {SoHdago thyrsoidea)^ and the very 

 pretty tway blade [Listera cordata)^ a species ^ very widely dis- 

 tributed throughout British America. 



* Peck, Bigelow and Boohh were the early botanical explorers of the 

 White Mountains ; though Pursh was the first to determine some of the 

 more interesting plants, and Oakes and Tuckerman deserve honourable men- 

 tion, as the most thorough modern explorers. 



2 Mr. Raymond. ^ L, niacrophylla Pursh (Macoun). 



