ALPINE AND ARCTIC PLANTS 431 



The vegetation at the head of this ravine and on the preci- 

 pices that overhang it, presents a remarkable mixture of lowland 

 and mountain species. The head of the ravine is not so high 

 as the limit of trees already stated, but its steep sides rise 

 abruptly to a plateau of 5,000 feet in height, intervening between 

 Mount Washington and Mount Munro, and on which are the 

 dark ponds or tarns known as the Lakes of the Clouds, forming 

 the sources of the Amonoosook river, which flows in the opposite 

 direction. From this plateau many alpine plants stretch down- 

 ward into the ravine, while lowland plants, availing themselves 

 of the shelter and moisture of this cul-de-sac, climb boldly 

 upward almost to the higher plateau. Other species again occur 

 here, which are found neither on the exposed alpine summits 

 and ridges, nor in the low country. Conspicuous among the 

 hardy climbers are two coarse and poisonous weeds of the river 

 valleys, that look like intruders into the company of the more 

 dwarfish alpine plants ; the cow parsnip (Herackum lanatuni) 

 and the white hellebore ( Veratrum viride). Both of these plants 

 were seen struggling up through the ground at the margin of the 

 snow, and climbing up moist hollows almost to the tops of the 

 precipices. Some specimens of the latter were crowded with 

 the infant caterpillars of a mountain butterfly or moth. Less 

 conspicuous, and better suited to the surrounding vegetation, 

 were the bluets (Oldenlandia ccerulea), now in blossom here, as 

 they had been months before in the low country, the dwarf 

 cornel (Cornus Canadensis),a.r\d the twin flower (Linn<zaborealis\ 

 the latter reaching quite to the plateau of the Lake of the 

 Clouds, and entering into undisputed companionship with the 

 truly alpine plants, though it is also found at Gorham, 4,000 

 feet lower. 



Of the plants which seemed to be confined, or nearly so, to 

 the upper part of the ravine, one of the most interesting was 

 the northern painted cup (Castelleia septentrionalis\ a plant 

 which abounds on the coast of Labrador, and extends thence 



