themselves grew like trees, their acres of foliage held aloft on 

 neighboring heads. There was a small rocky bluff from which 

 several ferns burst in pale mops, and there were tiny forest 

 flowers that I have never seen anywhere else. And there were 

 birds somewhere up above. 



Here, suddenly, was a glimpse of the kind of environment 

 that the first refugees from Europe must have encountered just 

 beyond the oceanic verge where salt air may be driven over low 

 headlands — the kind of forest that once stretched for a thousand 

 miles. This small secluded spot happens to be in the foothills, 

 and there were none of the conifers so typical of Appalachia. 

 Even if it had once been cleared in colonial times — which my 



prising a distinct mountain complex. In the northeast there are 

 the mountains that lie athwart Maine and Notre Dame in 

 Quebec; due south of these the two parallel north-to-south 

 ridges in New Hampshire (the White Mountains) and Vermont 

 (the Green Mountains); to the west of these the Adirondacks; 

 and then a considerable upland area stretching from the Catskills 

 to Jamestown in New York and on into northern Pennsylvania. 

 Southeast of this extend the curving parallel Alleghenies and 

 the mighty Blue Ridge, which leads south to the Great Smokies. 

 Each, in a way, has its own distinctive floral make-up and 

 noticeably distinct faunal composition. These differences are 

 slight as between adjacent areas, but even a few hours' drive 



A heautijul and most remarkable butterfly, the Monarch 

 (Danaus plexippus), just emerged from its chrysalis and 

 drying off. This insect migrates to South America. 



Above: A caterpillar oj the Black Swallowtail Butterfly. 

 Facing page: A caterpillar of the Spicebush Swallowtail 

 Butterfly. 



Amerindian friend doubted as much as I — that was so long ago 

 that what is called a climax forest had had time to grow again, 

 and to maturity. And here in the moss and under rotting logs 

 were tiger salamanders, and odd snails that you don't see in 

 newer woods, and shrews which are more than hard to find all 

 about that area. Here they were everywhere in the deep leaf 

 mould. This, moreover, is in New Jersey. Those who have 

 visited the northern part of that state will know that it is 

 splendidly wooded, but to stumble into a real forest there is 

 more than just surprising. 



FERNS AND FUNGUSES 



We noted above that Appalachia is divided into a number of 

 separate ranges. These are actually seven in number, each com- 



is sufficient to reveal the change, especially if one travels in 

 either direction along the spine of Appalachia. 



The block of territory which is normally called "the forests 

 of Maine" actually is a fairly small pocket, centered around a 

 southern outlier of typical boreal spruce forest, in turn centered 

 around Lake Chamberlain. It is separated from the St. Lawrence 

 Gulf area by the St. John River and from the valley of that river 

 on the west by the long ridge of the Notre Dame Mountains that 

 runs almost north to south from Cape Gasparie through Quebec 

 to Vermont, and thence, as the Green Mountains and the Berk- 

 shire Hills, to western Massachusetts and Connecticut. This was 

 once wholly — and today is still to a considerable extent — a land 

 clothed in pure pine stands of the same ubiquitous northern 

 species, but about the center of the massif these give way to a 

 solid stand of spruce. This area has, in fact, several aspects of 

 a true outlier of the north, not a few of its plants and some of 



