The flora of Mt.. Mansfield. 
W. W. EGGLESTON. 
Mt. Mansfield is on the western branch of the Green moun- 
tain ‘‘Y” about twenty miles to the northeast of Burlington. 
It is a long range of four peaks separated from Sterling moun- 
tain on the northeast by Smuggler’s Notch, a narrow pass 
about three miles long, enclosed by tremendous cliffs. Look- 
ing from the east or west the Mansfield peaks present an eX 
cellent profile of the human face, for one sees distinctly marked 
the forehead, nose, lips and chin. 
Mansfield is the second peak of the Green mountain range, 
the Chin having an elevation of 4,329 feet (Killington 4, 380 
feet); but as far as alpine botanizing is concerned it completely 
overshadows them all, even far famed Willoughby, for there 
have been but two plants (Sisymbrium humile and Aster poly- 
phyllus) found at Willoughby not duplicated at Mansfield; 
while Mansfield has thirty and more not found at Willoughby: 
The early botanical history of the mountain principally 
clusters around the two alpine peaks, the Nose and the Chin, 
although Pursh, the first botanist of whom we have an ac- 
count as visiting the mountain, found Aspidium aculeatum 
Braunii for the first time, in the base of Smuggler’s Notch, 
on his trip through the New England mountains in 1807. In 
July or August, 1829, Dr. J. W. Robbins on his second trip 
through Vermont visited Mansfield and found a number 
alpine plants. In 1839 it was visited by Edward Tuckerma® 
and W. F. Macrae, and a few years later by Prof. Jos. Tor- 
rey and Prof. Wood, but it remained for Mr. C. G. Pringle to 
find some of the rarer plants on the peaks and to discovet the 
wonderful alpine gardens in Smuggler’s Notch. 
His researches werecommenced in the early ’70’s and weté 
the means of adding several species to the flora of the eastern 
United States, as well as new stations for many plants found 
before only at Willoughby or the White mountains. 
Since Pringle commenced his discoveries, Smugglers 
Notch has been visited by several of our good botanists, 
cluding Dr. Morong, Ezra Brainerd, the Faxons, F. H. Hors- 
ford, G. H. Perkins, J. A. Bates, A. J. Grout and others. 
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