2 54 



.\\ J TURE 



[Jan. 15, 1885 



is insignificant. It consists of a few Arctic plants left scattered 

 upon narrow and scattered mountain-tops, or in cool ravines of 

 moderate elevation ; the maximum altitude is only about 

 600a feet in lat. 44°, on the White Mountains of New Hamp- 

 shire, where no winter snow outlasts midsummer. The best 

 Upine stations are within easy reach of Montreal. But as 

 every species is common to Europe, and the mountains 

 :ir..' not magnificent, they offer no great attraction to a European 

 botanist. 



Farther south, the Appalachian Mountains are higher, between 

 lat. 30 and 34° rising considerably above 6:00 feet ; they have 

 botanical attractions of their own, but they have no Alpine plants. 

 A few sub-Alpine species linger on the cool shores of Lake 

 Superior at a comparatively low level. Perhaps as many are 

 found nearly at the level of the sea on Anticosti, in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, abnormally cooled by the Labrador current. 



The chain of great fresh-water lakes, which are discharged by 

 the brimming St. Lawrence, seems to have little effect upon our 

 botany, beyond the bringing down of a few north-western 

 species. But you may note with interest that they harbour 

 sundry maritime species, mementos of the former saltness of 

 these interior seas. Caklle Americana, much like the European 

 Sea Rocket, Hudsonia tomentosa (a peculiar Cistaceous genus 

 imitating a Heath), Lathyrus maritimm, and Ammophila are- 

 naria are the principal. Salicornia, Glaux, Schpus marithmts. 

 Ranunculus Cymbalaria, and some others may be associated 

 with them. But these are widely diffused over the saline soil 

 which characterises the plains beyond our wooded region. 



1 have thought that some general considerations like these 

 -might have more interest for thei Bological Section at large than 

 any particular indications of our most interesting plants, and of 

 how and where the botanist might find them. Those who in 

 these busy days can find time to herborise will be in the excellent 

 hands of the Canadian botanists. At Philadelphia their brethren 

 of " the States " will be assembled to meet their visitors, and the 

 Philadelphians will escort them to their classic ground, the Pine 

 Barrens of New Jersey. To have an idea of this peculiar phyto- 

 geographical district, you may suppose a long wedge of the I laro- 

 lina coast to lie thrust up northward quite to New York harbour, 

 bringing into a comparatively cool climate many of the inter- 

 esting low country plants of the south, which at this season you 

 would not care to seek in their sultry proper home. Years ago, 

 when Pursh and Leconte and Torrey used to visit it, and in my 

 own younger days, it was wholly primitive and unspoiled. Now, 

 when the shore is lined with huge summer hotels, the Pitch 

 Pines carried off for firewood, the bogs converted into cranl.erry- 

 r iunds, ami much of the light sandy or gravelly soil planted 

 with vineyards or converted into melon and sweet-potato patches, 

 I fear it may have lost some of its botanical attractions. But 

 large tracts are still nearly in a state of nature. Drcscra 

 ftliformis, so unlike any I uropean species, and the beautiful 

 Sabbatias, the yellow Fringed Orchises, Lachnanthes and 

 Lophiola, the larger Xyrises and Eriocaulons, the curious grass 

 Amphicai prim with cleistogamous flowers at the root, the showy 

 species of Chrysopsis, and many others, must still abound. And 

 every botanist will wish to collect Scliizaa pusilla, rarest, most 

 local, and among the smallest of ferns. 



If only the season w uld allow it, there is a more southern 

 • station of special interest, — Wilmington, on the coast of North 

 Carolina. Ca nivorous plants have, of late years, excited the 

 greatest interest, both popular and scientific, and here, of all 

 places, carnivorous plants seem to have their most varied de- 

 velopment. For this is the only and the very local home of 

 Dionasa ; here grow almost all the North American species of 

 I Irbsera ; here or near by are most of the species of Sarracenia, 

 of the bladder-bearing Utricularias — one of which the President 

 of oil] Section has delected in fish-catching — and also the largest 

 species of Pinguicula. 



lint at this season a more enjoyable excursion may be made 

 to the southern portion of the Alleghany or Appalachian 

 Mountains, which separate the waters of the Atlantic side 

 from those of the Mississippi. 'I hese mountains are now 

 easily reached from Philadelphia In Pennsylvania, where 

 they consist of parallel ridges without peaks or crests, and 

 are of no great height, they are less interesting botanically than 

 in Virginia ; but it is in North Carolina and the adjacent borders 

 of Tennessee that they rise to their highest altitude, and take on 

 more picturesque forms. On their sides the Atlantic forest, 

 especially its deciduous-leaved portion, is still to be leen i>> 

 greatest advantage, nearly in pristine condition, and composed 



of a greater variety of genera and species than in any other 

 temperate region, excepting Japan. And in their shade are the 

 greatest variety and abundance of shrubs, and a good share of 

 the most peculiar herbaceous genera. 'Phis is the special home 

 of our Rhododendrons, Azaleas, and Kalmias ; at least, here 

 they flourish in greatest number and in most luxuriant growth. 

 Rh idodendron maximum (which is found in a scattered way 

 even as far north as the vicinity of Montreal) and Kalmia latifolia 

 (both called Laurels) even become forest trees in some places ; 

 more commonly they a r e shrubs, forming dense thickets on steep 

 mountain-sides, through which the traveller can make his way 

 only by following old bear-paths, or by keeping strictly on the 

 dividing crests of the leading ridges. 



Only on the summits do we find Rhododendron Catawlnensc, 

 parent of so many handsome forms in English grounds, and on 

 the higher wooded slopes the yellow and the flame-coloured 

 Alalia calendula* ca '; on the lower the pink .-/. nudifiora and 

 more showy A. arborescens, along with the common and wide- 

 spread .-/. viscosa. The latter part of June is the proper time to 

 explore this region, and, if only one portion can be visited, 

 '■ 1 Mountain should be preferred. 



1 Mi these mountain-tops we meet with a curious anomaly in 

 gei igraphical distribution. With rarest exceptions, plants which 

 are common to this country and to Europe extend well north- 

 \\ el But on these summits from Southern Virginia to Carolina, 

 yet nowhere else, we find— undoubtedly indigenous and un- 

 doubtedly identical with the European species — the Lily-of-the- 

 Valley ! 



I have given so much of my time to the botany of the 

 Atlantic border that I can barely touch upon that of the western 

 regions. 



Between the wooded country of the Atlantic side of the con- 

 : in nt and that of the Pacific side lies a vast extent of plains 

 which are essentially woodless, except where they are traversed 

 by mountain-chains. The prairies of the Atlantic States bor- 

 dering the Mississippi and ( f the Winnipeg country shade off 

 into the drier and gradually more saline plains, which, with an 

 even and gradual rise, attain an elevation of 5000 feet or more 

 where they abut against the Rocky Mountains. Until these are 

 reached (over a space from the Alleghanies westward of about 

 twenty degrees of longitude) the plains are unbroken. To a 

 moderate distance beyond the Mississippi the country must have 

 b en in the main naturally wooded. There is rainfall enough 

 for forest on these actual prairies. Trees grow fairly well when 

 planted ; they are coming up spontaneously under present oppor- 

 tunities ; and there is reason for thinking that all the prairies 

 east of the Mississippi, and of the Missouri up to Minnesota, 

 have been either greatly extended or were even made treeless 

 under Indian occupation and annual burnings. These prairies are 

 flowery with a good number of characteristic plants, many of 

 them evidently derived from the plains farther west. At this 

 season the predominant vegetation is of Compositse, 

 of Asters and Solidagoes, and of Sunflowers, Silphiums, and 

 other Helimthoid Compositse. 



The drier and barer plains beyond, clothed with the short 

 Buffalo-Grasses, probably never bore trees in their present slate, 

 except ns now -ome Cotton-woods {i.e. Poplars) on the margins 

 of the long rivers which traverse them in their course from the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi. Westward the plains 

 grow more and more saline; and Wormwoods and Cheno- 

 podiaceae of various sorts form the dominant vegetation, some 

 of them <ui gifris, or at least peculiar to the country, others 

 identical or congeneric with those of the steppes of Northern 

 Asia. Along with this common campestrine vegetation there 

 is a large infusion of peculiar American types, which I 

 uppose came from the southward, and to which I will again 

 refer. 



Then come the Rocky Mountains, traversing the whole con- 

 tinent from north to south ; their flanks wooded, but not richly 

 so, — chiefly with Pines and Firs of very few species, and with 

 a single ubiquitous Poplar, their higher crests bearing a well- 

 developed Alpine flora. This is the Arctic flora prolonged 

 southward upon the mountains of sufficient elevation, with a 

 certain admixture in the lower latitudes of types perl. lining to 

 the lower vicinity. 



There are almost 200 Alpine Phaenogamous species now- 

 known on the Rocky Mountains, fully three-quarters ..I which 

 are Arctic, including Alaskan and Grecnlandian ; and about 

 half of them are known in Europe. Several others are North 

 Asian, but not European. Even in that northern portion of 



