BRIEFER NOTES 

 Potentilla tridentata on Schunemunk Mountain 



A small, and not very thrifty looking stand of Potentilla 

 tridentata, on the south end of Schunemunk Mountain, in 

 Orange County, N. Y., was called to the attention of the writer, 

 by Mr. Louis W. Anderson, of Elizabeth, N. J., while we were 

 on a walk of the New York Section of the Green Mountain Club 

 led by Mr. H. W. Gorham. There were scarcely a dozen plants, 

 in all. They grew in crevices in the conglomerate ledges on the 

 summit of Schunemunk, The elevation of the small colony was 

 about 1380 feet. 



I had never seen Potentilla tridentata on Schunemunk before, 

 although its highest point, 1695 feet, is higher than the stand 

 of the plant on Mount Beacon, 1640 feet, east of the Hudson, 

 and about seven miles east of Schunemunk. After noting the 

 occurence on the south end of the mountain, we searched other 

 likely points, up to the highest, but found no more. The higher 

 points on the north end have been severely burned over many 

 times, and probably original growth has been destroyed, and 

 the open coarse conglomerate ledges now bear little but a great 

 variety of interesting lichens, including the boreal lichens Ce- 

 traria islandica, var. crispa and Stereocaulon paschale, other 

 glacial relicts probably. 



This adds another station for this interesting northern plant, 

 extending the number of boreal islands sustaining it from the 

 Taconics and Catskills along the higher Appalachians to north- 

 ern Georgia. The Schunemunk Potentilla stand is very scanty 

 but may persist if it escapes intense burning, and it may survive 

 destruction by fire as there is little else on its location to burn 

 but short grass. 



R. H.T. 



Marchantia polymorpha after forest fires 



An interesting botanical phenomenon observed by the writ- 

 er, during the past autumn, on the south end of Kittatiny 

 Mountain, in Warren County, N. J., is the appearance there 

 of large, widely spreading mats of the liverwort, Marchantia 

 polymorpha, upon thin soil, barely covering the ledges, after an 



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