76 



dendron. Then we passed a belt of granite, and after crossing 

 the Isabelle and starting to climb up a brook whose branches 

 came from four snowfields, just below the rim of the summit, we 

 entered a zone of reddish, greasy looking amphibolite, which 

 encircles Albert, as may be noted on the Mount Albert map of 

 the Canadian Geological Survey, the best large scale map for 

 the mountain and its immediate surroundings. Soon we began 

 to see new plants. First was the brilliant purple Lychnis alpma 

 {Viscaria alpina, Britton & Brown), occurring in Newfoundland 

 and Labrador, with its southernmost station on Mount Albert. 

 A little farther up the brook we came upon beds of the alpine 

 form of the Maidenhair Fern, Adiantum pedatum, var. aleuti- 

 cum, obviously a Maidenhair, but differing distinctly from the 

 common form of our club range in its stiflfer, more upright, less 

 crescentic fronds. This is one of the plants which Prof. Fernald 

 cites as evidence that much of the flora of eastern Gaspe is 

 made up of survivals from pre-glacial times, which persisted 

 here, because, as Prof. A. P. Coleman,* demonstrates, the 

 Labrador ice sheets did not cover this region, nor, as Prof. 

 Fernald says, destroy pre-glacial flora, as they did to the west- 

 ward and south westward, in their advance south to the latitude 

 of New York. I had read of this plant and its significance in its 

 isolated stands in eastern North America, in Gaspe, in the Me- 

 gantic Mountains of southern Quebec, and in Bruce Peninsula 

 in Ontario; separated by almost 2,000 miles from stations in 

 western unglaciated regions in the Sierras of northern California, 

 Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, including 

 the Aleutian Islands, from which it was first noted by Rup- 

 precht, and for which its varietal name is given. But it was 

 delightful to find it, first at about 2,300 feet, then everywhere 

 higher up to the topmost parts of the open slopes and table 

 land, to 3,560 feet. 



Farther up the brook, we came on another of the boreal 

 flowering plants, which find their southernmost stations on 

 Mount Albert. This was a strange looking thing, with linear, 

 grass-like leaves, and hemispherical heads of lilac-tinted flowers, 

 with scarious calyx tips. It suggested some form of Allium, but 

 was obviously not liliaceous. We could not find it in our pocket 



* Bulletin No. 34, of the Canadian Department of Mines, "Physiography 

 and Glacial Geology of Gasp6 Peninsula, Quebec." 



