46 PROCEEDINGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



sixteen out of seventeen blossoms seen, were white. Possibly 

 the increasing dampness of the ground and the air at these 

 higher levels may be a factor in bringing about this change. 

 Above 3,000 feet the plant does not occur. Unfortunately no 

 record of temperatures for these Canadian woods is at present 

 available for use here, but Dr. Merriam gives the limiting tem- 

 peratures (summer) as about 57 deg. to 64 deg. F. 



The upper Canadian area includes the thick fir and spruce 

 forests in the northern part of the state and on the White 

 Mountains from 3,000 to 4,500 feet. Extended observations on 

 the temperature and humiditj^ of this area are not at hand, but 

 among the White Mountains it is a zone of much greater cold 

 than the sub-Canadian. The forests are dense and are kept 

 saturated in summer by the clouds which constantly settle over 

 them ; the ground is densely carpeted with sphagnum which 

 acts as a huge sponge to retain water from the slowly melting 

 snow drifts. Ice is often found under sheltered rocks into July, 

 and even by the middle of June snow drifts are hardly gone in 

 the woods. While on a few days' camping trip into the Carter 

 Mountains, June 13 to 16, we found that the yellow pond lilies 

 {Nymphcea variegata) in the Carter I/ake at 3,360 feet, had not 

 yet pushed their leaves to the surface of the water, though in 

 the Transition valle5's we had seen man}^ plants in blossom 

 along the way. Here the canoe birches were just leafing out, 

 five weeks later than those in the valley below ; here and there 

 were violets {Viola blanda), and White Hellebore and ferns 

 were just springing up from places where the snow was scarcely 

 gone. Clintonias were only in bud, though 2,000 feet below in 

 the sub-Canadian woods they were in full bloom. In the little 

 lake numerous toads {Biifo aincricanus)\\Q:r^ beginning to spawn. 

 They are common throughout these mountain woods to the 

 limit of timber, and numbers had repaired to this lakelet to 

 breed. Some had not yet begun to spawn, though others had 

 already laid considerable masses of eggs. In eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, the toads spawn about the 20th of April and the 

 young tadpoles are seen by the middle of May, or even by the 

 first of that month. On a former occasion, I had found great 



