668 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Rhinanthus Crista-galli L, 



The summit of Mt Marcy is the only place knoAvn to me in our state, 

 where the rattlebox or yellow rattle grows. It may be found on the 

 southwest slope not far from the signal station. It was discovered in 

 this locality nearly 30 years ago and it still persists, apparently having 

 no difficulty in maintaining its position. It is one of the very few annual 

 plants found in this elevated place. 



Picea Canadensis {Mill) B. S. P. 



On the eastern slope a dwarf spruce is occasionally seen among the 

 small starved-looking balsam firs. It does not fruit and its foliage has 

 not the silvery green hue commonly seen in the white spruce. But 

 its twigs are glabrous and on this account it is referred to the white spruce. 

 The abundant half prostrate form with pubescent twigs was formerly sup- 

 posed to be a sterile dwarf of the black spruce, but because of its very 

 short leaves and their peculiar hue I have considered it a mountain form 

 of the swamp spruce, Picea brevifoUa Pk. 



Abies balsamea (Z.) Mill. 



The balsam fir is more abundant than any other of the dwarf forms of 

 trees found on the open summit. Its hardy character is also shown by 

 the fact that it sometimes bears fruit here, but its cones are much smaller 

 than those produced by trees growing at lower altitudes. In the botan- 

 ical descriptions of this species the cones are said to be two to four inches 

 long. The cones of these dwarf trees are generally less than two inches 

 long. They are usually 10 to 20 Hnes long. The leaves are shorter 

 than usual and many of them are emarginate at the apex. In this char- 

 acter and in the short cones, the species makes an approach toward an 

 agreement with the characters ascribed to Eraser's balsam fir, Abies 

 Fraseri (Pursh) Lindl. Eraser's balsam fir is a southern species inhabit- 

 ing the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and southwestern Vir- 

 ginia. The curious thing is that our northern species, under the influ- 

 ence of a prevailing low temperature, should develop characters similar 

 to those belonging to a southern species presumably habituated to a 

 higher temperature. 



Juniperus nana Willd. 



In my earlier visits to Mt Marcy, the alpine form of this species was 

 there, but I have not seen it in more recent visits. The same remark 

 may be made concerning the tall white bog orchis, the slender fringed 



