16 BICKNELL’S THRUSH. 
Riemer ee ee en eee 
with its surroundings. Old age and death, continually present invading their ranks, 
had everywhere left their traces; flourishing clusters had been stricken in their fellow- 
ship, groups and gatherings had been divided and scattered, and like a contagion the 
destroyer had spread among their hosts. But the younger generations are continually 
forming their associations, and with green and fragrant grouping filling in deserted 
chambers and screening the devastation that has gone before, although only to furnish 
material for its continuance in the future. All this, with an occasional undergrowth of 
greater or less luxuriance, gave a diversified and somewhat open chara¢ter to the sur- 
roundings, entirely dissimilar to that of the evironing forest; conditions which, in con- 
junction with humidity and elevation, have brought this mountain top into some 
relation with the swampland of a more northern region.—Reaching a more elevated 
portion of the ridge where the ground was more level and the surface less rocky, that 
north-woods tree, the paper birch! occasionally appeared, and more abundantly the 
mountain ash. Almost the only remnant of the dense mountain forests below was the 
yellow birch? which, joining the undergrowth, persisted with small and stunted stature 
to the summit. On all sides were to be seen the white blossoms of Viburnum lantanoi- 
des which, though also found in the valley woodlands, had there long since flowered and 
was now bearing green fruit. Another charaGeristic shrub was Amelanchier canadensis 
oligocarpa; lower down had been found the var. botriapium, but here the northern 
form was well marked, seeming almost specifically distinct. In the deep, damp moss, 
covering and filling in the rocks beneath the balsam growth, and relieving the rugged- 
ness of the slopes, northern plants were growing in greater or less profusion. The dwarf 
cornel® grew in such close luxuriance in congenial spots, that its snowy bracts imparted 
an almost uniform whiteness to whole beds. With, or near it, blossomed the wood sorrel 
with delicately violet-veined petals, and the appropriately named gold-thread® of eva- 
nescent bloom but shining evergreen leaves, and the little star flower® were often also 
associates. Excepting the pale yellow bells of Clintonia borealis, and the purplish tinge, 
or veining, of the blossoms of several other species, all the plants noticed in bloom at 
this time upon the mountains, bore flowers of some shade of white. The more open 
ground about our course along the ridge supported a luxuriant and graceful growth of 
that lovely fern Aspidium spinulosum, and with it, in openings about the summit, grew 
abundantly the mountain golden-rod’ which, although yet many weeks from bloom, 
heralded a royal emblem to light the mountain’s brow ere the white locks of winter 
should again possess it. 
At an elevation where these plants first appeared the trees nowhere attained more 
than a medium stature, those which seemed best to have surmounted the difficulties of 
their situation, the balsam and the paper birch, never rising to a height of more than, 
perhaps, twenty-five feet. This growth completely encompassed the range of vision, but 
an occasional scantiness in the foliage permitted glimpses of surrounding mountains 
rolling off like huge green billows into the blue distance. 
From these evergreens came the leisurely call of the Canada Nuthatch’, and on 
closer approach the low plaintive notes of the little Yellow-bellied Flycatcher®. The 
1 Betula papyracea, 2% Betula lutea, 8 Cornus canadensis. 4 Oxalis acetosella, % Coptis trifolia. 6 Trientalis 
americana. * Solidago thyrsoidea, ¥ Sitta canadensis. © Empidonax faviventris. : 
