CD 





BOTANY 



PLANTS OF THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT MARCY. 



r.v 

 Cll AS. II. PECK, 



STATE BOTANIST. 



The subjoined list of plants, found on the open summit of 

 Mount Marcy, has been prepared at the request of the Superin- 

 nt of the Adirondack Survey. A brief notice of some of the 

 characteristic or peculiar species has been added. 



The summits of the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains 

 arc destitute of the forest trees that clothe their slopes. A few of 

 the most hardy specie- do spring up in these elevated places, hut 

 they do not attain the stature of trees. They are dwarfed into 

 mere shrubs, and are sometimes so transformed in appearance that 

 they are not readily recognized by those who are unaccustomed to 

 close observation. These open summits are inhabited by various 

 species of plants that do not grow on those mountains whose tops 

 are covered with trees. The line of demarkation between the open 

 summit and the wooded slope is not always well defined, since the 

 .dually diminish in - the altitude increases, and in 



some depressed and sheltered places, where then ter depth 



:1. they continue farther up the slope than in others. Hence, 

 the line of tree-limit is not always at the same altitude. It varies 

 somewhat on different slopes of the same mountain, as well as on 

 different moi itaina In the A-dirondacka the altitude of this line 

 is between 4,200 and 4,8< tbove tide. Generally the higher 



the mountain, th< of its exposed Burface, and the 



greater the number of Bp plants that inhabit it. As 



Mount Marcy BUI*] in altitude and extent of open 



51 



