406 Appendix: Seventh Report on the Survey of 



moisture which imitates the conditions of the marshes. The fol- 

 lowing may be mentioned as examples of marsh plants : 



Cassandra calyculata. Veratrum viride. 



Ledum latifoliura. Carex irrigua. 



Kalmia glauca. Calamagrostis Canadensis. 

 Habenaria dilatata. 



Among the mosses, the species of Sphagnum or peat moss indi- 

 cate the same marshy character of the locality. The abundance of 

 these mosses on the summit is to the botanist one of the most 

 noticeable features, and almost causes a feeling of surprise in his 

 mind when beholding it for the first time. 



The following plants are deserving of special notice : 



The Greenland Sandwort, Arenaria Grcenlandica, is one of the 

 most attractive little plants of the mountain summit. It grows in 

 tufts two to four inches high. The leaves and stems are slender, 

 but the beautiful white flowers are rather large for the size of the 

 plant. By its blossoms the attention of the tourist is for a time 

 withdrawn from the scenes of grandeur and magnificence that sur- 

 round him, and directed in spite of himself to the charming little 

 beauty beneath his feet. It imparts a home-like appearance to this 

 lofty and lonely locality. Its most constant companion is the 

 Bluets, Iloustonia ccerulea. It grows to nearly the same size but 

 its leaves are smaller, and its smaller four-parted flowers are blue 

 with a yellow center. The two plants are often found together on 

 the upper parts of the slides, but lower down they separate, the one 

 to appear again farther to the north, in Canada, Labrador, and even 

 Greenland, as its name implies ; the other to appear in the valleys 

 and lower lands and warmer regions. 



The Wood Sorrel, Oxalls Acetosella, though found on the moun- 

 tain summit, is by no means peculiar to it. It occurs in great 

 abundance in the woods of the Adirondack region, though some- 

 times it appears to be in a sterile condition, no fertile plants being 

 seen, even in patches of great extent. The leaves themselves are 

 objects of beauty and consist of three heart-shaped leaflets attached 

 by their points to the summit of a common petiole or foot-stalk. 

 Their cooling acid taste is very grateful to the thirsty tourist if per- 

 chance he at any time fails to find water with which to quench his 

 thirst. The whole plant is but a few inches high, and the white 

 flowers, which are scarcely half an inch broad, are beautifully striped 

 within with red or purplish lines. The seed vessels, when mature, 



