Waterville Meeting, August 10-13, 1915. 



By Ralph C. Bean. 



There are several reasons which led to the selection of 

 Waterville as a place for a field meeting. It occupies a cen- 

 tral position and is easy of access from all parts of the state. 

 But the chief reason is that it has always furnished interesting 

 and unusual plants to the botanist. In fact, the Josselyn 

 Society excursion in 1898 was at Waterville and a number of 

 interesting discoveries were made. This year we were in a 

 way unfortunate, as the meeting had been preceded by several 

 weeks of rainy weather. Hence we found the water high 

 everywhere and the clay roads in poor condition. 



Tuesday afternoon the party explored the ledgy banks of 

 the Kennebec on the Winslow side, and the following morn- 

 ing the exploration was continued from the Mills to the Falls 

 and to the mouth of the Sebasticook. The river was so high 

 that there was very little level beach, but the ledges, with 

 their hollows and irregularities, afforded good collecting, 

 especially where water trickled slowly from a springy bank 

 above. The underlying rock is Silurian clay slate, which has 

 enough lime in its composition to furnish a congenial habitat 

 for calciphile plants . Where the springs kept these ledges moist 

 were found Lobelia Kalmii L., Car ex aurea Nutt., Rynchospora 

 capillacea Torr., var. leviseta K. J. Hill, and in one locality 

 Tofieldia glutinosa (Michx.) Pers. Along the ledges were 

 also found Sporobolus Richardsonis (Trin.) Merr, Muhlenber- 

 gia racemosa (Michx.) BSP., and Deschampsia caespitosa (L.) 

 Beauv. In pools in the ledges were found Potamogeton dimor- 

 phus Raf. and P. pusillus L. Characteristic of the ledges 

 here is Aster vimineus Lam., var. saxatilis Fernald. /uncus 

 Dudleyi Wiegand was also found along the river and Andro- 

 pogon furcatus Muhl. Among the ferns recorded from the 

 upper banks and woods were Dicksotiia pundilobula (Michx.) 

 Gray, Aspidium yioveboracense (L.) Sw., A. crisiatum (L.) 



