282 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Transition : The main agricultural portion of the state 

 Upper austral : Hudson valley, the western part of Long Island, and 

 the lake region. 



While this is in general the distribution of the life zones in New York 

 the details are very imperfectly known. A study of these details would 

 be the first and most important step in a survey of the kind to which this 

 paper is intended as a preliminary. The economic importance of such 

 a survey in its bearing on the selection of crops for certain areas and 

 the avoidance of crop parasites is very great. (See Howard '95, Merriam 

 '98. and Plumb '98.) 



Throughout this paper the geographic distribution of species will be 

 stated so far as possible in terms of life zones. The salient features of 

 the different zones however may first be considered in some detail. 



Hudsonian zone. The area occupied by the Hudsonian zone in 

 New York is too limited to support a characteristic mammalian fauna. 

 Microtus chrotorrhinus, a typical Hudsonian mammal, probably occurs 

 throughout the Adirondack region in favorable localities (see p. 322) in 

 the area covered by the Canadian zone. It has also been found in the 

 Catskills associated with Synapto?nys fatuus, another Hudsonian species. 

 At least one Hudsonian bird (Hylocichla aliciae bicknelli) breeds in the 

 Catskills, while several such as Parus hudsonicus, Spinics pinus and 

 Picoides americanns are found in the Adirondacks. 



Among the flowering plants a number of characteristic Hudsonian 

 forms occur on the summits of the higher Adirondacks. Peck ('8o) enu- 

 merates the following species from the summit of Mt Marcy : 



Solidago alpestris Alpine golden-rod 1 



Nabahis nanus low rattlesnake-root 



Vaccinium caespitosum dwarf bilberry 



Vacciniwn uliginosum great bilberry 



Rhododendron lapponicum Lapland rose bay 



Are7iaria groenlandica mountain sandwort 



Diapensia lapponica diapensia 



Empetrum nigrum black crowberry 



Salix uva-ursi bearberry willow 



Juncus trifidus highland rush 



Scifpus caespitosus tufted club-rush 



Carex bigelovii Bigelow's sedge 



Poa laxa wavy meadow-grass 



Savastana alpina Alpine holy grass. 



1 The English names for plants are those^adopted by Britton and Brown ('96, '97 and '98). 



