258 PLANT DISTRIBUTION OF MT. WASHINGTON 



very few specimens in Oakes gulf and the alpine garden. On the 

 other hand, Salix argyrocarpa Anders., was common in Tuckerman's 

 Ravine and elsewhere, but none were found in the Great gulf, while 

 Salix Uva-ursi Pursh. was plentiful throughout. In Tuckerman's 

 Ravine Salix argyrocarpa and Salix phylicifolia L. grew side by side 

 and with them a third, a hybrid between the other two. This had 

 been discovered by Mr. Edwin Faxon, the well-known botanist and 

 collector, w^hom we had the pleasure of meeting on his annual visit 

 to the mountain. 



Further instances of local distribution were that of Saxifraga 

 rivularis which we believe has never been collected elsewhere than the 

 one little brook in which we found it, and Gnaphalium supinum L., 

 which is still more rare, growing only, so far as we were able to dis- 

 cover, in two small stations, each but a few feet in extent. We were 

 fortunate in finding specimens of this alpine cudweed, although they 

 were only a little over an inch in height. 



In company with Mr. Faxon, we found in the alpine garden 

 after some search a small patch of the alpine bearberry {Arctosta- 

 phylos alpina (L.) Spreng.), where he remembered having seen it 

 some years before. Silene acaulis was found in but one locality near 

 the summit, although quite plentiful there, and Potentilla Rohhinsiana 

 Oakes was noted only near the Lake of the Clouds. The little 

 eyebright {Euphrasia Oakesii Wettst.) was met with in only one 

 locality of small extent which was pointed out to us by Mr. Faxon. 

 Again Prenanthes nana (Bigel) Torr. seemed to be entirely confined 

 to one side of the mountain, and Prenanthes Bootii (DC.) Gray to 

 the other. The cloudberry (Rubus ChamcBmorus L.) was collected 

 on the summit of neighboring Mt. Clinton, but not on Mt. Washing- 

 ton itself. There seems to be no reason why the distribution of 

 these plants should be so restricted, as in many instances the 

 conditions are apparently favorable to their spread, but perhaps 

 this remnant of a more Northern flora finds it sufficiently difficult to 

 hold its own. During the week spent on the mountain sixty species of 

 plants in flower were collected above an altitude of 4600 or 4700 

 feet. These represented twenty-three orders and forty-six genera, 

 to which are to be added twenty additional species, some of which 

 were in fruit, others in leaf only, making a total of eighty species 

 growling above the altitude mentioned. 



