Statistics of the Flora of the Northern States. 



207 



pecially at the north, and the consequent paucity of truly alpine 

 or even subalpine species. We have an alpine region indeed ; 

 but it is restricted to a few isolated mountain-tops in the north- 

 ern part of New England and New York, between or near lat. 

 44° and 45°. The White Mountains of New Hampshire fur- 

 nish far the larger part, viz., the range strictly so called, with 

 six or seven square miles (taken horizontally) of alpine region, 

 of which the highest point slightly exceeds 6200 feet in eleva- 

 tion, and its lower limit is about 4500 feet above the level of 

 the sea, and Mount Lafayette (reaching to 5200 feet) along with 

 other smaller patches, together making up almost as much more. 

 Mount Katahdin in Maine (about 5300 feet high) may furnish a 

 square mile or so of alpine region. The Green Mountains of 

 Vermont (with a maximum elevation of 4360 feet) present mere 

 vestiges of alpine vegetation in one or two places; and two or 

 three summits of the Adirondack Mountains of northeastern 

 New York (with a maximum elevation said to exceed 5400) are 

 of a more decidedly alpine character, but apparently of small 

 extent and far from rich in species. 



The southern shore of Lake Superior affords no alpine and 

 perhaps no strictly subalpine species ; nor do any occur in the 

 Alleghany Mountains, although they rise to above 5000 feet at 

 one point in the south of Virginia,* and to 6000 and about 

 6300 in North Carolina. Scirpus ccespitosus, Lycopodium selago, 

 Andrcea petrophila, and Cetraria Islandica, are the most nearly 

 alpine species known in the Alleghany Mountains. As will be 

 seen by the list on a following page, the number of our truly 

 alpine species does not equal that of the southern plants which 

 have extended into the low southeastern corner of Virginia. 



After that of Europe, no northern temperate flora of equal 

 extent, and perhaps no flora of any large region, is so well 

 known as that of the Northern United States, at least as to its 

 Phanerogamia and highest Cryptogamia : and although very 

 much still remains to be done, yet we are now in condition 

 profitably to compare our vegetation with that of Europe, and 

 also, though less critically, with that of other parts of the north- 

 ern temperate zone. 



The following tables exhibit the principal elements of our 

 flora, and some of its relations to the European, &c. 



f * The White Top Mountain in Virginia, just within its southern boundary, is com- 

 monly said to be about 6000 feet in elevation ; but this is probably an exaggeration. 



