AMERICAN 
JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
Vol, V May, 191 8 No, 5 
THE GEOGRAPHIC AFFINITIES OF THE VASCULAR 
FLORAS OF NEW ENGLAND, THE MARITIME 
PROVINCES AND NEWFOUNDLAND^ 
M. L. Fernald 
The region assigned me for discussion, the area east of the Hudson, 
Champlain and RicheHeu Valleys and south of the St. Lawrence and 
the Straits of Belle Isle, including the political areas of New England, 
southeastern Quebec, the Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland, 
has long been recognized by the geologist and the physiographer as 
essentially an orographic unit. Exhibiting the highest degree of 
complexity in its geological history and structure, as contrasted with 
the essentially uniform structure of vast areas in the interior of the 
continent, the region may be defined as the northeastern extension of 
the Appalachian system, bordered on the extreme south, about the 
southwestern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and inland along the 
principal valleys by level plains which were largely occupied by the 
Champlain sea at the close of the Pleistocene. In fact, so generally 
was the region affected by the Wisconsin glaciation and the Cham- 
plain subsidence, that only a few very isolated localities seem to have 
escaped the general extermination of the flora which had formerly 
occupied the land. We have consequently to deal in this region with a 
flora which has migrated to its present position since the close of the 
Pleistocene glaciation. The attempts to account for these migrations 
and to trace with approximate accuracy the geographical history and 
wanderings of the various components of the complex which we now 
call the indigenous flora of the region are fascinating and vastly impor- 
tant problems, but without a thoroughly accurate knowledge of the 
1 Presented at the joint session of the Systematic Section of the Botanical Society 
of America and the American Fern Society at Pittsburgh, 31 December, 191 7. 
[The Journal for April (5: 151-218) was issued May 16, 1918.] 
219 
