MOUNTAIN SUMMITS SIMULATING SWAMP-LAND. 
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and most strikingly illustrated by that well-known swamp plant, the 
White Hellebore ( Veratrum viride Ait.). This plant was observed in 
low damp woods in the valleys, and along the streams, and again, 
nearing the summit of Slide Mountain where it was growing in some 
profusion. Close around the summit, too, were found, growing in 
abundance upon the carpeting of wet moss, plants which at a less 
elevation were rare or altogether absent, owing, obviously, to the 
scarcity of suitable swampy land. Thus, Coptis trifolia , which had 
not been noticed lower was abundant. Viburnum ’ cassinoides, else- 
where met with only in a small marsh at an elevation of about 1,900 
feet, here reappeared, as well as Viola blanda Which, Car ex in- 
tumescens Rudge, and other plants less distinctly confined to wet and 
marshy situations. 
I am not aware that the fact of high mountain summits simulating 
the conditions of swampy lowland has ever been recognized as a 
factor of special influence in the distribution of vertebrate life; but it 
certainly appears to be thus resultant, at least in certain cases, with 
birds. Besides abundant moisture supplied by enveloping clouds 
and active precipitation, which completely saturates and is long 
retained by the deep beds of moss among the rocks, the analogy is 
further borne out by resemblances in the general character of the 
vegetation, especially as contrasted with the surroundings. Instan- 
cing the case of the summit of Slide Mountain, we see imitated not 
alone the conditions but also the general features of low marsh land. 
The largest trees are of very moderate size, and the prevailing growth 
is of Canada Balsams of most diverse age, stature, and vitality. In 
their exposed situation these trees, from a vigorous youth, seem 
rapidly to decline, retaining but a weak and precarious hold on life, 
and many have succumbed, gnarled and distorted from their strug- 
gles with the elements. Interspaces thus opened in the general 
growth admit the sunlight to an undergrowth of moss, ferns, moun- 
tain plants, and occasional shrubbery That conditions obtaining at 
high altitudes similiar to those of the mountain top now under con- 
