Farlow.] 
388 
[March 2, 
wishes to study the cryptogamic flora. To be sure there is more 
to be found there than anywhere else, but one cannot expect more 
than a few clear days, and in cloudy weather botanizing is difficult 
if not dangerous. The best way is to go first to some of the 
lower mountains, not much over 4,000 ft. high, and make a care- 
ful study of the subalpine flora, and then, when a favorable op- 
portunity arises, to go to the summit of Mt. Washington in search 
of species not found below an altitude of 5,000 ft. By so doing, 
the botanist is not bewildered by arriving first in a field where 
everything is new, but in a comparatively short time, having 
already obtained a knowledge of subalpine forms, he will be 
able to pick out the rarer alpine species. One might suppose that 
the best way would be to camp out in places like Tuckerman’s 
Ravine or King’s Ravine. My experience has been that camping 
in cold ravines is usually either an expensive process or else de- 
cidedly uncomfortable. Certainly for some years to come, King’s 
Ravine must be an unfavorable locality. Recent slides have made 
it dreary and barren to the last degree, and even in its better 
days, it was not a very good field for botanizing. Rare species, 
of course, may now and then be found there ms elsewhere, and I 
once found some very fine specimens of the rare lichen, Baeomyces 
placophyllus , growing over mosses in the ice cold brook near the 
boulders ; and at the head of the Ravine, is the only known station 
of the fungus Doassansia epilobii. The Appalachian hut between 
Madison and Adams is better placed for botanical collecting than 
King’s Ravine, but Tuckerman’s Ravine is near a richer collecting 
ground than either. A prolonged stay in Tuckerman’s Ravine, 
however, is hardly feasible, except at some expense. 
Of the summits which are easily accessible and offer good col- 
lecting grounds Moosilauke and Mt. Mansfield seem to me to be 
the best suited for those wishing to begin the study of our moun- 
tain flora. Moosilauke is about 4,800 ft. high, and is situated a 
little to the south-west of the Franconia range. It stands by 
itself with fine views on all sides. From Boston one takes the 
Boston, Concord, and Montreal R. R. to Warren, whence there is 
a drive of five miles to the Mountain House at the base of the 
mountain, and a drive or walk of five miles more to the summit 
where there is a comfortable and comparatively cheap hotel. The 
summit is practically a narrow ridge, about a mile long, rising at 
the extremities into what are called the Horth and South Peaks, 
