Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1899-07-12
MAINE fsOTANISTS.
Visit of Josseiyn Botanical Society to
Aroostook County.
Written for THE AMERICAN by Miss NJ A
Clark, of Ellsworth

known, in order that more people who are
interested in the same line of work may
avail themselves OF the opportunities
which it offers; this is the Josselyn Botan-
ical Society of Maine. 1t is composed of
Maine people who are interested in plant
life, and of residents of other states who
| botanic to any extent in Maine. A four
days meeting is held annually in different
/ parts of the State, which is usually de-
voted in part to field excursions and in
part to indoor meetings when opportun-
t ity is given to hear various specialists upon
their own subjects.
This year the society has explored
/ Aroostook county, the annual meeting
+ having been held the last week in June at
/ Houlton, from which place as a centre, ex
eursions We're made to surrounding towns.
/ This region being practically an unknown
/ land to the majority of the party, the
charm of novelty was added to the other
+ attractions; and for this reason the great
er part of the time was devoted to field
+ study and the indoor meetings were re-
! duced to the smallest possible number.
t IIoulton itself is a very pretty town, with
many fine houses whose grounds are beau
! tifully kept 1t is surrounded by region
of great natural beauty and fertility, and
t gives one the impression of being very
/ busy town.
The journey over the Bangor & Aroos-
| took road is a very interesting one. You
see in turn little towns that are glaringly
new, then thick woods of large trees that
are venerable with age; now glimpse of
a frightened deer, then lovely vista of
river and lake; non clearing with log
house, then view of Katahdin not so
very far away and still snow crowned in
spite of the Julg heat; but perhaps the
one view, that from frequent repetition is
most deeply engraved upon ones memory,
is that of mics and miles of forest land
with all the trees standing dead, bare and
/ leatless, and draped with gray moss. Fire
Is responsible for some of this waste, and
disease for some.
One interesting and suggestive fact in
connection With this region is, that in the
boys which are scattered over this Hat
! country between Bangor and Houlton, are
found many maritime species OF plants
growing on the seashore. The only eX-
PLANTATION of This fact is that the sea has
been here N what is now the interior, and
that al some time since the glacial period
these plants grew along the ancient sea-
shore, and now though nearly extinct, col
on.es OF them persist in old lake bottoms
and swamps.
The society was very fortunate in hav-
ing at this meeting several gentlemen,
who though not members of the society,
added much to the interest of the pro-
gramme. Among these was Prof. John
Macoun, OF Ottawa, the head botanist of
the Canadian government, man who has
explored British North America from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and whose report
of the Northwest was the first cause of
Canadian Pacific railway. Prof. Macoun
addressed the meetings informally several
times and was always ready to respond to
all questions.
Our own government was also repre-
scented by Hermann Won Schrenk, PHI d.,
who is a special agent for the Division of
Vegetable Pathology of the Department
OF Agriculture. He devotes himself to
the study of the diseases of our forest
trees and to those who heard his ad
dresses, the shelf-like fungi which adorn
the trunks of trees in our forests, as well
as the gray lichens which drape the dead
branches. and the ious ''crow's nests"
or witches broOms' OF our eVergreenS,
have a new significance Our government
is awak ing to the necessity of protecting
our forests from these natural enemies,
and needs the assistance OF intelligent Oh
servers to aid in deter mining the range
and extent of these foes
Nearly every one has some time seen
what appeared to be thin, yellowish
white mould under the bark of decay
ing tree, but few of us have known that
learned men are divided in opinion as to
whether it should be classed as animal or
vegeta BILE; that 1t is mass of almost pure
protoplasm and in moisture will travel
many yards and finally pile up and fruit
like plant, having fed on the nitroge-
nous matter of the tree whose life is de-
stroyed. Neither do we think of the gray
moss "a a dangerous enemy to strong
growing trees, but it winds itself about
the branches of an evergreen and strangles
the tree
We are indebted to Mr.. Field, of Har-
ward university, for talk upon The Re-
lation Between Plants and Insects. lie
told US that the attacks OF insects upon
merous, are beneficial, and are really need
full to prune the plants He told us too OF
the seventeen-year cicada, which spends
sixteen years under ground in the chrysa-
lis state and them for one brief season re-
joices in the sun and feeds upon the
plants.
One all day excursion was made to Fort
Fairfield, a distance of sixty miles from
Houlton, and several hours We're spent
there in exploring the bank of the Aroos-
took river. On the way we had fine near
view of Mars liill, which biologists tell US,
from the Laurentian rock of which it is
composed, was the first bit of land in the
State of Maine to emerge above the waters,
when they were divided that the dry land
might appear.
This region is interesting as being the
meeting place of two distinct tioras
Many Arctic species find here their
southern limit. and many southern plants
here reach their northern limit. In this
river valley vegetation is very luXuriant ;