464 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [June, 



IV (h). The Pine Barren District. 



The Pine Barren Faunule is the fourth primary faunal group 

 represented in the Coastal Plain. It is typically developed in the 

 sandy barrens lying between the Delaware-Atlantic divide and the 

 Coastal Strip. As already mentioned, this is a region of exceedingly 

 slight relief, the surface sloping almost imperceptibly toward the 

 ocean. The surface, however, is not entirely flat, but is more or less 

 gently undulating, the hollows being occupied by the cedar bogs 

 which form a highly characteristic physiographic feature of the 

 district. The all but universal soil is a coarse sand similar in character 

 to the Norfolk and Winsor sands of the Bureau of Soils. In places 

 the sand contains many pebbles and these may become such an 

 important constituent of the soil that it becomes a gravel similar 

 in essential respects to the Sassafras gravelly loam. In very dry 

 situations, where there is very little plant cover, the sand has a 

 decidedly bleached appearance, but the subsoil is always of a deeper 

 color, usually a pale orange or buff tint. In damper spots, where the 

 plant covering is thicker, the sand usually has a dark gray or even 

 black tint, due to the accumulation of organic debris. 



The vegetation of the Pine Barrens is of a decidedly xerophytic 

 aspect, owing to the coarse texture of the sand which allows the ready 

 percolation of water. Most of the region is forested, the dominant 

 trees on the^ sands and gravels being the pitch pine, Piyius rigida, 

 and several oaks, especially black-jack oak, Quercus marylandica, 

 scrub oak, Q. ilicifolia, post oak, Q. stellata, and scrub chestnut oak, 

 Q. prinoides. Practically all of the timber at the present time is of 

 secondary growth, the region having been cut over repeatedly and 

 frequently swept by destructive forest fires. The woods are accord- 

 ingly of a rather open character, the taller trees being much scattered, 

 but usually with a dense undergrowth of oak and pine saplings, the 

 former predominating. Where this undergrowth is not too thick, 

 there are associated with these various smaller shrubs, such as bracken- 

 fern (Pteridium aquilinum), sweet-fern (Comptonia asplenifolia), 

 wild indigo (Baptisia tinctoria), mountain laurel (Knbnia latifoUa) 

 and l)lueberries {Vaccinium vacillans and Gaylussacia baccata). 

 Where clearings have been made varying conditions prevail according 

 to the stage of reforestation reached. In very dry, exposed situations 

 the sand, exposed to wind action, may remain bare for a long time, 

 giving rise to formations similar to the "blow-outs" of the Middle 

 West. Gradually, however, a low, mat-like vegetation, composed 

 of such forms as reindeer-moss (Cladonia sp.), sandwort (Arenaria 



