586 harper: phytogeography of southern Maryland 



ceding in the matter of soil preferences. The huckleberries and 

 other low shrubs are rather scarce in this region. The common- 

 est herb in undisturbed forests is probably Meibomia nudiflora. 

 Oaks seem to make up less than one-fifth of the standing timber. 



3. THE BAY SHORE HILLS 



This name may be applied to a north-south strip about five 

 miles wide and 25 miles long, bordering Chesapeake Bay in 

 Anne Arundel and Calvert counties. Chesapeake Beach is 

 near the middle of this strip, and its western edge is about on the 

 divide between the bay and the Patuxent River. The under- 

 lying strata are Miocene of the Chesapeake group (well exposed 

 in the high cliffs just south of Chesapeake Beach), but they are 

 by no means peculiar to the region under consideration. 



The soils are rather loamy, approachmg clay loam or silt 

 loam in some places, generally of a light brown color, and 

 evidently quite fertile. The topography is probably the most 

 broken of any region in the Atlantic coastal plain. Some of 

 the bluffs facing the bay are over 100 feet high, and two or three 

 miles farther back elevations of 150 feet or so are reached. And 

 yet hillsides with a slope of 30° or more have been cultivated 

 for years with very little trouble from soil erosion. 



About 40 per cent of the area is wooded now, and evergreens 

 make up about 16 per cent of the forest. The commonest trees 

 seem to be: . 



*Castanea dentata. Chestnut. Quercus falcata. Red oak (southern). 



*Liriodendron tulipifera. Poplar. Querctis velutina. Black oak. 



E Pinus virginiana. Scrub pine. Hicoria alba. Hickory. 



*Liqmdambar styrarifliia. Sweet gum. Hicoria sp.^" Hickory. 



E Pinus taeda. Loblolly pine. Platanus occidentalis. Sycamore. 



Quercus alba. White oak. Nyssa sylvatica. Sour gum. 



Fagus grandifolia. Beech. Quercus borealis maxima. Red oak 



*Juglans nigra. Black walnut. (northern). 



*Morvs rubra. Mulberry. *Prunus serotina. Wild cherry. 



Ulmus americana. Elm. 



i" Not yet identified. Perhaps more than one species. 



