254 Nichols: The vegetation of Connecticut 



ment, the surface of the ground is so low that it is covered with 

 water at all seasons of the year. Here the vegetation consists of 

 aquatic or semi-aquatic plants. As the surface is built up higher, 

 it reaches a level where it is exposed to the air during summer, 

 the period of low water, and here aquatic plants are replaced by 

 terrestrial herbs. As the constructive process continues, the 

 surface is built up to a height where it is out of water much of the 

 year, and finally it may attain an elevation where it is out of 

 reach of all but the highest floods. On these older flood plains 

 grow shrubs and trees. 



Flood Plain Associations along the Connecticut River. — Flood 

 plains are formed to some extent along every sizable stream. 

 In Connecticut, as might be expected, they are developed on the 

 largest scale along the Connecticut River. Here, on the higher 

 flood plains from Middletown northward, the rich alluvial soil 

 furnishes the most fertile farm-lands in the state. As the result 

 of agriculture, much of the primitive vegetation has been obliter- 

 ated,* but it may still be seen to advantage on various flood plain 

 islands (Fig. 6) and elsewhere. On an island at Windsor, in 

 particular, the natural vegetation has never been disturbed. 

 Whether or not it is true, as old residents maintain, that this island 

 — now about three-quarters of a mile long, perhaps a hundred 

 yards wide, and rising to a height of more than a dozen feet above 

 low water level^has been developed entirely within the last 

 thirty years, it is certain that it is growing rapidly at the present 

 time, having increased several hundred feet in length at the lower 

 end since it first came under the writer's observation in 1910. 

 The following notes on the vegetation of the Connecticut River 

 flood plains are based partly on the study of this island, partly 

 on studies made at Middletown, Haddam and other points along 

 the river. 



As compared with a lake-swamp succession, free-floating 

 aquatics, for obvious reasons, are rarely represented in a flood 



* Many of the grassy meadows along the Connecticut date back to pre-colonial 

 days. It is recorded that when the first settlers arrived these areas were open and 

 under cultivation by the Indians, who were accustomed to burn them over annually. 

 But from the fact that today trees occur along the sloughs and scattered through 

 the grassland, wherever they are permitted to grow, it would seem probable that these 

 meadows were formerly forested, and that, if left to themselves, they would soon 

 revert to their original condition. 



