SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



one island a few red pines and on another a 

 grove of wliite and pitch pines. Dog's-tooth 

 violets, oak-leaf gerardias, hepaticas and 

 feverwort are also to be found on these is- 

 lands. Oak Island in the Lynn marshes has 

 been studied for years, and nearly four hun- 

 dred different kinds of plants have been found 

 there. It would seem as if the plants had 

 gathered from all sides to avoid the rising 

 tide of the salt marsh! 



The meadows but lately reclaimed by the 

 slow process of nature from lakes and ponds, 

 the recently formed salt marshes and the sand 

 dunes last thrown up by the sea, were then 

 as now destitute of forests. One can easily 

 discover by a simple experiment that in as 

 short a time as ten years a sod-covered up- 

 land will return to an incipient forested con- 

 dition, provided three destroyers — fire, the 

 cutting tools of man, and the teeth of brow- 

 sing cattle are excluded. Wild roses and 

 blackberry brambles first spring up in the 

 grass, and bayberries, hardback and barber- 

 ries soon follow. The more cover these give 

 for the birds to nest and roost in, the more 

 seeds are dropped there by these natural for- 

 est planters, and sumachs, thorns, rum cher- 



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