FOREST RECONXAISSAXCE OF THE DELAWARE PENINSULA 547 



ical features, and they may very well be disregarded for the present.* 

 A preliminary study of the forests and other conspicuous vegetation 

 of this peninsula, based on previous literature and about six hours of 

 note-taking from the car window on July i8, 1908, was published in 

 Torreya (9:217-226) for November, 1909. Since that time have ap- 

 peared Shreve's Plant Life of Maryland (1910)5 and Besley's report on 

 the forests of Maryland (1917)," which give many additional details 

 about the Maryland portion. Besley's report shows the location and 

 approximate composition and density of every forest area in Maryland 

 large enough to be mapped on the scale used, and although it does not 

 attempt to give the percentage of any one species, the figures for pines 

 and hardwoods have been very helpful in checking up the writer's ever- 

 green percentages. 



In June, 1917, and September and November, 1918, the writer spent 

 a few days on the Delaware peninsula, visiting every region and every 

 county not previously traversed, and taking as full notes as possible on 

 the vegetation, especially the trees. The results are here brought to- 

 gether as a preliminary forest census of the area, not only as a contri- 

 bution to our knowledge of the forest resources of the United States, 

 but also to bring out some significant relations between soil and vegeta- 

 tion in an area where differences of topography and climate are practi- 

 cally eliminated, and to illustrate a method of tabulating forest resources 

 where the field-work has not been sufficiently thorough to warrant one 

 in assigning precentages to each species. The regions will first be de- 

 scribed briefly, with special reference to the prevailing soil types and tree 

 species, and then the method of tabulation explained and illi*^rated. No 

 chemical analyses of Delaware peninsula soils have come to the"\vriter's 

 notice, but parts of each region, except the southernmost, have been 

 mapped at various times by the U. S. Bureau of Soils, and from Hae 

 reports of that organization one can compute the approximate percent- 

 age of each soil texture class (e. g., sandy loam, silt loam, clay) in 

 each region, which gives some idea of the fertility, for the soils of finest 

 texture are usually the best.'^ The percentages are not given here, be- 

 cause some of the regions were surveyed too long ago for accurate re- 

 sults and others are not yet adequately covered, but the principal soil 



*Dr. Shreve in the Plant Life of Maryland, 1910 (pp. 109-124), attempted some 

 correlations between these terraces and the vegetation without recognizing the 

 geological belts here described, but it is evident from his own statements {e. g., 

 p. 118), as well as from the most cursory observation, that there is more differ- 

 ence m vegetation between the northern and southern parts of the same terraces 

 than between neighboring parts of different terraces. 



^ Reviewed in Torreya, // : 36-42. 191 1. 



° Reviewed in Torreya, 18: 120-122. 1918. 



^ For an explanation of the method used, see Soil Science, 4 : 91-95. 1917. 



