:^rOTES ON THE FLOKA OF CHURCH'S ISLAND, 

 NORTH CAROLINA 



By W. L. McAtee 



Churcli's Island, North Carolina, lies in about the center of Curri- 

 tuck County, which occupies the northeastern corner of the State. 

 It is about four miles long and is bounded on the east by Currituck 

 Sound, on the north by Mills Bay, on the west by Oldtown Creek 

 and on the south by The Creek. The last is scarcely more than a 

 ditch and separates Church's Island from what is called Narrow 

 Shore, along the Sound and from Piney Island farther inland. 



Church's Island has a rather high bank along most of the Sound 

 side, and slopes smoothly, though but slightly to the marsh bordering 

 Oldtown Creek on the west. The soil is about the same ever^^where, 

 a sandy loam and differences in vegetation are due chiefly to varia- 

 tions in soil moisture. The higher land on the Sound side supports 

 practically all of such trees as red cedar, prickly ash, hackberry, live- 

 oak and Carolina buckthorn. Willow and ash are found only about 

 springy places, while persimmon, mulberry, holly and papaw are 

 rather generally distributed. Loblolly pine, the dominant tree, which 

 fixes the character of landscapes on the island, solidly occupies that 

 part of the island from the marsh to a road running north and south 

 the whole length of the island. Formerly no doubt it similarly dom- 

 inated land to the east, from which it has been cleared to permit cul- 

 tivation. 



Cultivation has either introduced or opened the way for numerous 

 weeds of which the most conspicuous in fields are fennel, white heath 

 aster, ragweed, redroot, lambs-quarters, Mexican tea, love-grass, par- 

 tridge pea, morning-glory, butter-print, jimson-weed and Eupatorium 

 capillifolium. In gardens purslane, carpet-weed, black nightshade, 

 horse nettle, crabgrass, ribgrass and smartweed are most common. 

 Introduced plants now spontaneous include paper mulberry (Brous- 

 sonetia papyrifera), here bearing the old name Otaheite mulberry, 

 black locust (Rohinia pseudacacia) , crepe myrtle (Lagerstra'mia in- 

 dica)*, youpon (Ilex vomitoria) and sweet violet (Viola odoraia). 



*Lageratroemia indira is usunlly described ns n shrvil). ■ However, it iniikes u tree if given 

 a chance. Tliere are several trees on Church's Island 18 inelies in diameter. 



61 



