PERIODICAL LITERATURE 



FOREST GEOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION 



Descriptions and discussions of the va- 

 Vegetation rious aspects of the vegetation of the State 



of of Connecticut by Nichols have run serially 



Connecticut during the past two years through several 



numbers of the publications of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club. The four general headings of the work are : 

 phytogeographical aspects, virgin forests, plant societies on up- 

 lands, and plant societies in lowlands. The discussions are 

 based upon the conception of vegetation as dynamic, that is, 

 the succession of plants due to changes of erosion on the uplands 

 and of deposition on the lowlands. In regard to the forests, 

 the "sprout hardwood" type, chiefly consisting of chestnut, Red 

 oak. White oak, and Red maple, represents the usual climax 

 formation over fully five-sixths of the State. This type of for- 

 est attains its highest development in the central lowland and 

 along the coast. In eastern Connecticut the chestnut is of com- 

 paratively subsidiary importance, the oaks being the dominant 

 trees. The forest is less mesophytic than in the lowlands and 

 along the coast. The most mesophytic conditions, however, are 

 evidently in the northwestern portion of the State, where hem- 

 lock, beech and Sugar maple are the chief components of the 

 climax forest. Although nearly one-half of the area of the 

 State is wooded, there remain scarcely half a dozen patches of 

 virgin forest, hardly one of which covers an area of over a 

 dozen acres. Owing to forest fires and heavy cuttings bringing 

 about changes in the conditions of exposure, and owing to the 

 sprouting capacity of chestnut and the oaks, it is probable that 

 these trees are much more prevalent now than in the original 

 climax forest. Areas covered by White birch. White pine mixed 

 with the hickories also probably indicate cases of retrogression 

 from the original forest. While in the majority of cases retro- 

 gression has apparently taken place, yet in sheltered valleys pro- 

 tected from fire, second growth tracts occur which in composi- 

 tion seem essentially identical with the original forest. The 

 author believes that no matter how far retrogression may have 

 proceeded, there is usually ample evidence afforded by the char- 



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