185 
dergrowth of flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) and black haw 
(liburnum pruntfolium) ; the depressions, often partially occupied 
by little ponds, had swamp oak (Quercus palustris), sweet gum 
(Liquidambar), red maple Cdcer rubrum), and downy poplar 
(Populus heterophylla). The violet wood-sorrel (O-ralis violacea), 
round-leaved violet (I"iola rotundifolia), bloodroot (Sanguinaria), 
and maidenhair-fern (Adiantiim) still persist in the neighborhood 
of Jamaica (Queens), and emphasize the close affinity with the 
rich forests of the mainland. 
As may be seen from the accompanying photographs, the charac- 
teristic plants of each of the ecological areas of the vicinity of New 
York are shown in a natural, if somewhat miniature, setting. 
Many of our native plants are strictly limited in occurrence and 
pele, 
grow only in certain types of soil or on definite kinds of rocks. 
Many species are confined to outcrops of serpentine, or to ledges 
of limestone; others are to be found only in the white sands of the 
New Jersey pine barrens and their extension into southern Long 
Islands ise. 35)). 
The varied types of flowering plants in this manner reflect the 
diverse geology of the New York region. These geological areas 
extend in a southwest-northeast direction in conformity with the 
trend of the Appalachian Mountains, as follows: 
1. A gone of crystalline rocks characteristic of the sterile up- 
lands of New England, and well represented in the Hudson High- 
lands, the Ramapo Mountains, and the summits of the Nittatinny 
Mountains. It is characterized by scarlet and chestnut oaks (Quer- 
cus coccinea and Q. Prinus), thickets of blueberry (Vaccinium), 
sweet fern (J/yrica asplenifolia), and mountain laurel (Aalniia), 
but there is a great lack of the colorful spring flowers to be found 
in the richer soils of the lowlands or of the limestone areas. 
2. The sandy coastal plain, which forms the pine barrens of 
southern New Jersey and Long Island (Fig. 3B), and extends 
northward to Cape Cod and the tip of Nova Scotia. Off the New 
England coast the greater part has been submerged in post-Glacial 
time, a fact which explains the broken range of such plants as the 
curly-grass fern (Schizaca pusilla, Fig. 4, Map 4). This zone has 
the most interesting vegetation of our entire region ; it is continuous 
with the Coastal Plain of Florida and the Carolinas, and has close 
