BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN RECORD 

VOL. XXV JULY, 1936 NO. 3 

Ee Ne Vane PATLO NSO IONE 
SEAN 
(A Lone Istanp TERcENTENARY PusLicaTIoN) 
By Henry K. Svenson 
— 
On colonial Long Island, as in other lands under colonization in 
the seventeenth century, the task of obtaining food and conquering 
the aborigines seems to have been time-absorbing. Therefore, 
few observations on the early appearance of the vegetation of 
Long Island have come down to us, and these observations tend 
to be generalized and often contradictory, or have the soaring 
exuberance of the real-estate salesman of that day. Perhaps some 
of the earliest explorers such as Verrazano touched upon the 
shores of Long Island, but the first descriptions, and they are 
meagre, appear to be those of Henry Hudson, who anchored at 
the western shore of Long Island in September, 1609. Here, 
they found the soil of white sand, and a vast number of plum 
trees loaded with fruit, many of them covered with grape vines 
of different kinds.” 

oe 
Some of his men, landing near Gravesend 
on September 4th, came back to the ship charmed with their 
glimpse of the new country and described it as “ full of great tall 
caks, and the land as pleasant to see, with grass and flowers, as 
they ever had seen.” ? According to Daniel Denton, who lived 
' Figures 1-5 are from photographs taken by Mr. Louis Buhle on May 26, 
1936. Figure 6 is from a photograph taken by Mr. Buhle on August 9, 
SH ky 
2 Thompson, Benjamin F. History of Long Island. Ed. 3, Vol. I, p. 91. 
New York. 1918. 
3 Flint, Martha B. Early Long Island, p. 5. New York. 1896. 
207 
