﻿Vol. 42 No. 4 



BULLETIN 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



The vegetation of Connecticut 

 IV. Plant societies in lowlands* 



George E. Nichols 



% The term Lo\\t.and, as used in the present paper, embraces 

 primarily lakes, ponds, and swamps. f The word Lake may be 

 employed to designate any body of water surrounded by land, 

 but more commonly this term is applied to relatively large bodies 

 of water, smaller water bodies being referred to as Ponds. 

 Throughout the present paper the two terms are used more or less 

 indiscriminately. A SwAMP may be defined as any area where 

 the ground is saturated with water throughout a good part of the 

 year, but \vhere, at least during most of the year, surface water 

 does not accumulate. As will be seen presently, it is not always 

 possible to differentiate absolutely between lakes and ponds on the 

 one hand and swamps on the other. Thus, the transition from a 

 lake to the swamp at its margin may be so gradual that one cannot 

 say where the one leaves off and the other begins. Similarly, a 

 swamp may merge by almost imperceptible gradations with the 

 neighboring upland, so thai: it is likewise difficult to draw a sharp 

 line of demarcation between Rowlands and uplands. 



* Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. The previous numbers 

 167-194- 1914- In this paper, as in the others, the nomenclature followed is that 



