﻿Nichols: The vegetation of Connecticut 203 



Succession of Plant Societies in Bogs.— As suggested in earlier 

 paragraphs, succession in bogs, in Connecticut at any rate, is 

 usually associated with floating mat formation, and several of 

 the phenomena of a bog succession have already been discussed 

 under that head. Where a bog still borders an open body 

 of water the various plant associations mentioned in connection 

 with the floating mat succession are often clearly distinguishable. 

 But quite as often, especially where the bog occupies a basin that 

 has become completely filled in (Fig. I3),thethn 



more or less completely merged into one, i. e., they are telescoped. 

 The shrubs here, along with Sphagnum, tend to form elevated 

 patches; sedges, with Sphagnum, dominate on the intervening lower 

 ground; while the spruces — seldom over fifteen feet high, mostly 

 under eight, and commonly less than four — for the most part grow 

 scattered about among the shrubs, here and there developing 

 colonies of sufficient size and density to shade out the more in- 



