﻿214 Nichols: The vegetation of Connecticut 



the region under discussion during this period, there doubtless 

 have been represented many of the types of vegetation which at 

 the present time are characteristic of regions farther north. Thus 

 the first vegetation to seize upon the freshly exposed land areas 

 may have been quite similar to the tundra formation which today 

 is restricted to the far north. But the dominance of the tundra 

 must have been relatively ephemeral, for except as it may possibly 

 be represented by isolated species of plants, all traces of it have 

 vanished. Following the tundra there presumably was gradually 

 developed a type of vegetation essentially similar to that which 

 today prevails in northern Maine and in the eastern maritime 

 provinces of Canada. Forests of fir and spruce dominated the 

 landscape. At this time, associated perhaps with a moister, cooler 

 climate, the relationship between lowland and upland vegetation 

 must have been quite similar to what it now is farther north. The 

 bog was a common swamp type, and bog plants were by no means 

 confined to bogs. Just how long this condition prevailed is of 

 course largely a matter of speculation. It is perhaps significant, 

 however, that red spruce and fir still persist as upland species in 

 certain localities in northwestern Connecticut, while the southern 

 boundaries of the great fir and spruce forests of Maine are scarcely 

 two hundred miles north of Long Island Sound. From such facts 

 as this it seems probable that within very recent geological time 

 spruce and fir comprised an important element in the forests of 

 this region. When in their northward march the deciduous trees, 

 which at present predominate the forests of the state, commenced to 

 invade this region, they doubtless became established first in the 

 more favorable sites, so that there thus arose a mixture of conifer- 

 ous and deciduous types of forest. Such conditions actually 

 exist in the north-woods today. In northern Cape Breton Island, 

 for example, forests of beech {Fagus grandifolia), sugar maple 

 (Acer saccharum), and yellow birch {Betula lutea), together with 

 hemlock {Tsuga canadensis), almost identical in aspect with virgin 

 forests in northern Connecticut,* occupy the intervales and many 

 other favorable sites; elsewhere fir and spruce predominate. Such 

 a condition may have continued in Connecticut for a very long 

 period. Ultimately, however, perhaps to the accompaniment of 

 * Described by the writer in Torreya 13: 199-215. 1913. 



