254 NICHOLS: THE VEGETATION OF CONNECTICUT 
ment, the surface of the ground is so low that it is covered with 
water at all seasons of the year. Here the vegetation consists of 
aquatic or semi-aquatic plants. As the surface is built up higher, 
it reaches a level where it is exposed to the air during summer, 
the period of low water, and here aquatic plants are replaced by 
terrestrial herbs. As the constructive process continues, the 
surface is built up to a height where it is out of water much of the 
year, and finally it may attain an elevation where it is out of 
reach of all but the highest floods. On these older flood plains 
grow shrubs and trees. 
Flood_ Plain Associations along the Connecticut River —Flood 
plains are formed to some extent along every sizable stream. 
In Connecticut, as might be expected, they are developed on the 
largest scale along the Connecticut River. Here, on the higher 
flood plains from Middletown northward, the rich alluvial soil 
furnishes the most fertile farm-lands in the state. As the result 
of agriculture, much of the primitive vegetation has been obliter- 
ated,* but it may still be seen to advantage on various flood plain 
islands (Fic. 6): and elsewhere. On an island at Windsor, in 
particular, the natural vegetation has never been disturbed. 
Whether or not it is true, as old residents maintain, that this island 
—now about three-quarters of a mile long, perhaps a hundred 
yards wide, and rising to a height of more than a dozen feet above 
low water level—has been developed entirely within the last 
thirty years, it is certain that it is growing rapidly at the present 
time, having increased several hundred feet in length at the lower 
end since it first came under the writer’s observation in 1910- 
The following notes on the vegetation of the Connecticut River 
flood plains are based partly on the study of this island, partly 
on studies made at Middletown, Haddam and other points along 
the river. ; 
As compared with a lake-swamp succession, free-floating 
aquatics, for obvious reasons, are rarely represented in a flood 
* Many of the grassy meadows along the Connecticut date back to pre-colonial 
days. It is recorded that when the first settlers arrived these areas were open ani 
under cultivation by the Indians, who were accustomed to burn them over annually. 
But from the fact that today trees occur along the sloughs and scattered through 
the d,.wherever they are permitted to grow, it would pbable that these 
meadows were formerly forested, and that, if left to themselves, they would soon 
revert to their original condition. ; 
