56 Bicknell : Ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket 



planted in 1847 and following years. At one time its existence 

 on the island was thought to be seriously threatened by the rav- 

 ages of certain insects and the prediction was confidently made 

 that, were not instant and extreme measures adopted for their pro- 

 tection, the Nantucket pines were doomed. This prophecy remains 

 unfulfilled. To-day, although the blight of insect damage pre- 

 sents a dismal spectacle here and there, the pines in the main enjoy 

 a clean and vigorous growth and have grouped themselves into 

 close or open formations which are a very attractive feature of 

 parts of the Nantucket landscape. 



At a number of places the trees have achieved dense growths 

 of considerable extent fairly to be described as pine woods. More 

 often they appear in detached or straggling groves of fair-sized 

 trees, thickets of scrub, and scattered young growth. From the 

 pine groves about the middle of the island, outlying trees, mostly 

 3-5 feet high, extend all the way to the south shore, dotting the 

 level plain for wide distances, their dark forms appearing in sharp 

 definition against the pale stretches of beach grass {Ammophild) 

 which cover parts of the plain. 



East of Hummock Pond over sandy soil is a wide stretch of 

 mingled close and open growth, strongly suggestive of parts of the 

 New Jersey pine-barrens. 



Small solitary trees have sprung up in nearly all quarters of 

 the island, although in the extreme eastern and western sections 

 and along the eastern side of the harbor beyond Monomoy it is 

 nearly or quite wanting. On the eastern side a few stray trees 

 extend towards the Shawkemo Hills, but from these hills across 

 Saul's Hills to Gibbs' Pond and Sankaty one or two small trees 

 only were met with. A few solitary trees were encountered in 

 Shawkemo, none in Quaise nor in Pocomo and only a single small 

 tree in Squam. On the western side of the island a few small 

 trees are to be seen at wide intervals, likewise a few have extended 

 into Madequet where, also, by a farmhouse is a small erove which 

 was evidently planted many years ago. The most western point 

 to which the tree has spread is beyond North Pond, where two trees 

 about six feet high occupy an exposed spot on a high sand dune. 

 These bore several perfectly formed but very diminutive cones, 



which had every appearance of maturity but were only % to I 











