THE PINE LANDS. II9 



feet above its rival, it spread out waving branches far and 

 wide from the summit. 



One meets man}' eccentricities in the pine forest. The 

 conifers are generally contented among themselves, and never 

 seem too thick to thrive. Like a well-regulated family, their 

 aspirations are high, and each one seems disposed to make 

 the best of its opportunity. But the pines are exclusive, and 

 they have a music of their own. " The soft and soul-like 

 sounds," of which Coleridge loved to sing, render their groves 

 enchanting, and naturally, any element foreign to their own, 

 disturbs the melody. 



In the northwestern part of New Jersey is what is known 

 as the deciduous zone; in the southeastern, the coniferous; 

 while in an irregular line between them, extending from Long 

 Branch to Salem, is the tension zone. In the tension zone the 

 flora of the other two meet and overlap, and a constant strife 

 is waging for the ascendency. Although favorably situated 

 by environment, the deciduous species show a tendency to 

 travel southward, while the coniferous, equally well situated, 

 tend to move northward. 



Where a hardwood forest has been cleared, pines and 

 cedars have been known immediately to occupy the ground. 

 Under the changed condition of a heavier soil and freedom 

 from competition, they flourish, until driven out by the rees- 

 tablished angiosperms, whose numbers far exceed their own. 

 For the same reason, when the pine lands are cut off or 

 burned, deciduous trees spring up, regardless of the sandy 

 soil, which, however, is never too barren for the scrub oak. 



The area of the pine is constantly decreasing, while that 

 of the deciduous tree is increasing. Away back in the closing 

 scenes of the Triassic period, when the vegetation included 

 immense forests of ferns, conifers and palms, great physical 

 changes occurred along the eastern coast of North America. 

 There was a slow subsidence of the southeastern area of New 

 Jersey, during which large quantities of land vegetation dis- 

 appeared, of which the pines constituted the greater part. A 



