34+ The New York State College of Forestry 
and black spruce-tamarack forest with sphagnum: present as 
the dominant ground cover. 
The esker like ridge which it will be remembered is the con- 
trolling physiographic feature with respect to creating an 
undrained condition of the east section of the bog, see fig. 1, 
rises high enough above the general marsh level to permit its 
climax vegetation to approximate that of the uplands of this 
portion of the Adirondacks. A recently logged forest cover 
consisted of white pine, vellow birch, red maple, red spruce, 
tamarack and balsam. Smaller examples of these species still 
remain, but mostly the ridge presents species of a secondary 
succession characteristic of burns or of logged sand areas in 
which the previously mesophytic conditions of an edaphic 
climax forest have been reduced to a semi-xerophytic status, 
the sand floor lacking the moisture holding blanket of forest 
humus and litter. These secondary species include Poly- 
trichum, bracken fern, blueberry (especially Vaccinmum Cana- 
dense), trembling poplar and large toothed poplar. Finally 
by way of the sharpest contrast with the prevailing hydrephytic 
conditions of the area in general, a sand mound on the west 
of the river at the railroad crossing (the roadbed was cut 
through this mound) exhibits the marked xerophytie conditions 
of quickly drained, loose lying sands. “The summit of this 
mound is very nearly bare sand while the sides are fully 
covered either by bracken fern or blueberry or by a close stand 
of young popple—a condition notably frequent throughout 
the Adirondacks where the forest cover and its protecting soil 
blanket have been removed by lumbering and burning. 
THE VEGETATION OF THE FLOOD PLAIN; BEAVER MEADOW 
In the preceding instances emphasis has been placed upon 
the contrast between the vegetation of a low, undrained or 
poorly drained sand plain, and the slightly elevated better 
drained sands. A still more notable contrast with the bog 
vegetation is furnished by that of the flood plain of Grasse 
River. This flood plain presents a typical example of the vlaie 
or beaver meadow of the Adirondacks. Fig. 21. While it is 
quite level and lies several feet lower than the bog its surface 
