Development of the Vegetation of New Yor State 105 
skeleton and this adds more solid fibre to the peat or muck 
beds. This makes the surface firmer, though in marshes the 
whole mass is pretty thoroughly decomposed. 
At a later page in the bulletin (p. 119) the question is 
discussed as to what becomes of the dead vegetation and 
especially what effect it has upon the course of living vegeta- 
tion. ‘This question applies sharply to the case before us. 
We shall see later that under certain conditions the course 
of vegetation is turned at this stage of the substratum level 
toward bog formation, bog meadow, bog heath and bog forest. 
In this particular ease cer tainly i in Montezuma swamp — 
there is no tendency toward bog formation, but to pass 
through marsh meadow to swamp-shrub or swamp-forest. 
Frankly, I cannot explain why this is so but I believe the 
open, exposed situation which permits free sweep of winds 
and hence shaking up of water and consequent aeration, 
together with the accumulation of flood and wind-swept min- 
eral stuff, operate on the one hand to permit the activity of 
the bacteria which decompose the accumulations of dead 
vegetation and on the other make available certain mineral 
nutrients — likely to be deficient in the less decomposed 
peat beds — for the meadow marsh and subsequent shrub 
and forest plants. 
The case of tide-water marsh meadows is not discussed 
here, partly because I have less first-hand knowledge of 
them, partly because the vegetation problem is largely iden- 
tical with that above considered. ‘The case is by no means 
unimportant since Parsons * estimated the total marsh area 
of the lower Hudson region and the Long Island coast 
at near 50,000 acres. 
The Marsh Meadow Stage of Vegetation. 
In following the successions of vegetation on a substratum 
built up from beneath the water level, and composed chiefly 
of the more or less completely decomposed remains of dead 
1 Parsons, A. L., Peat: Its Formation, Uses and Occurrence in New 
York. 23rd Ann. Rep. State Geologist in 57th Ann. Rep. N. Y. State 
Mus., 1903:pp. 15-88. 
