NATURALIST'S GUIDE TO THE AMERICAS 



reports of the State Department of 

 Conservation and Development, 

 especially 1919. 



REFERENCES 



Britton N. L. 1889. A catalogue of 

 the plants of New Jersey. Report of 

 the State Geologist, Vol. II, Pt. 1, 

 p. 27-642. Trenton, N. J. 



Harshberger, J. W. 1900. An ecological 

 study of the New Jersey sand flora. 

 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. for 1900, 

 p. 623-671. 



Harshberger, J. W. 1910. The vegeta- 

 tion of the Navesink Highlands. 

 Torreya, 10: 1-10. 



Harshberger, J. W., and Burns, V. G. 

 1919. The vegetation of the Hacken- 

 sack Marsh; a typical American fen. 

 Trans. Wagner Free Inst. Sci., Vol. 

 IX, Pt. 1. 



Martin, G. W. 1923. Food of the 

 Oyster. Botanical Gazette, Vol. 

 LXXV, No. 2, p. 143-169. (Contains 

 descriptions of salt marshes and 

 partial list of flora of marshes and 

 adjoining bays.) 



Nelson, Julius. 1889. A catalogue of 

 the Vertebrates of New Jersey. Re- 

 port of the State Geologist, Vol. II, 

 Pt. II, p. 489-824. 



New Jersey Department of Conserva- 

 tion and Development. Annual Re- 

 ports, especially for 1917, 1918. 



New Jersey State Museum. Annual 

 Reports. 



Noble, G. K. and R. C. 1923. The 

 Anderson tree frog. Zoologica, Vol. 

 II, No. 18. (Contains important 

 references to biota of pine barrens.) 



Stone, W. 1910. The plants of sou- 

 thern New Jersey with especial refer- 

 ence to the flora of the pine barrens. 

 Ann. Rpt. N. J. State Museum for 

 1910, Part II. 



2. DELAWARE 



BY FRANK MORTON JONES 



I. GENERAL FEATURES AND ORIGINAL 



BIOTA 



Delaware, with a land area of approx- 

 imately only 1950 sq. mi., and with the 

 least average elevation above sea level 

 of any of the states, yet includes within 

 its limits a far from uniform physical 

 environment, and naturally possesses 

 a rich and varied fauna and flora. 

 About one-twentieth of its area, in the 

 north, lies within the Piedmont Plateau, 

 with rocky hills reaching a maximum 



height of 440 ft.; the remainder of the 

 state lies on the Atlantic Coastal Plain, 

 and is rolling to flat, usually not exceed- 

 ing 60 ft. above sea level. With the 

 exception of the tidal marshes bordering 

 the Delaware River and Bay, the estu- 

 aries of the larger streams, and the sand- 

 dune and salt-marsh areas adjacent 

 to the Atlantic Ocean, the state origi- 

 nally was heavily forested. The original 

 forest was principally hardwood, 

 almost exclusively so in the north. 

 At the south-central extremity of the 

 state, a large area, still indicated on the 

 maps as "Cypress Swamp" or "Cedar 

 Swamp," once included within its limits 

 a magnificent growth of cypress. 



The once abundant bald cypress 

 (Taxodium distichum) , the occurrence 

 of such plant forms as the Muscadine 

 grape (Vitis rotundifolia) , the sweet 

 leaf (Symplocos tinctoria), the habitual 

 nesting of the prothonotary warbler 

 (Protonotaria citrea), the yellow- 

 throated warbler (Dendroica d. domin- 

 ica], the summer tanager (Piranga r. 

 rubra), all point to a marked admixture 

 of southern (Lower Austral) forms in 

 lower Delaware, more marked than is the 

 presence of northern species in the 

 proportionately much smaller Piedmont 

 Plateau region, whose fauna and flora 

 are essentially identical with those of 

 southeastern Pennsylvania. The Swed- 

 ish records for this region (northern 

 Delaware) include reference to the ship- 

 ment of the skins of bear, lynx, and 

 beaver, to Sweden and to England; 

 to the abundance and the destructiveness 

 of wolves; and to the use of the wild 

 turkey and the passenger pigeon as food. 



II. PRESENT BIOTIC CONDITION 



In the Piedmont Plateau portion, 

 the hardwood forest has been largely 

 removed, except on the steeper hills 

 and the narrow stream- valleys. On the 

 Coastal Plain, much of the upland 

 swamp area, through clearing and 

 draining, has been converted into 

 agricultural land; dykeing, ditching, 

 and filling have materially modified or 

 destroyed many of the tidal marsh 



