NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



403 



adapted themselves to living in soil or 

 water of high osmotic pressure due to 

 the salt in solution. Salt marsh grass 

 (Spartina glabra) predominates on the 

 outer parts of the salt marshes, while 

 in the inner portions there are associated 

 with it some of the more salt resisting 

 plants, such as Salicornia europaea, 

 Spergularia marina, Atriplex hastata, 

 and Aster tenuifolius. 



The vegetation of the fresh water 

 marshes is much more abundant than 

 that of salt marshes, and consists prin- 

 cipally of grasses and herbaceous plants. 

 These marshes lie along broad, low 

 streams and are areas above high tide. 

 As one passes up the salt marshes into 

 the fresh water marshes Spartina glabra 

 and Spartina patens soon give way to 

 stands in which one or another of 

 Scirpus americanus, S. olneyi, S. robus- 

 tus, Spartina cynosur aides, and Zizania 

 aquatica are dominant. Reed (Phrag- 

 mites communis) and cat-tail (Typha 

 angustifolia) also occur in more or less 

 pure stands. Besides these more or less 

 dominant plants a large variety of other 

 plants will be found. 



The vegetation of the dunes and strand 

 along the ocean front is characteris- 

 tically devoid of trees and made up of a 

 limited number of species of grasses and 

 herbaceous plants of xerophytic charac- 

 ter. The fringing bar which forms the 

 ocean front of Maryland is very narrow 

 from the Delaware line southward to the 

 Chincoteaque Bay, below which it- 

 widens, but nowhere exceeds a mile in 

 width. Along its inner side the bar is 

 fringed by fresh or salt marshes and on 

 the outer side is a low series of dunes, 

 everywhere being in a comparative 

 stable condition. The predominant 

 plant of the dunes is sand reed (Am- 

 mophila arenaria), with which are asso- 

 ciated the plants characteristic of dunes 

 throughout the north Atlantic Coast, as 

 American sea rocket (Cakile edentula), 

 beach heather (Hudsonia tomentosa), 

 sea beach sandwort (Arenaria peploides), 

 seaside evening primrose (Oenothera 

 humifusa), cocklebur (Xanthium cana- 

 dense), saltwort (Salsola kali), knotweed 



spurge (Euphorbia polygonifolia), and 

 seaside knotweed (Polygonum mari- 

 timum) . 



The animal fauna of the Southeastern 

 Evergreen forest ws, in the original 

 undisturbed condition abundant and 

 probably quite varied. Some of the 

 characteristic mammals 3 for this region 

 were the Virginia muskrat (Ondatra 

 zibethica macrodon), the rice rat (Ory- 

 zomys palustris), Bachman shrew (Sorex 

 longirostris) , the little short-tailed shrew 

 (Cryptotis parva) and the fox squirrel 

 (Sciurus niger). This squirrel also ex- 

 tends into the Deciduous forest region. 



Other mammals which occurred in 

 this region but also in other regions are 

 the meadow vole (Microtus pennsyl- 

 vanicus), the gray fox (Urocyon cinereo- 

 argenteus), the eastern cotton-tail rabbit 

 (Sylvilagus Jloridanus mallarus), the 

 beaver (Castor canadensis). The beaver 

 is exterminated except for a few colonies 

 in West Virginia. The otter (Lutra 

 canadensis), raccoon (Procyon lotor), 

 mink (Mustela vison mink), the Virginia 

 deer (Odocoileus virginianus) , the black 

 bear (Ursus americanus), the red fox 

 (Vulpes fulva) , the bob-cat (Lynx rufus), 

 the short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevi- 

 cauda), the star-nosed mole (Condylura 

 cristata) and the common mole (Scalopus 

 aquaticus). 



The bird fauna of the Southeastern 

 Mesophytic Evergreen Forest was, and 

 still is, exceedingly rich. The list of 

 birds have been furnished by Dr. A. Wet- 

 more 4 of the U. S. Biological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. Some of the species 

 characteristically breeding along the 

 marshes and beaches are as follows: 

 Gull-billed tern, Caspian tern, Forster's 

 tern, least tern, black skimmer, king 

 rail, clapper rail, willet, piping plover, 

 Wilson's plover, sharp-tailed sparrow, 

 and the seaside sparrow. 



Some of the migrant species found 



8 The list of mammals has beeo kindly furnished 

 by Dr. H. H. T. Jackson, of the U. S. Biological 

 Survey. 



4 The nomenclature used in the lists of birds 

 follows that of the American Ornithologists Union 

 Checklist, 3rd ed., 1910, with the three supplements 

 issued to date, which are published in the Auk for 

 1912, pp. 380; 1920, p. 440; and 1923, p. 513. 



