CATALOGUE OF PLANTS FOUND IN NEW 



JERSEY. 



BY N. L. BKITTON, PH.D. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The State of New Jersey is 8,224 square miles in area, lying be- 

 tween the parallels of 38 55' 50" and 41 21' 22" north latitude, 

 and the meridians 73 55' 28" and 75 33' 30" of longitude west 

 from Greenwich. Within this area are contained the most varied and 

 diverse conditions of plant growth. In the northern and north- 

 middle counties are many elevated and rocky districts, these counties 

 being crossed from northeast to southwest by the Kittatinny or Sha- 

 wangunk Mountain, the group of ridges collectively called the High- 

 lands, and the minor ranges of the Newark and Orange Mountains 

 and the Palisades of the Hudson. In these several mountain systems 

 nearly all kinds of rocks are represented, and the ridges are inter- 

 spersed with and separated by valleys underlain by limestone, slate, 

 sandstone and other rocks, the depressions containing many large 

 tracts of swampy land with numerous and extensive ponds and lakes. 

 The river systems are numerous and very perfect in their drainage, 

 those of the Raritan, the Passaic and the Hackensack lying almost 

 wholly within the northern half of the State, the Delaware bounding 

 the western counties from Port Jervis to the Delaware Bay. 



The soils of the northern and north-middle counties are conse- 

 quently of exceedingly varied character, and are further complicated 

 by the glacial drift the boulders, gravel, sand, loam and clay brought 

 from the north by the great sheets of ice which overspread the entire 

 northern third of the State at a comparatively recent geological epoch. 

 The area covered wholly or in part by this material is shown on the 

 accompanying map, and it has had a most important effect in mould- 

 ing the character of the flora of the regions where it is found. The 



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OF THE 



UNIVERSITY 



OF 



