THE VEGETATION OF SHACKLEFORD BANK 



17 



have been able to resist the advancing sand. Elsewhere this portion 

 of the island is a sandy waste, with little or no vegetation, except that 

 in the lower places may be seen evidences of the swamps that existed 

 here before the advancing sand covered the island from the sea to the 

 sound. In such low flat areas Scirpus ainericaiuts and Fimhristylis 

 castanea, most tolerant of sand and drought of all the marsh species, 

 continue to exist side by side with Croton punctatus, Salsola Kali, and 

 Cenchrus tribuloides, plants at home on the sand strand. Paspalum 

 distichum often covers the ground with a weak but uniform turf in such 

 spots, and Spartina patens is usually present. 



The sand strand also does not extend east of Wade's Shore, but gives 

 way to the flat salt marshes, which border the sound. 



N^ot far from Cape Lookout, about 400 yards from the sea, are dunes 

 some 40 feet high. In the lee of these are fresh pools, fed by seepage 

 from the dunes. Acorns Calamus and Salix sp. are here present, while 

 around the pools are the shrubs of the thicket formation occurring 

 toward the western end of the island. 



THE YEGETATION OF BOGUE BANK 



On this bank, which extends west from Beaufort Inlet, physiographic 

 conditions have produced a much more stable configuration than on 

 Shackleford. A line of dunes about 20 feet high, formed and covered 

 b}^ sea-oats (Uniola) extends along the bank, and protects the vegeta- 

 tion in its lee from the encroachments of drifting sand. Back of the 

 dunes on the eastern end of the bank for a distance of about five miles 

 the ground is covered by thickets somewhat like those described for 

 Shackleford, though the woody plants are here smaller and more shrubby. 

 Ilex vomitoria is the dominant shrub, while Zanthoxylnm Clava-Her- 

 culis and Juniperus virginiana are common. In the more open places 

 are the herbs and shrubs characteristic of similar localities on Shackle- 

 ford. 



From about five miles west of the Inlet, the Hoop Pole woods cover 

 the bank, the beach being here quite narrow. The woods are protected 

 by a barrier dune, or sand wall, held in place by Uniola and various 

 sand-binding herbs and shrubs, among which a low form of Ilex vomi- 

 toria is abundant. The Hoop Pole woods themselves are composed 

 mostly of liardAvood trees of considerable size, with an admixture of 

 pines and cypresses. The forest here is quite similar to that of the 

 adjacent mainland, and here flourish many plants Avhich cannot endure 

 the severer conditions on Shackleford. Botanically, Bogue Bank from 

 Bogue Inlet to the eastern end of the Hoop Pole woods (about 20 miles) 

 is a continuation of the mainland. 

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