PREFACE 



The present volume is the third of a scries of reports of the State 

 Weather Service. The first volume was general in character and 

 presented all thai was then known regarding the physiography and 

 meteorology of the State. The second volume presented the result 

 of many years of exhaustive study of the climate and weather of 

 Baltimore and vicinity and is one of the most complete reports of its 

 kind ever issued anywhere. The present volume treats of the plant 

 life of Maryland and associated topics, subjects intimately associated 

 with and largely dependent upon the physiographic and climatic 

 conditions. Not only has the distribution of plant life been found 

 to be dependent upon the climate and physiography but also upon the 

 agricultural soils which in turn find their ultimate, interpretation in 

 the underlying rucks from which they have been derived, thus bring- 

 ing the work of the State Geological Survey and the State Weather 

 Service into close association. Other lines of work suggested or 

 inaugurated include a more detailed study of the swamp lands 

 which are so intimately connected with the climatic conditions of 

 the State, that their study, in part at least, falls within the province 

 of the State Weather Service. The far reaching influence of climate 

 on the economic and social development of communities suggests 

 investigations upon the relation of agricultural soils to physiographic 

 and climatic features, and the bearing of climates upon health. 



A botanical survey of the State, especially with the view of deter- 

 mining the relation of natural vegetation to crop possibilities was 

 undertaken in 1904 as a part of the climatic studies of the Maryland 

 Weather Service. This work has been in charge of Dr. Forrest 

 Shreve, now a member of the staff of the Desert Botanical Laboratory 

 of the Carnegie Institution. lie has had associated with him in the 

 work Dr. M. A. Chrysler, of the Maine Agricultural College, and 

 Messrs. Frederick H. Blodgett, W. Kalph Jones and Charles S. 

 Ridgway. 



Acknowledgements for material assistance are due to the Johns 

 Hopkins University and to the Maryland Agricultural < !ollege, which 

 are directly connected with the management of the State Weather 



