MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 109 



Permitting the above brief sketch of the character and location 

 of the plant habitats, or habitat-groups, of the Eastern Shore to 

 serve to orient the reader, each of these will now be treated in 

 detail in the order mentioned. 



Upland Vegetation. 



the talbot terrace. 



■ Clay Upland. — No one who has traveled the waters of the Ches- 

 apeake Bay can have failed to notice the pure stands of Loblolly 

 Pine which occupy islands and narrow necks of land adjacent to 

 tide water, as at Poplar Island in Talbot County, and near Marion 

 in Somerset County. In the interior such pure stands are not ab- 

 sent, but far less frequent than are mixed stands in which the 

 Loblolly predominates. In what manner and to what extent the 

 proximity of salt water may be responsible for the purity of these 

 stands is not apparent upon observation, but their almost universal 

 occurrence in such situations makes it at least probable that there 

 may be some such influence operating to eliminate other tree species, 

 and that the pure stands are not clue, in all cases at least, to arti- 

 ficial reforestation. Away from the immediate proximity of the 

 shore the typical forest of the Clay Upland has the Loblolly Pine 

 as its predominant tree with from 15% to 50% of the Scrub Pine 

 or deciduous species. In the Elkton Clay of central Worcester 

 County, however, the Loblolly gives way to a larger percentage 

 of the accompanying trees, while in Kent County and the small 

 areas of Elkton Clay in Cecil County the deciduous species alone 

 make up the forest stand. 



The Scrub Pine is never so abundant as the Loblolly Pine in 

 the typical areas, although it is more so at some localities in cen- 

 tral Worcester County, as near Wesley. In Talbot County the Scrub 

 Pine is rare in the lower part of Bay Hundred District, Broad 

 Creek Neck and Deep Neck; in the upper part of Broad Creek 

 Neck and near Claiborne there are some stands in which it forms 

 15%, while near Royal Oak it increases to 30% of the stand. The 

 increase in the proportion of the Scrub Pine on passing inland 

 is characteristic of all parts of the Elkton Clay, and its absence 



