138 THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



Tripsacum dactyloides 

 Lycopodium inundatum 

 Habenaria ciliaris 

 Paspalum florida n u m . 



Along the shores of Eastern Bay there are numerous narrow 

 bodies of Salt Marsh. On entering the short estuaries, as Wye and 

 Miles rivers the transition to Fresh Marsh is found to be very 

 rapid, only a few such forms as Solidago sempervirens, Hibiscus 

 moscheutos, Kosteletzkya virginica and Achida cannabina making 

 their way from the brackish water zone into the heads of the branch 

 estuaries. On the Chester Eiver the Salt Marshes are confined to 

 the shores south of the mouth of Corsica Creek, while in the vicinity 

 of Chestertown and Centreville the marshes are fresh. 



The Fresh Marshes found from Eastern Bay northward arc less 

 variable in character and not so rich in their flora as those of the 

 longer rivers from the Choptank southward. There are frequently 

 extended pure stands of Typha angustifolia, as on Corsica Creek 

 in the vicinity of Centreville, or pure stands of Zizania aquatica or 

 of Spartina polystachya as in several reentrants near Perryville, 

 Cecil County, or less frequently Acorus calamus forms considerable 

 areas of the marsh, as in Elk Eiver, and is indeed seldom found 

 outside these pure stands. On Morgan Creek, in Kent County, 

 there is a pure stand of Typha angustifolia on one side of the creek 

 and a pure stand of Zizania aquatica on the other, the difference in 

 the occurrence of the two being apparently related to the slightly 

 higher level of the Marsh on the Zizania side. 



In the mixed Eresh Marshes of the Elk and Northeast rivers 

 there are a few forms to be found which do not occur outside the 

 marshes of tidal streams, but many of them are such as are also 

 characteristic of the marsh-like habitats of the upland — meadows, 

 the margins of streams, etc. Of these the principal species are: 



Typha angustifolia 

 Spartina polystach ya 

 Zizania aquatica 

 Acorus calamus 



