ZZO THE PLANT LIFE OF MARYLAND 



Lobelia syphilitica 

 Verbesina altemifolia 



Quercus acuminata. 



The soil in the hills into which the Eidge becomes divided is 

 favorable for farming- operations, and is more extensively used for 

 this purpose than is the more rugged, steeper region to the north 

 of this point. For this reason there is less of natural vegetation 

 to be noted, except as such may take the form of roadside weeds, 

 or meadow plants. The influence of the hauling of farm produce 

 appears in the distribution of some of the more conspicuous weeds 

 of the fence corners and roads. Dipsacus sylvestris is so distrib- 

 uted in some abundance along the main lines of turnpike travel, 

 and is to be found westward from Mount Airy scattered through- 

 out the Midland zone in very similar localities. Lactuca scariola 

 is another plant which follows the path of the farmer, and to a 

 more serious degree Plantago rugelli and Plantago lanceolata which 

 do damage as weeds infesting clover fields. These are especially 

 troublesome after the fields have stood several years without plow- 

 ing, as in wheat-clover-timothy years of the farm rotation. 



The waste places abound in species of Solidago and Aster. Along 

 the roads, Trichostema dichotoma and Bidens bipinnata occur. The 

 Black Locust is a common tree along the fence lines, from the 

 immediate vicinity of Mount Airy along the pike toward Fred- 

 erick, and indeed through the entire region of agricultural activity. 

 This is partly due to the custom of using the living trees as posts 

 in the fence line, and the accompanying economy of space for 

 tree growth, and partly to the difficulty of keeping the margins of 

 the fields in clean cultivation. The Locust, largely self-sown* 

 occupies otherwise unoccupied ground, and at the same time serves 

 as part of the necessary fencing, and also provides material for 

 later service in the form of cut posts. 



Upper Monocacy Valley-. 



A difference in the general view of the region in the vicinity of 

 the National Pike, and the region to the north, near the Western 

 Maryland Railroad, is due to the absence in the former of the 



