MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 271 



one in which the proportion of deep soil and humus plants is high, 

 having a large proportion of Beech in those places where moisture 

 conditions are such as to give the best development of both soil and 

 vegetation. In the less favorable conditions, there is a tendency to 

 produce a type of dry forest, typified in the Chestnut and Eock 

 Oak forest, with a border growth of the Bear Oak. The first type 

 is developed on the lower slopes, and bottoms of the many narrow 

 valleys, or broader drainage slopes of the ridges, the latter is formed 

 along the crests and upper portions of the valley sides, where there 

 is but little moisture in the way of issuing springs, or soil water, 

 and where the drying influence of wind and sun reaches its maxi- 

 mum in the case of forest growth. The undergrowth is of a type 

 similar to that in the ridges of the Lower Province, and needs no 

 special mention. The roadsides are bordered with a turf of pas- 

 ture grasses in many places, but in the localities of steep or rocky 

 exposures there is little in the way of wild plants beyond the com- 

 mon country weeds to retain the soil, or to interest the traveller in 

 the wayside vegetation. 



Frederick Valley. — This is perhaps better called the Monocacy 

 Valley; it includes the broad area of gentle ridges and shallow de- 

 pressions between the elevation of Parrs Kidge on the east, and that 

 of Catoctin Mountain on the west. It contains in the way of soil 

 characters, a wider variety than the preceding section, but on ac- 

 count of the extensive cultivation the region receives, it is less avail- 

 able for botanical study than the more wooded parts. Where there 

 is forest cover present it is usually composed of nearly the same type 

 of growth as before, but there is a larger quantity of Laurel in the 

 undergrowth, and in the more moist places more of the Ash in the 

 forest. 



The value of the land for agricultural uses has made the clearing 

 of it extensive, and there are not many areas of considerable size 

 except in steep and inaccessible places, where the forest remains. 

 The best areas of woodland are in the upper portion of the Valley, 

 and here the composition is hardly different from that of the Parrs 

 Ridge area. The roadside vegetation is almost a constant turf, 

 largely of blue-grass, escaped from the adjacent agricultural land, 



