MARYLAND WEATHER SERVICE 2il 



been told that there was little difference between the virgin forest of 

 the slopes and ridges of the larger mountains. This may have been 

 true of the extreme ridges when compared with the upper slopes, but 

 cannot have been true of the ridges and the middle and lower slopes. 



Over the gently rolling plateau which extends north-easterly and 

 south-westerly from Oakland and over the more level portions of the 

 north-western corner of Garrett County there are two types of forest 

 which are not greatly different as respects their tree species but 

 which are unlike in their herbaceous floras, the types which respec- 

 tiv.lv occupy the Loams and the Sands. Neither of these is known 

 to the writer in the virgin state, indeed they occupy the areas which 

 have been most thoroughly lumbered and most encroached upon by 

 the clearing of farming lands. The loam forest is deciduous, being 

 chiefly made up of White Oak and Black Oak. The forest of the 

 Sands is made up of White Oak, other oaks and a considerable per- 

 centage of Pitch Pine, and is found overlying the sandstones of the 

 Allegheny, Conemaugh, and Pottsville formations. 



On the steep lower slopes of mountains where the soil is thin or 

 occurs only in pockets in the rocks, and also along the rocky banks 

 of rivers is found a coniferous type of forest in which the Hemlock 

 is the predominant tree. In some localities these Rocky Slopes and 

 the soil-covered Slopes merge into each other, giving a mixed decidu- 

 ous and coniferous forest, as at several localities along the Castleman 

 River. 



In the deep soils of the bottoms of broad valleys and on flood- 

 plains there were formerly pure stands of White Pine, occupying 

 situations which are locally known as "'Glades." One of these forests 

 situated about half way between Frostburg and Grantsville was 

 traversed by the Xational Road and was known to the early settlers, 

 by reason of the dense shade, as "The Shades of Death.*' Although 

 no pure stands of virgin White Pine are left, the writer has seen a 

 small tract of White Pine and Black Spruce in which the herbaceous 

 and other subordinate vegetation was identical with that on the 

 Rocky Slopes. 



In the mountain Swamps there is a coniferous type of forest made 

 up chiefly of Black Spruce, with some Hemlock and, in two locali- 

 ties, the Tamarack as well. There was formerly an extensive area 



