THE VEGETATION OF THE BAY OF FUNDY SALT 
AND DIKED MARSHES: AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ECOLOGICAL PLANT-GEOGRAPHY 
OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK, NO. 3. 
W. F. GANONG. 
(Continued from p. 186.) 
Soil—Of great importance as an ecological factor is the 
composition of the soil, physical and chemical. Contrary to 
the popular belief, the former is at least as important as the 
latter. 
In its physical composition the marsh soil is remarkably 
homogeneous. Samples taken from the most diverse situations, 
from the newest layers brought in by the tides, from old long- 
cropped marsh, from dredgings deep beneath the bogs, are all 
so alike as to be indistinguishable except for a variation from 
red to blue in color, and, probably, a somewhat coarser texture 
of the soil along the banks of the rivers. It is very important 
to remember, also, that the soil is very deep, even to eighty feet, 
though usually much less than this. A combination of so homo- 
geneous with so deep a soil must be rare. 
In its general characters the dry marsh soil is light brownish 
red in color, and extremely fine grained in texture. So fine 
grained is it that only rarely are the individual grains visible 
to the naked eye. It has no appearance of humus but rather 
somewhat suggests clay. When the newly deposited layers are 
exposed to the sun, they harden enough to require a sharp blow 
to break them, and crack into polygonal areas, concave upward, 
from a few inches up to two or three feet in diameter, the cracks 
often being several inches deep and an inch across. When pro- 
tected from the direct sun, as on the reclaimed marsh, the caking 
and cracking is much less marked. When again wetted, how- 
ever, the hard layers melt away into their former state. It 
sometimes happens on newly plowed ground that a heavy rain 
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