1900] BRIEFER ARTICLES 407 
everpresent Euphorbia polygonifolia and small tufts of Andropogon. 
At the inner edge of this shifting sand plain its surface is often ten or 
twelve feet above the old forest floor upon which it is advancing. It 
ends abruptly in a steep slope down which the sand rolls after being 
blown along the surface of the plain. 
From the foot of this slope to the inner or sound side of the bank, 
_ adistance of nearly a mile, the surface is rolling and well covered by 
a thick scrubby forest made up chiefly of Quercus virens, Q. aquatica, 
and Q. nigra, with lex opaca, Morus rubra, Persea Carolinensis, Carpi- 
nus Caroliniana, Juniperus Virginiana, and Pinus Taeda. The highest 
of these trees near the middle of the bank reach a height of twenty- 
five or thirty feet, some of the pines perhaps exceeding this limit in 
the wider parts of the island. 
The shrubby undergrowth between these trees is made up chiefly 
of Myrica Gale, Ilex glabra, Ilex Cassine. The latter is the most 
abundant of all, and near the outer border of the forest often nearly 
equals the trees in height. The number of species in the under- 
gtowth becomes larger as we go in from the advancing sand plain, and 
Soon includes many herbs, the covering of vegetation being very 
dense from the middle of the bank inward. 
The distribution of species within this area is dependent largely 
Upon the level of the surface. Pinus, Juniperus, and Morus occur 
chiefly upon the elevations, while //ex opaca, Carpinus, and Persea, with 
the three species of Quercus noted above, occupy the hollows. These 
tees and the shrubby undergrowth are everywhere overgrown with 
dense tangles of Berchemia volubilis, Vitis rotundifola, Rhus Toxt- 
codendron, A mpelopsis quinguefolia, Smilax Bona-nox, S. tamnoides, and 
ee rotundifolia; often also with Cissus stans, Gonolobus tuberosus, and 
— Melothria pendula. 
_ Where the vegetation is densest, the trunks and branches of the 
_ ttees and shrubs are covered with epiphytes. Polypodium scsi 
forms straggling clumps, usually on Quercus virens, but occasionally 
_ ®n the other oaks or even on the pine, becoming well established 
_ only when the tree is old enough to have a pretty rough bark. Species 
he Frullania, Liochlaena, Lejeunia, and Archilejeunia, form reddish or 
Yellowish patches on the trunks of the trees, or in the case of one or two 
_ *Pecies, the delicate branches creep at the very bottoms of the ae, 
a : STOOves in the rough bark. Lichens, in great variety for so sansa d 
_ 4M area, cover every available surface. On the oaks, pines, an 
