FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 



19 



THE VEGETATION OF THE HACKENSACK marsh: A TYPICAL AMERICAN FEN 



Panicum capillare L. (Old-witch Grass). 



Common on sandy ground and gravelly embankments. 

 Panicum clandestinum L. 



On Snake Hill and adjacent fields. 

 Panicum dichotomiflorum Michx. 



Common on railroad embankments and dry parts of the marshes. 

 Panicum huachucae Ash. 



Open fields on Snake Hill, 

 Panicum virgatum L. (Switch Grass). 



Common along Sawmill Creek and other dry parts of the true salt 

 marshes. 

 Phragmites communis Trin. (Figs. 5, 6). 



This is perhaps the most common plant on the marshes. It grows 

 everywhere, in both brackish and fresh parts, spreading freely by long 

 creeping root-stocks and attaining a height of 10 feet. The ribbon-shaped 

 green leaves of this plant give the marsh its light greenish hue of mid- 

 summer. 

 Setaria glauca (L.) Beauv. (Foxtail Grass). 



Open ground in the less brackish parts of the marsh. 

 Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash (Indian Grass). 



Dry gravelly banks of Little Snake Hill. 

 Spartina cynosuroides (L.) Roth, (Salt Reed Grass) (Fig. 10). 



This quite common species grows on the higher parts of the marsh 

 well back from the river. 

 Spartina glabra var. pilosa Merr. (Salt-marsh Grass) . 



Along the Hackensack River, from Sawmill Creek southward. 

 Spartina patens (Ait) Muhl. 



Occurs on the salt-marsh fiats in great abundance, usually well back 

 from the river. 

 Spartina patens var. juncea (Michx) Hitchc. 



In brackish habitats and farther inland from the river than the species. 

 Zizania palustris L. (Indian Rice, Water Oats). 



Mostly occurs along ditch borders in the northeastern corner of the 

 valley. A gigantic grass with great stout culms and tall panicles, some- 

 times exceeding 10 feet. The natives call it "Bobolink Seed," because 

 of the fondness of these birds for the grain, 



Cyperaceae 

 Cyperus filiculmis Vahl. 



Dry sterile soil on Snake Hill, 

 Cyperus Nuttallii Eddy. 



Common in brackish soil. 



