TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 



12 



THE VEGETATION OF THE HACKENSACK MARSH: A TYPICAL AMERICAN FEN 



face of the saw-grass marsh (saw-grass fen). The Everglades, covering an 

 area of 4000 square miles, or 2,560,000 acres, is the largest fresh-water marsh 

 (fen) in North America, lacking the typical fen plants of other parts of the 

 world, but making up in physiognomic aspect for the absence of such plants 

 as Phragmites communis, Typha latifolia, and other plants by the presence of 

 other grasses and sedges of similar botanic aspect. 



HACKENSACK MARSH 



The traveler between Philadelphia and New York, and the New York 

 commuter who lives in New Jersey, see a great stretch of green flatland, with 

 here and there the top of a fisherman's cabin, or the black mast of a catboat 

 above the cattails and reed grasses over seven feet tall. Great factories are 

 ever reaching on these marshes from all sides, and railroads cut them up into 

 smaller and smaller areas of undisturbed vegetation. From a distance there 

 is no trace nor sign of the many little hammocks that are found in the marsh, 

 nor of the tidal creeks and estuaries which run in many directions. All that 

 is noticeable in this general view is the unbroken verdure of the tall, reed-like 

 plants, continually billowed by the passing breeze (Fig. 5). 



The vegetation of the Hackensack fe;i may be divided into three forma- 

 tions, viz., the salt-marsh formation, the fresh-water marsh (fen) formation 

 (Figs. 4, 5), and the marsh thicket (carr) formation (Figs. 7, 13). A bog 

 formation (not studied) probably exists in the northern part of the region. 

 Its investigation would probably give interesting details as to the succession 

 of vegetation in the marshes. 



These associations are well characterized, and their geographic location 

 depends on the location of the marsh with reference to salt water, the highland 

 on three sides of the marshy region, and on the direction of the fresh-water 

 streams which run across the lowlands. 



Salt Marsh Formation. — TJie natural undisturbed surface of the salt 

 marsh of the Hackensack Meadow is fairly uniform in character. It is 

 found at the mouths of the creeks and rivers which intersect the region, 

 and around the margins of the lagoons and estuaries, forming extensions land- 

 ward of Newark Bay. The influence of salt water is felt some distance above 

 Newark Bay, and the tidal channels permit the entrance of sea water, so that 



