280 SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
southern part of the state, which must be very similar to the 
" Hempstead loam,” the principal differences brought out in the 
description being that the sand and gravel begin about three feet 
below the surface instead of one, and the ground-water level is 
much nearer the surface, sometimes rising above it in rainy weather 
or when snow is melting rapidly. The soil survey report says 
little or nothing about the vegetation, but in Rhodora (9: 117- 
122) for July, 1907, there is a paper on The flora of the Great 
Swamp of Rhode Island, by E. S. Reynolds, which throws some 
light on the subject. The Great Swamp, which borders Worden’s 
Pond, is immediately south of the “Miami silt loam” areas, and 
Reynolds's list includes quite a number of species which are cer- 
tainly not swamp plants, and may have come from the silt loam 
area, though habitats and localities (and abundance) are not 
indicated. Species previously collected by others in the same 
neighborhood are excluded from his list, and the reader is given 
no intimation of what those might be, except that they are about 
as numerous as those listed. Under the circumstances, therefore, 
it is interesting to find in Reynolds's list the following which are 
characteristic of the upland vegetation of the Hempstead Plains 
(taking them in the same order in which they appear in the 
present paper): Rhus copallina, Baptisia tinctoria, Viola pedata, 
Solidago puberula, Lespedeza capitata, Hypoxis, Bartonia virginica, 
Ibidium (Spiranthes) gracile. And it is reasonably certain that 
among the species collected by others and therefore ignored by 
Reynolds there are other typical Hempstead Plains plants*. The 
similarity of his list to our meadow vegetation is of course much 
closer, as he was ostensibly dealing with swamp plants only. 
The sand-plains of North Haven, Connecticut, described by 
W. E. Britton,f also have many of the same species as our area, 
and Dr. G. E. Nichols has sent me photographs of parts of those 
sand-plains where the herbage was denser than any figured by Dr. 
Britton, and appeared much like that of the Hempstead Plains. 
The sand barrens of southern Staten Island, according to S. H. 
Burnham,t are likewise characterized by some of the same species. 
*For example, Fernald, in Rhodora I9: 58, reports Crocanthemum dumosum 
from South Kingstown 
1 Bull. Torrey Club 30: pie = 23-28. 1903. 
+ Torreya 13: 249-255. Nov.1 
