HARPER: VEGETATION OF THE HEMPSTEAD PLAINS 283 
their southern limits in the northern edge of Florida, as do some 
of the other plants under consideration. 
Among the most widely distributed members of the upland 
vegetation, besides the two oaks just mentioned, are Rhus copal- 
lina, Andropogon scoparius, Cracca virginiana, Aletris farinosa, 
Viola pedata, Sorghastrum nulans, Hypoxis hirsuta, Carex penn- 
sylvanica, Polygala polygama, Andropogon furcatus, and Antennaria 
plantaginifolia; while some of the most local are Aster dumosus 
strictior, Crocanthemum dumosum, Agalinis acuta, Juncus Greenei, 
and Linum intercursum. (These last are all reported also from Nan- 
tucket Island.) The species which are probably more abundant 
here than in any other equal area in the world, in addition to the 
five last named, are Pieris Mariana, Quercus prinoides, Andro- 
pogon scoparius, Ionactis, Baptisia tinctoria, Viola pedata, Anten- 
naria neglecta, Lespedeza capitata sericea, Scleria pauciflora, Serico- 
carpus linifolius, Lespedeza angustifolia, and Eupatorium hyssopi- 
folium.* 
The meadow plants are more widely distributed, on the whole, 
than those of the uplands, most of them ranging from Canada to 
Georgia at least. 
DESTRUCTIVE INFLUENCES 
Finally the influences tending to destroy the prairie vegetation 
may be reviewed briefly. When the neighborhood was first 
settled, in the seventeenth century, it was soon discovered that 
the Hempstead Plains was not very well adapted to agriculture, 
and for a century or two the greater part of it was treated as 
public property or free pasture, much as unfenced land in the 
more thinly settled states is today. Grazing has continued in a 
small way down to the present time, but the area has probably 
never been overgrazed sufficiently to weaken the native vegetation 
and allow weeds to enter, except in enclosures near dwellings. 
The absence of trees and rocks and hills made cultivation 
very easy, however, so that some farms were established on the 
Plains at an early date in spite of the povery of the soil (which 
could be counteracted to some extent with manure, etc.), to supply 
* Future species-splitting may require modification of some of the statements 
in this paragraph, but apart from that they can hardly be challenged until the 
vegetation of a number of other areas is studied quantitatively. 
