HARPER: VEGETATION OF THE HEMPSTEAD PLAINS 285 
links, but only one Meadow Brook. (The name East Meadow 
Brook does not necessarily imply that there were two, but was 
probably applied originally simply to designate the brook flowing 
through the East Meadow: i. e., east of Hempstead.) 
During the Spanish-American war in 1898 some of our soldiers 
were encamped on the Plains near Mineola (Camp Black), and 
in 1917 a much larger encampment (Camp Mills) was located east 
of Garden City and Hempstead, causing the trampling down or 
otherwise injuring of about a square mile of vegetation, which 
will probably never fully recover.* 
When the aéroplane became an accomplished fact, in 1909, the 
Hempstead Plains was very soon selected as an ideal place to 
experiment with the new means of locomotion, on account of the 
large flat area comparatively free from obstructions, and its 
proximity to our largest city. The necessary buildings and regular 
alighting places have encroached on the prairie a little near 
Mineola, but otherwise this industry has done little damage; 
and it probably deserves the good wishes of botanists, for it is 
decidedly to the interest of the aviators that no more of the Plains 
should be cultivated or built upon. There was indeed once a little 
complaint from them that the surface was a little too rough (from 
the tufts of grass, no doubt), and should be smoothed, but they 
have apparently become гесопсйед to that. 
Let us hope that the State or the federal government or some 
public-spirited organization will soon take steps to preserve the 
rest of this unique and easily accessible prairie permanently from 
further encroachments, for the benefit of aviators, even if the 
interests of plant sociologists and other nature-lovers are not con- 
sidered at all in these days of commercialism. But if it comes to 
the worst the southeastern corner of the Plains, which is remotest 
from settlements, will probably have some of its natural vegeta- 
tion still in condition for study two or three generations hence, 
and some important ecological principles may yet be discovered 
there. 
* A news item sent from Camp Mills to the daily papers on Oct. 21, 1917, men- 
tioned the menacing of the camp by a prairie fire; something that some of the western 
soldiers may have been familiar with, but could hardly have expected to see so 
near the metropolis. 
