TORREYA 



January, 1908 

 Vol. 8. No. I. 



THE PINE-BARRENS OF BABYLON AND ISLIP, ^^^^^ 

 LONG ISLAND NEW Y 



BOT/» 



By Roland M. Harper GAR^ 



To the botanist who regards a habitat merely as a place where 

 certain species of plants may be found, the pine-barrens to be 

 described below possess few attractions, for their flora is not very 

 rich, and nearly all the species are pretty widely distributed and 

 well known. But to the phytogeographer every habitat that has 

 not been too much disfigured by civilization is of interest, whether 

 its plants are few or many, common or rare ; so no apology is 

 necessary for publishing the following notes. 



The pine-barrens of Long Island are very easy of access, but 

 they seem never to have been adequately described, chiefly for 

 the reason given above. Brief references to them occur in some 

 old historical works, such as B. F. Thompson's History of Long 

 Island (1839), on page 16 of which is the following statement: 

 " There is another extensive tract lying eastward from the 

 Hempstead plains, and reaching to the head of Peconic Bay, 

 composed so entirely of sand as to seem in a great measure 

 incapable of profitable cultivation by any process at present 

 known." 



The first distinct pubhshed list of Long Island pine-barren 

 plants seems to be that of Dr. N. L. Britton (Bull. Torrey Club 

 7: 82. 1880), who selected from Miller & Young's flora of 

 Suffolk County, N. Y. (published in 1874) 46 species which he 

 had found in New Jersey and on Staten Island to be confined to 

 55 the coastal plain, or nearly so. Essentially the same list was 

 p^ copied by Dr. Arthur Hollick in 1893 (Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 



CO 



[No. 12, Vol. 7, of ToRREYA, comprising pages 225-258, was issued January 

 16, 1908.] 



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