34 



The flora of the pine-barrens of Long Island has received Httle 

 attention from botanists, chiefly because it consists of compara- 

 tively few and widely distributed species. A list of 46 Long 

 Island pine-barren plants was published by Dr. Britton in 1880, 

 and copied by at least three subsequent writers, but even yet the 

 aspects of the vegetation have scarcely been described, or any 

 photographs of it published in botanical literature. 



The pine-barrens are confined chiefly to the southern half of 

 Suffolk County, and are very well developed in the uninhabited 

 portions of the towns of Babylon and Islip. The area covered 

 by them is very flat, with a soil of coarse sandy loam. The vege- 

 tation is of two types, that of the dry pine-barrens and that of 

 the swamps, the former being by far the most extensive. In the 

 dry pine-barrens the trees are nearly all Pinus rigida, and there 

 is a dense undergrowth consisting mostly of Qiiercus ilicifolia 

 and Q. prinoides, two to six feet tall. The commonest herbs are 

 Pteridmm aqitiliniim, lonactis, Cracca, Baptisia, Dasystoina, etc. 

 The effects of fire are everywhere visible. 



In the swamps the flora is somewhat richer than in the dry 

 pine-barrens. Acer rubrtim, Nyssa, Clethra,Alnus, Myrica, Ilex, 

 Osmunda, and Dulichmni are characteristic. Ericaceae and allied 

 families are well represented. 



Nearly all the species in these pine-barrens are quite widely 

 distributed in the glaciated region, or on the coastal plain, or 

 both. Many also occur in the mountains, from New Jersey to 

 Georgia, The vegetation is very similar to that of some parts of 

 the pine-barrens of New Jersey, from all accounts, but the flora 

 is considerably less diversified. 



The paper was illustrated by photographs, and will be pub- 

 lished in the January (1908) number of Tojn'cya. 



The club adjourned at 10 o'clock. 



Charles Louis Pollard, 



Secretary pro tevi. 



January 14, 1908 



The first stated meeting for 1908 was held at the American 

 Museum of Natural History at 8:15 p. m. Vice-President 



