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loos&ly, and need to be given greater precision. For instance 

 such familiar expressions, as thicket, copse, glade, swale, grove, 

 meadow, pine-barren, marsh, swamp, pond, sand-plain, and rich 

 woods have never been adequately defined in terms of physiog- 

 raphy, soil, and vegetation. 



Photographs of vegetation are even scarcer than descriptions. 

 Those for Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey which have 

 hitherto appeared in botanical literature can almost be counted 

 on the fingers, while some of the newer and more thinly settled 

 states, such as North Carolina, Florida, Michigan, and Illinois, 

 can make a much better showing in this respect. If members of 

 the Club who possess the necessary apparatus would preserve 

 records of the aspects of some of the natural habitats in this 

 vicinity which are fast disappearing they would render a service 

 of inestimable value to science. 



As examples of natural vegetation within easy reach, the dunes 

 and marshes of our coast are still in very nearly the same condi- 

 tion as they were a thousand years ago, and they offer a fertile 

 field for study. We have as yet practically no description of any 

 strand vegetation between Sandy Hook and the Bay of Fundy. 

 The Palisades, which are almost in a class by themselves, have 

 been greatly neglected by botanists. The largest natural body 

 of fresh water and the highest hill on Long Island seem never 

 to have been mentioned in botanical literature at all. The pine- 

 barrens of Long Island and New Jersey have been damaged 

 somewhat, but their original condition can be reconstructed fairly 

 accurately. But all these places are being encroached on more 

 and more every year, and they should be investigated without 

 delay. 



Turning to problems on a smaller scale, and perhaps more 

 easily comprehended by beginners, it might be remarked that 

 there is probably not one native species in North America whose 

 average flowering period for any given locality has been deter- 

 mined within a week, and there are thousands of which we do 

 not even know exactly the months in which their average periods 

 begin and end. For most habitats we have only the vaguest 

 idea of what proportion of the species are likely to be found in 



