and 52° F. respectively, the average growing season about 200 

 days, and the average annual precipitation about 45 inches. 

 The normal monthly precipitation does not vary enough from 

 one month to another to have any particular ecological signif- 

 icance, apparently. 



Vegetation. — The uplands presumably were originally covered 

 with forests much like the present-day remnants, and the streams 

 were bordered by swamps, passing into meadows near their 

 mouths. About 5 per cent of the original forest, including 

 swamps, still remains, although there are now something like half 

 a million people in the area. The swamps have been destroyed 

 much less than the upland forests, because they are not so de- 

 sirable for agricultural and residential purposes. The salt 

 marshes, covering perhaps twenty square miles, and two or three 

 square miles of dunes, are mostly in their natural condition yet, 

 but are being invaded by houses more and more every year.* 



In the list of plants below, for the sake of brevity, all the dif- 

 ferent natural habitats are combined. At some future time it 

 may be possible or desirable to treat the upland forests, swamps, 

 meadows, marshes and dunes separately, but it will hardly be 

 possible to make satisfactory comparisons between the upland 

 vegetation on different soils in this particular area, on account 

 of the encroachments of civilization. In the list the habitat of 

 each species is indicated as well as it can be done in two or three 

 words, but without attempting any systematic classification of 

 habitats. The upland forests vary from dry woods to rich woods, 

 according to the amount of humus, etc. An intermediate con- 

 dition between upland and swamp may be called low woods. 

 The vegetation of dune hollows is intermediate between that of 

 dunes and salt marshes. 



The list is divided into five structural classes, namely, trees, 

 small trees, woody vines, shrubs, and herbs. Bryophytes and 

 thallophytes, which average much smaller than vascular herbs, 

 are omitted, because of their small size (by reason of which they 



* Although over thirty years has elapsed since the invention of the half-tone 

 process, no published photographs of any natural vegetation (as such) in the area 

 here discussed have come to the writer's notice; but the opportunities are not all 

 gone yet by any means. 



