Vol. 7 No. 4 



TORREYA 



April, 1907 



LOCALIZATION OF PLANTS IN THE FINGER LAKE 

 REGION AND THE ADJACENT ONTARIO 



LOWLANDS OF CENTRAL LIBRAR' 



NEW YORK* 



NEW YCt 

 BOTANIC. 



By W. W, Row lee aAKDE^ 



Central New York consists in general of two physiographic 

 districts, the western plateau to the southward and the Lake On- 

 tario lowlands to the northward. The former is an elevated 

 country traversed by valleys most often but not always trending 

 north and south, the latter an undulating plain. The prevailing 

 soil is clay in the hills, and sandy or gravelly loam in the low- 

 lands. The lakes of the two regions also differ in their general 

 character. Those of the hill region are long and narrow and 

 deep and enclosed by abrupt hills ; those of the lowlands are 

 shallow, often contain islands and shallow bars, and have low 

 shores. The lake system of this region has often been desig- 

 nated the Finger Lake region, with Oneida Lake as the " thumb." 

 Oneida and Onondaga lakes of the lowlands, however, differ 

 from those of the uplands, not only in elevation, mode of forma- 

 tion, and shore characters, but also in the flora they support. 

 They are, in reality, pools left behind when the Greater Lake 

 Ontario subsided to its present limits. Their shores are not ab- 

 rupt, nor do they rise to any considerable elevation. Oneida 

 Lake has several islands that are wooded', the most noted being 

 Frenchman's Island, toward its western end. It has also what 

 the fishermen call " Blind Islands," islands that appear above 

 the surface when the water is low but are submerged at high 



!«»., water. The lake, moreover, is full of stony and sandy bars, 



^ . 



^Q * Contribution no. 121 from the Botanical Departnnent of Cornell University. 

 1^^ [No. 3, Vol. 7, of ToRREYA, Comprising pages 49-68, was issued March 19, 

 1— ('907-] 



az 69 



