soil : Hainamelis virginiana L., Vibiirmun dentaium L., ]^. accri- 

 foliuni L., Lencotlioe raceinosa (L.) A. Gray, and Celastrus scandcns 

 L. In both types, the wet and the dry, the third layer also includes 

 specimens of the dominant and secondary forest trees which have 

 reached the level of the shrubs in their upward growth beneath 

 the prevailing crown of the deciduous trees. This natural repro- 

 duction of the forest by the trees which form the facies indicates 

 that the permanent and established succession of the natural high- 

 land woods is that which we have termed the chestnut-oak suc- 

 cession, or climax forest. If the natural conditions are preserved 

 by the establishment of a state forest on these picturesque hills 

 of the Navesink Highlands, there is every reason to believe that 

 the climax forest will perpetuate itself. 



The fourth layer consists of the low shrubs which fill up the 

 ground space beneath the taller shrubs. The low shrubs of 

 these dry woods are Gayhissacia frondosa (L.) T. & G., G. 

 resinosa, Vaccinmm pennsylvanicitin Lam., Comptonia peregrina 

 (L.) Coult., and Myrica Caroline iisis Mill. These are propagated 

 largely by underground parts, so that they form extensive clumps 

 (families of Clements) to the exclusion of all other plants. In the 

 pine barrens of New Jersey these species also occur, except 

 Myrica carolinensis which becomes there edaphically suited to 

 the moist soil of cedar swamp margins. We are hardly in a. 

 position to say that these low shrubs have entered the dry 

 deciduous woods from a pine barren source of supply, but they 

 occur in the pine barrens and in the dry chestnut-oak woods, 

 because they can thrive in a dry soil. Similarity of edaphic con- 

 ditions here as elsewhere encourages the same kind of vegetation. 



The herbaceous or fifth layer which sometimes replaces the 

 fourth layer, as it is in turn by a close growth of the low shrubs 

 prevents the growth of woodland herbs, consists of such species 

 as Ptcridiinn aqiiiliinnn (L.) Kuhn, Aralia nudicaulis L., Melavi- 

 pyruiii lineare Lam., Sericocarpus asteroides (L.j B. S. P., Vagnera 

 raceinosa (L.) Morong, Prunella vidgaris L. (introduced), and 

 AnapJialis niargaritacea (L.) Benth & Hook. In midsummer the 

 total lack of bright color due to summer flowers is noteworthy 

 in describing the vegetation in general at that season of the year. 



