416 Part IV. Chapter 2 
be described in sequence with the others, although it is misplaced, zonally 
speaking. 
On mile below the town of Sea Side Park the beach thicket covers a con- 
siderable area, many acres in extent and quite impenetrable in some places. 
It is fronted by a strip of juniper trees which are wind-tossed and gnarled by 
their long struggle with the elements. 
Juniper Strip. The vanguard consists of cedars, which never rise above 
the dunes of the dune complex upon which they grow. Young trees in the 
dune hollows are spire-shaped, but upon reaching the general level of the 
dune summit they become flat-topped, incline in the direction opposite to the 
prevailing wind, and become gnarled and weather-beaten. The cedars of 
the zone proper form an almost pure growth in front of the main thicket, 
grow much larger and seem to be more independent of their surroundings. 
The Juniper Strip clearly defined, is not met with a South Atlantic City, 
Ocean City or Wildwood, and is apparentiy absent from those places. 
Strip of Mixed Vegetation. This at one mile below the town of 
Sea Side Park is a veritable jungle, composed of trees, shrubs and lianes, 
broken there by dry or swampy open glades. The thicket is impenetrable 
in a number of places owing to the thick growth, and to Smilax rotundıfolia, 
covered with spines, and Ampelopsis quinguefolia, which together grow as clim- 
bing vines, looping themselves from limb to limb and from tree to tree. The 
most notable species entering into the formation are Juniperus virgimana 
(see fig. 24), Nex opaca, Iva frutescens along the margins, Quercus alicifolta, 
Rosa carolina, Pinus rigida, Rhus copallina, and the climbing form of Rhus 
radıcans. 
The mesophytic thicket at South Sea Side Park occupies from what has gone before the hollows 
or rounded depressions in the dune complex, and in its simplest make-up consists of the A 
associations of species: One thicket examined consists of Pinus rigida, Sassafras, Vaccinium corym 
bosum, Juniperus virginiana, Chamaecyparis thyoides (= C. sphaeroidea) and Myrica carolinensis. 
Another hollow contains Ilex opaca, Juniperus virginiana, Prunus maritima while, as an undergrowth, 
associated together, are Rhus radicans and Solidago sempervirens. Either before the final condition 
is reached, or after such thickets have been formed, the original condition of the dune complex 
y be restored by the drifting in of sand into the depression, resulting in a destruction of the 
ee plant associations. Such vicissitudes in the life history of plant associations are 
. , 
it are captured by sand-binding plants, such as ophila arenaria, but especially Hudsonia 
Amm e 
tomentosa, which forms heaths about the depression, ee preventing the transport of me 
sand and its deposition in the basin-shaped valleys adjoinin 
The thicket at South Atlantic City covers the high insular dune and 
the hollows and minor dunes behind it. The crest of the dune is pro- 
bably 30 or 35 feet above the level of the salt marsh, and the hollow be- 
hind it is correspondingly depressed. The trees reach a large size, but when 
they reach the height of the dune summit become flat-topped and wind-swept. 
The ground of the valley is open, almost entirely destitute of smaller growth, 
except the smaller trees, and the bracken, Pieris (Pteridium) agquilına. 
