476 Part IV. Chapter 2. 
consisted, as far as I have been able to determine, of four elements, viz., a 
forest of pitch pine, Pinus rigida, which covered the looser morainic material 
of the great terminal moraine in the eastern and southern parts of the plateau; 
the broad-leaved deciduous forest with its oaks and associated species on the 
eastern slopes and edges of the tableland; the chestnut and black locust forest 
which occupied Laurel Ridge along the western rim of the plateau, and a 
forest of white pine with a thicket of Rhododendron maximum, beneath, mixed 
in many places with the black spruce, the red maple and other plants cha- 
racteristic of the Catskill Mountains and farther north, grading over to a hem- 
lock forest in the region of the Tobyhanna. The open sphagnum bogs cul- 
minate in the presence of the larch, ZLarür americana with which were 
associated Kalmia glauca, Ledum latifolium, Rhododendron Rhodora and other 
northern plants. With the destruction of the white pine, hemlock and pitch 
pine forests, the vegetation of this tableland has undergone an entire change. 
The succession of the species has not been worked out in detail, but what 
has been observed is instructive. The botanist is impressed by the general 
appearance of the landscape. The flora over the eastern half of the plateau 
in aspect resembles that of the pine barren regions of southern New Jersey, 
from which the original pitch pine and Jersey pine have been cut. A study 
of the species shows that this appearance is due to the close similarity of the 
flora in the plant species which constitute the two regions. We have an in- 
structive example of mass invasion of such plants as Ouercus tlicifolia, Pinus 
rigida, Gaylussacia resinosa, Vaccinium vacıllans, Epigaea repens, Gaultheria 
procumbens, Rhododendron viscosum, Kalmia angustifolia, Lilium philadelphicum, 
Amianthum muscaetoxicum, etc., from the morainic hills westward into the 
region occupied by the white pines, while Orontium aquaticum, now thoroughly 
established, may have been introduced by the Indians. We naturally inquire 
from what locality the pitch pine formation has proceeded, and it seems to 
me we are forced to conclude that this association of species has been derived, 
not from the barrens of New Jersey, but from the nearby mountains north- 
west of the Delaware Water Gap which, as previously mentioned, support such 
a flora (See ante page 22ı). 
The entire mountainous country in western Maryland between Savage 
Mountain on the west and Sideling Hill on the east was once a continuous 
forest. The prevailing growth is deciduous, but this is conspicuously mingled 
with patches, and often large areas of conifers which occupy small detached 
hills. In other cases similar hills bear a growth chiefly of conifers on their north 
slopes and a deciduous forest on their south slopes. In ascending for example 
one side of a mountain Fagus americana, Tilia americana may appear at the 
base of the mountain, while above in a second belt occur Ouercus Prinus, 
Pinus pungens, Prunus pennsylvanica. The predominant trees of the country, 
Q. rubra, Castanea americana, Quercus alba, occur on all low hills and middle 
slopes and benches of the high mountains. Ouercus Prinus appears on the 
upper, rocky gravelly slopes and summits of the mountains and hills. Castanea 
