﻿BOTANICAL GAZETTE 



physics, chemistry, and bacteriology of soils outside of cultivated 

 lands, and of the response of plants to their environment, is yet in a 

 very rudimentary stage. Hitherto the tendency has been to con- 

 sider one or two factors as an integration of many others, and to 

 measure quantitatively only these two. For example, evaporation 

 has been measured as an integration of all climatic factors, and 

 soil moisture as an integration of all soil factors. It would not be 

 surprising, therefore, if future progress should reveal some impor- 

 tant factor which had been unavoidably overlooked. In view 

 of the present uncertainty concerning the relation between pine 

 and oak, the following notes on the pine and oak of Long Island 

 may be of interest. They are based only on observation, without 

 quantitative measurements, and lay no claims to definite conclu- 



The locality in which these observations were made is that part 

 of the outwash plain about four miles east of Hempstead and four 

 miles south of Hicksville. Here are found a number of different 

 kinds of forests: a small body of pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.), 

 practically untouched except for the usual fires, stands of mixed 

 oak and pine, an oak forest, and more stands of pine. On this 

 small area of not over 80 acres are exhibited more interesting 

 problems than it has ever been the writer's good fortune to see on 

 an area of the same size. 



The first piece of forest which attracts attention is the body of 

 pitch pine in its natural condition except for fires. The stand is 

 composed of pure, even-aged pine, much damaged by fire. The 

 trees, though about mature, as indicated by the flattening crowns, 

 are only about 12 inches in diameter at breast height, by about 30 

 feet high. The understory is predominantly scrub oak (Quercus 

 nana Sarg.), which is dense where the pine is open, diminishing 

 where the canopy is more complete. In the scrub oak is a scattering 

 of white oak (Q. alba Linn.), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea Moench.), black 

 oak (Q. velutina Lam.), and post oak (Q. minor [Marsh.] Sargent). 

 These oaks do not reach up into the main canopy and are short 

 and limby. There was no pine reproduction, probably on account 

 of the fires; fire-killed pine seedlings were found, and it is likely 

 that many more had been entirely consumed. 



