PI^ANTS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY. 67 



in winter, the pyxie, trailing arbutus, hudsonia, laurel, tephrosia 

 and leiophyllum were so abundant that the whole place must 

 have been like a garden in the spring. * * * After leaving 

 the plains, the old road wound now through dry sandy pine 

 woods, bare of conspicuous flowers, save, perhaps, for the ever 

 present Melampyrum lineare and the yellow banners of Baptisia 

 tinctoria — now through damp swamp lands, where we had as 

 roadside companions the thread leaved sundew's purple flowers, 

 the orange heads of Poly gala lutea, the magenta blossoms of the 

 grass pink and the snake-mouth pogonia. * * *" 



Two years later the writer, accompanied by Messrs. H. L,. 

 Coggins and J. A. G. Rehn, crossed from Medford to the plains 

 and back, June 17-22. 



In Mr. Coggins' account* of the trip, which deals with orni- 

 thology rather than botany, occurs the following admirable pic- 

 ture of the plains : "A singular region, hot, level and dry. We 

 wade into the scrub scarce able to believe that it is over the top 

 of a dwarf forest that we are gazing for miles. Its barrenness, 

 except for the stunted vegetation, recalls vividly to mind long 

 forgotten descriptions of desert regions. The heat rising from 

 the parched ground gives a blur of uncertainty to distant out- 

 lines, and we close our eyes involuntarily before the glare of the 

 sun on the exposed gravel areas. Chewinks and brown thrashers 

 scuffle listless in the dry soil. A mere speck in the sky, a turkey 

 vulture, circles lazily for a time then drops from view beyond 

 the horizon. A little tree lizard at our step scurries across a. 

 gravel patch and disappears under the dry leaves. The only 

 other sound of life is the weary vibrant trill of the prairie 

 warbler, which rises on the hot air like a supplication for life." 



Trips through the pines, even with the certainty of much 

 botanical reward, have drawbacks which are liable to make one 

 hesitate, as Mr. Saunders truly says: "The sands are heavy, 

 the flies and ticks and mosquitos are numerous, the heat is ex- 

 cessive, springs are few and far between and forest fires are apt 

 to be at their devastating work." At the same time thoughts of 

 the pungent odor of the pines, the cool shade of the cedar swamp. 



* Cassinia, ig02, p. 26. 



