260 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
It contains, however, a larger amount of nutritive matter than 
other fruits, and is excellent for pies and puddings.* 
The beach-plum (Prunus maritima) grows in sea-sand, close 
to the ocean, and in the driest, most inhospitable places, and at 
the same time bears a large crop of plums, which are excellent 
in flavor. It is only a shrub, but well worth planting in sandy 
regions. In addition to the above fruits there are many others 
of more or less importance for food, flavors and wines. 
The floor of a cedar swamp is usually covered with a mass of 
sphagnum-moss. ‘This is collected, baled in hay presses, and 
sold to nurserymen for packing purposes. This material is 
remarkable for its ability to retain moisture and is extensively 
used in the shipment of plants. 
Large quantities of holly, mistletoe, cedar, etc., are sold in 
the cities. Many thousands of the most beautiful and sym- 
metrical young conifers are sacrificed annually for Christmas 
trees. If the trees were raised for this purpose it would be a 
legitimate business, but the Christmas-tree gatherer, in order to 
secure extra fine specimens, cuts the tops out of large-sized red- 
cedar trees, just as fishermen peel the inner bark from the butts 
of the white-cedar for fish-strings. 
Many flowers, especially those of' Magnolia glauca, are col- 
lected in large quantities and sold. 
The cultivation of the willow for basket work is in its infancy 
in New Jersey. ‘The wood of the white-oak (Q. alba), when 
split into thin slivers, is an excellent basket material.t These 
baskets are strong and durable. The common American market- 
basket is not woven. It is extremely cheap and simple, and 
goes with the contents. 
There are many plants of more or less value medicinally. 
Perhaps the most important, which is common throughout the 
* The persimmon grows luxuriantly in the old fields of South Jersey, where animals have carried the 
seeds. It is possible to bud or graft these trees with choice varieties of the persi , which produce, 
when in the proper stage of ripeness, a very delicious and salable fruit. 
{The basket-tree of the South, however, is Quercus michauxii, the basket or swamp-white-oak, 
‘This tree is very closely related to Quercus platanoides, if not a southern form of the same. It grows 
in the swamps of South Jersey, but is not abundant. It is one of the most magnificent trees of the oak 
family. A few years ago it was plentiful on rich southern swamp bottoms. Its wood is of very fine 
quality for constructive purposes, and possesses a peculiarity which especially fits it for basketry. Each 
annual ring may be easily separated in the form of a thin flexible strip of great pliability and strength. 
The thousands of baskets used in the cotton fields of the South were woven from ribbons of this wood. 
This, together with the facts that it requires rich land, and does not reproduce itself freely, is about to 
cause its extermination. 
