THE VEGETATION OF MONTAUK 53 



typical Downs shrubs as Myrica carolinensis make small patches of "bush," 

 but conditions for invasion by trees, are so much more severe than at the 

 east end, that they present a practically impassable barrier to forest en- 

 croachment on this windward face. 



In attempting to get more direct evidence of the effect of the wind on 

 the growth of the scarlet oak on the windward and leeward sides of the 

 Hither Woods, borings in many trunks were made. The cores so extracted 

 in each case came from trees about twelve inches in diameter. Those 

 taken from trees on the windward side of the woods were all taken in the 

 direction of the wind, to overcome any irregularity, by averaging, that 

 might result from the effects of the wind on eccentricity. 



On the leeward side of the forest the trees average 28.8 mm. diameter 

 growth in the last ten years, as against 18.4 mm. during the same decade 

 on the windward slope. For the ten years previous to this the scarlet oak 

 averaged 43.1 mm. in the lee and only 24.3 mm. where exposed. 



To put the case in another way, it took the trees in the lee and those 

 exposed to the wind very different periods in which to develop similar 

 girths, if, indeed the exposed trunks will ever catch up with their better 

 protected brethren. The accompanying charts (Figs. 18 and 19) show 

 their growth curves and relative rate of growth graphically. 



The Region East of Great Pond 

 ("The Point Woods") 



As we have seen, the wind seems to be the chief factor in checking the 

 spread of woody plants, first in the open Downs, where the patches of bush 

 are at first small and weak, then in the kettleholes, where, if they are not 

 low enough to be within reach of water and at the same time out of reach 

 of the wind, their woody vegetation is sparse; and lastly, along the edge of 

 the Hither Woods where initial attempts of the trees to really capture 

 outlying bare Downs are stopped or retarded by the wind. It might 

 readily be supposed that if there were a place at Montauk where protection 

 from wind was perfect, or at least greater than elsewhere on the Point, 

 this should exhibit quite other types of vegetation than those already 

 described. That there is such a place and that it does have an entirely 

 different aspect from anything else at Montauk will be sufficiently clear 

 from the following. 



From Prospect Hill to the Point there is a long stretch of country which, 

 at least to the south, is more or less in the lee, so far as west and southwest 

 winds are concerned. All along the sea from just east of Ditch Plain to the 



