THE VEGETATION OF MONTAUK 55 



long thought to be endemic at Montauk is most common. Viburnum 

 venosum, a rare shrub, is also found here in the thickets and is by no means 

 scarce. In these woods too are found the common columbine, Aqutlegia 

 canadensis, so common in the rocky places in the region north of New York, 

 but on Long Island exceedingly rare at a few other places on the north 

 shore. 



Within this region too is the finest growth of the Mountain Laurel 

 known to occur on Long Island. Plants up to 20 feet, with stems three 

 inches in diameter are to be found by diligent search, an exact locality for 

 which prudence would not advocate divulging. 



Perhaps the culmination of what the vegetation of Montauk will do, 

 if partly protected from the wind and given adequate water supply, is to 

 be found near the center of these woods. Here one may find as nearly 

 typical a Beech-Maple climax forest as can be found anywhere else on 

 eastern Long Island, except at Gardiner's Island. Neither at Montauk, 

 nor, elsewhere on Long Island, is there a true representative of the Beech- 

 Birch-Maple forest type, so common over great areas northward. 



None of the trees is over forty feet tall, however. Mixed with the beech 

 and Acer rubrum are scattered Nyssa, Quercus rubra, Quercus alba, Hicoria 

 glabra. Ilex opaca, and Hamamelis virginiana; the last two the largest of 

 any specimens seen on Long Island, nearly thirty-five feet high. The 

 Witch-hazel here has a maximum girth of twenty-one inches. 



Through these trees meanders a sluggish stream flowing towards the 

 north, its shaded waters crammed with Vallisneria spiralis intermixed with 

 Fontinalis Novae-angliae. Along the shallowest of its banks are zones of 

 Arisaema triphyllum or Spathyema foetida, among which, or on somewhat 

 higher sites are masses of Viola pallens, Viola cucullata, and Thahctrum 

 revolutum. Other herbs scattered through the lowest part of these woods 

 are Osmunda cinnamcmea and Athyrium Filix-foemin'a, which are rare, and 

 Vagnera racemosa. Somewhat above this lowest level, there is a zone of 

 herbaceous vegetation almost completely dominated by Anemone qutnque- 

 folia and, scarcely less so by Trientalis borealis. Almost no shrubs are 

 found at this point, only Benzoin and Sambucus canadensis, surviving the 

 dense shade of these woods. 



All along the north side of these woods the region is very nearly typical 

 Downs, such as that described earlier in this account. One difference, 

 however, is that in this region near the Point there is so much low land and 

 the substratum is sufficiently acid, that cranberries are more plentiful than 

 in almost any other part of Long Island. This has been true for over a 

 hundred years as the following, from the town records of Easthampton of 



