THE VEGETATION OF MONTAUK 23 



the lee, square rods in extent. To what chance of nature, or freak of the 

 wind, to possible fires, or to the idle grazing of cattle, the origin of these 

 tiny patches of bushes is to be attributed, no one can say. It is certainly 

 true that they are more frequent and larger toward the bottoms of the 

 kettleholes into which the Downs vegetation frequently penetrates, and 

 in the lee. Their striking dark green foliage, against the purple and tan 

 of the grassland, is obvious for a mile or two. 



Before considering what role these patches of "bush" can play in the 

 vegetation scheme of Montauk, let us record the species that make up these 

 little islands of thicket in an ocean of grassland. Almost without ex- 

 ception, the major portion of these islands is made up of the Bayberry 

 (Myrica carolinensis) , very often associated with which will be Rosa Carolina, 

 and perhaps the whole mass bound together with Rubus procumbens (which 

 often scrambles out into the grassland), or Smilax glauca. It is not without 

 interest that both these binders make prickly forage, and that in nearly every 

 one of hundreds of such patches of "bush" that were examined, one or 

 both of these vines was to be found. Both the Rose and the Bayberry, 

 under normal circumstances, would be several feet tall, here they are rarely 

 more than a foot. There are scores of places where the wind keeps these 

 flattened down so that while the patch of bushes may be many feet across, 

 the shrubs will be only six inches high. Sometimes, but not very often, a 

 slight undulation, a fortuitous boulder, with which the Point is strewn, or 

 an effective lee will invite greater growth of these bushes. Such accidents 

 seem always to be utilized to the full, and where they are operative enough, 

 a species of Shad Bush (Amelanchier intermedia) will often get a foothold. 



From this stage in the development of a patch, which may start with a 

 single sprig of Bayberry, and end with a forlorn and stunted tree in the 

 center of it, no one knows how long a time may have elapsed. Certainly 

 in some of these patches such gnarled and stunted trees are to be found. 

 They are never much over four feet tall, towards the tops of the Downs, 

 and in many of the patches destroyed utterly by the wreaking of the wind. 

 But the fact remains, that occasional trees do start in such patches, and 

 that they certainly start nowhere else on the open Downs. The process 

 is infinitely slow, the number of failures is large, and the number of patches 

 of bush that seem the same, year after year, is rather striking evidence that 

 even with the slight protection of Bayberry thickets, trees can hardly 

 start and maintain themselves on the open Downs. Nevertheless, such 

 protected spots, bleak though they appear to be, do sometimes nurture a 

 young oak, or black cherry, or very rarely, a gray birch {Betula populifolia) , 

 and thus justify their existence as a stepping stone to something bigger, 

 if not more picturesque. 



