THE VEGETATION OF MONTAUK IO5 





MG MS 



MC 



N 



CH H 



G 



HH 



T 



Normal Spectrum 



6. 



17- 



20. 



9. 27. 



3- 



I. 



13- 



Flora Vicinity of New York 



•52 4-3 



7.18 



3-51 



529 33-29 



20.23 



11.74 



13- 



Total Long Island flora 



•89 4-37 



6.34 



2-77 



5-89 33-15 



20.10 



10.90 



13-94 



400 common species of Long 

















Island 



I -50 3- 



8.50 



4-25 



7-25 30. 



21. 



6.75 



14-25 



Total flora of Montauk 



1.6 



11.4 



3.1 



6.9 32.6 



19.2 



11.2 



13.5 



Commonest species of Montauk 



2.2 



10.1 



5.7 



6.1 30.3 



19.3 



11.4 



14.5 



(including C, R.C., V.C.) 

















The significant thing about these percentages appears to be this: They 

 agree pretty closely, except for the perfectly natural absence of tall trees, 

 Avith those of the total flora of the Island, and this in spite of the fact that 

 the climatic conditions of Montauk are very different from the rest of the 

 Island. Assuming, as we must, that the age of the flora of Montauk is 

 approximately that of the rest of the Island, we are faced with the proposi- 

 tion of a vegetative covering in marked contrast to Long Island generally, 

 the components of which are simply the usual aggregation of Long Island 

 species, but grouped in such very different percentages from the rest of the 

 Island that the flo''al aspect of Montauk is unique. There are no en- 

 demic species there, and all but a handful of the rarest Montauk plants are 

 found elsewhere on Long Island. This general agreement of the flora 

 of Montauk with the rest of the Island, which the foregoing list of species 

 will easily verify, is perhaps what is to be expected. But the failure of the 

 growth-form percentages to reflect the very unusual sorting of these species- 

 components of the Montauk vegetation, is perhaps the best local illustration 

 of the failure of that scheme to reflect the response of plants to climate. 

 As shown elsewhere in this account, that response has been rather definite, 

 and has resulted in such a sorting of species that herbs vastly outnumber 

 woody plants as individuals. And yet neither for the total Montauk flora 

 nor for the chief species-components of its major vegetative features is there 

 any but trifling indication in the Raunkiaer percentages of this response of 

 the flora to the climate. 



The absence of endemics there is perhaps of interest. Assuming again, 

 as I think we must, that the flora of Montauk, with the rest of Long Island, 

 began with what may, for the want of a better term, be called a definite 

 capital or stock in trade of species, that capital has not, in the thousands 

 of years that it has been subjected to the peculiar (for Long Island) con- 

 ditions of Montauk, changed its components in sufficient amount to have 

 produced endemic species. This comparative fixity of plant materials, it 

 might even be called the immutability of Montauk species gives decided 



