Introduction 
The 690 acres of land owned by the Smithsonian Institution at 
the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology lie on the west shore 
of the Bay in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, approximately 7 miles 
south of Annapolis and 30 miles east of Washington, D. C. The 
Center consists of three tracts: Java Farm, Corn Island, and the 
southern part of Ivy Neck peninsula (referred to herein simply as 
Ivy Neck). The topographic map (Figure 1) shows their relation- 
ship. Java Farm and Corn Island lie on Rhode River, on opposite 
sides of Muddy Creek estuary. Ivy Neck lies on West River. The 
topography of the Center ranges from rolling upland at Java Farm 
to nearly level lowland at Ivy Neck. There is also much variation 
in the soils and drainage. The vegetation includes extensive areas 
of hardwood forest, abandoned fields and pastures, and coastal salt 
marsh. Ivy Neck also contains cultivated fields and sandy beach 
areas. Thus the Center presents a broad spectrum of ecological 
systems. 
The Smithsonian Institution recently acquired the land, and 
in 1966 established a consortium with The Johns Hopkins University 
and the University of Maryland for a cooperative program of ecolog- 
ical research. One of the first projects at the Center has been a 
survev of the vascular flora and the preparation of an ecologically 
