APRIL, 1900. BRUNCKEN— BOTANY OF GREEN BAY PENINSULA. 
101 
Botanical Notes from the Green Bay Peninsula. 
By ERNEST BRUNCKEN. 
The shores of Lake Michigan, meaning thereby the beach and 
the zone immediately behind it, be it cHff, terrace or ridge, con- 
stitutes one of the most distinctly defined biological districts of 
this state. Its study has hardly been begun, but will richly repay 
the student of ecological and biogeographical phenomena. The 
following random notes may be of use for this purpose. 
The western or Green Bay side of the Door County peninsula, 
north of Sturgeon Bay, is well known for its picturesque lime- 
stone cliffs, which in some cases descend directly into the water, 
while in others there is an interval of from a rod to a third of a 
mile of foreland between the water's edge and the cliff. This 
foreland is composed of fragments of stone, coming evidently 
from the clifif talus, together with beach sand and soil formed 
since vegetation has clothed it. This material is heaped up, in 
many places, in one or more beach ridges. The uplands, above 
the limestone clififs, show the usual glacial drift formations. A 
characteristic of the region is the fjord-like incisions into the shore 
lines, which have often been described. 
The entire peninsula was, before settlement, heavily wooded. 
But there is a very striking contrast between the vegetation of 
the main body of the district and the foreland on the Green Bay 
side. The upland forest was principally of hardwood, with hard 
maple and beech predominating. Swamps in the depressions are 
occasionally found, covered with black spruce or tamarack. On 
a ridge following the east shore for some six miles north of 
Sturgeon Bay, there was pinery, composed of white and Norway 
pine. This is now mostly cut and burned over, and presents the 
tisual aspect of a young growth of aspen, together with under- 
brush composed^ of fire cherry, Amelanchier, etc. In the shade 
of these weeds, young pine is coming up everywhere, and will 
soon overtop the aspen. 
In contrast to these formations, typical foreland localities, 
such as may be found, e. g., at Egg Harbor and Fish Creek, are 
conspicuous, first of all by the almost total absence of broad- 
leaved trees. Thuja occidentalism the arbor vitae, is by far the 
most numerous tree in these places. It grows both in dry and 
