GROWTH-FORMS OF FLORA OF NEW YORK AND VICINITY 27 
the 85 ferns and their alUes, and 24 parasites. This leaves 1,907 
native species that are found, roughly speaking, within 100 miles of 
New York City. Each species has been put in one or other of the 
categories mentioned above with the following result. 
Biological Spectrum of the Flora of New York and Vicinity^ 
Growth-form 
MG 
MS 
MC 
N 
CH 
H 
G 
HH 
T 
Gymnosperms 
15 
2 
2 
Monocotyledons. . . . 
5 
53 
197 
202 
164 
57 
Dicotyledons 
10 
62 
130 
65 
48 
438 
195 
60 
191 
Totals 
10 
77 
137 
67 
lOI 
635 
397 
224 
248 
Percentages of 
% 
% 
% 
% 
% 
% 
% 
% 
% 
growth-forms 
.52 
4-03 
7.18 
3-51 
5-29 
33-29 
20.23 
11.74 
13 
The most remarkable figure in this list is the high percentage of 
geophytes, 20.23 per cent. For no region in the world has there been 
published such a large percentage of these plants with bulbs, rhizomes, 
corms and other subterranean methods of winter protection. Among 
the 692 native monocotyledons in the area, over 29 per cent are 
geophytes, while for 1,200 native dicotyledons there are only 16 per 
cent of the same growth-form. Undoubtedly the high percentage 
of monocotyledons in our flora, the pine-barrens of New Jersey are 
especially rich in them, has much to do with the large percentage of 
geophytes. Most of the regions with high geophyte percentages are 
arctic or sub-arctic; and, from this point of view, the high geophyte 
percentage in our area is misleading and it may be a response to quite 
other factors than climatic ones. As compared to the percentages 
of the normal spectrum those for the local flora are higher in the case 
of the aquatics, geophytes, and hemicryptophytes, lower in the case 
of chamaephytes and all the phanerophytes, and the same in the 
percentage of annuals. 
Figures for other countries, mostly northern, show for hemi- 
cryptophytes averages ranging from 50 per cent to 60 per cent, the 
local flora percentage is only 33.29 per cent, well illustrating the 
condition that prevails in our area, where only a moderately large 
number of species are of northern origin. The percentage of all phan- 
erophytes in our area is about 14.88, in the normal spectrum it is 43 
^ Not counting .57 per cent of stem-succulents. 
