has resulted, and the contest has almost automatically succeeded 
in straining out of the great bulk of indifferent tree records the 
survivors of the ancient regime, already mentioned. 
Discarding, for the purpose of this leaflet, all records of trees 
less than nine feet in circumference, the records show the follow- 
ing proportion of different kinds of trees: 
Oaks (all kinds) 
56 
Tulip-tree 
4 
Plane tree - 
15* 
Beech 
3 
Black Walnut - 
14 
Linden 
3 
American elm - 
14* 
Ash 
1 
Red Maple 
9 
These figures merely confirm the generally known fact that 
where a forest does grow on the island, it is predominantly an 
oak forest, except in the great central pine-barren region. No 
records of wild trees have come from this area, as the predominant 
pitch-pine ( Pinus rigida) does not reach such dimensions on Long 
Island. That large, sandy tract appears to be little changed from 
the day when General Washington rode from Patchogue to Coram 
and Setauket (22nd April, 1790), and wrote in his diary that the 
country was “too poor to admit inhabitants or cultivation, being 
a low scrubby Oak, not more than two feet high, intermixed with 
small and ill thriven Pines.’’ 
Practically all the big tree records, and the forest of which most 
of them are relics, are found along the north side of the Island, 
or along the narrow belt of deciduous forest that fringes the 
succession of bays on the south shore. In overwhelming propor- 
tion they come from the glaciated parts of the Island, where the 
soil is richer, and has on the whole a higher moisture-holding 
capacity, and where there is some freedom from the tremendous 
winds that sweep shoreward from the ocean during the trying 
summer months. 
The largest trees are, generally speaking, oaks ; the white, 
red and black oaks being predominant. The circumferences of 
some of the largest, taken five feet from the ground, and the 
locations of the specimens are as follows: 
White oak : 
White oak : 
White oak : 
White oak : 
Red oak : 
Black oak : 
19 feet, 7 inches; Stony Brook. 
17 feet, 8 inches ; South Huntingdon. 
17 feet, 4 inches ; Glen Cove. 
17 feet; Locust Valley. 
17 feet; Lloyd’s Neck. 
16 feet, 6 inches ; Locust Valley. 
There are many more from nine to sixteen feet in circum- 
ference. 
The plane tree, or sycamore ( Platanus occidentalis ) , which has 
the biggest trees of any deciduous species in North America, also 
has the distinction of yielding the largest Long Island tree. 
* Many of these are planted trees, for most of the records come from parts 
of Long Island where the elm and plane tree do not grow as wild trees. 
