STORM BEACH 103 
The one remaining species of halyphytic plane found on the storm beach is 
Aster tenuifolius, of which some dozens of plants are present between 600 and 
800 west on the south shore of the Spit, at 9 to 11 feet. This plant is a charac- 
teristic salt-marsh plant, and occurs on the Spit only in the one place men- 
tioned. The soil here is firmer and has a larger percentage of humus than any 
soil elsewhere on the Spit. In these respects, and in the somewhat greater 
moisture content, this soil resembles that of the Marsh south of the harbor, in 
which Aster tenutfolius is found more abundantly. 
UPLAND PLANTS ON THE SPIT. 
Aside from the 8 species of halophytic herbs or “ psammophytes” of the 
supra-littoral belt, whose distribution has just been described, the 33 remain- 
ing seed plants on the Spit are species which also occur on uplands entirely free 
from the influence of the sea. There are also several lichens, species of 
Cladonia, on the sand, of which only one was found in fruiting condition. 
Of these 33 upland plants, 15 are herbaceous dicotyledons, including Ambro- 
sia artemisiefolia, Anaphalis margaritacea, Chenopodium album, Euphorbia 
maculata, Galium claytom, Gnaphalium (polycephalum ?), Lactuca sp., Molluga 
verticillata, Nepeta cataria, Oenothera biennis, Oxalis stricta, Polygonella 
articulata, Portulacca oleracea, Taraxacum officinale, and Verbascum thapsus. 
There are 9 herbaceous monocotyledons, including Allium vineale, Asparagus 
officinalis, and 7 grasses and sedges (Agropyron repens, Cyperus filiculmis, 
Eragrostis minor, Panicum sp., Poa compressa, P. pratensis, Setaria viridis). 
Running over the sand, rather than climbing, are 3 lianes (Polygonum scandens, 
Psedera quinquefolia, and Rhus toxicodendron). Finally, there are 6 shrubs or 
trees, Ailanthus glandulosa, Gleditsia triacanthos, Quercus (a seedling found 
in 1909, absent in 1912), Rhus glabra, Robinia Pseudo-acacia, and one plant of 
Salia sp.? 14 feet high. For the general distribution of these see plates v, XIII, 
and XIV. 
Of these 33 seed plants, 23 are perennials, 3 are biennials, and 8 are annuals. 
_ The only evergreen species on the beach is Ammophila. 'The shoots of all other 
species do not push up till late April or early May, and they disappear again 
in mid-autumn, with the exception perhaps of Selidago sempervirens, which is 
somewhat more persistent. Thus the whole plant, root and shoot, of both peren- 
nials and annuals, is probably inactive at the time when the waves of the severe 
winter storms surround these roots and shoots with salt water. There is, in 
fact, some question whether the water ever becomes very salt about the deeply 
buried roots of many of these plants on the higher levels of the Spit, for probably 
the deeper soil-water is normally never far from fresh. (See Kearney, 1904, 
p. 424, and Oliver, 1912, p. 98.) 
The ability of these plants to invade the upper levels of the Spit, 1. ¢., above 
the 8-foot level, may thus be in considerable degree due to the coincidence of 
their period of active growth, and hence of absorption of water, with the season 
of mild weather and moderate tides. The heavy spring rains must leach out 
pretty thoroughly any salt left by the high waves of winter storms, and the 
summer rains are usually sufficient to remove any salt left by the waves of 
summer storms. Moreover, the soil is usually saturated with rain water before 
the higher waves of each summer storm are blown on the beach, and hence most 
of the salt water thrown on the rather steep beach runs off before it can really 
