FEET 
SUPRA-LITTORAL BRACKISH MARSH 1 
Eleocharis olivacea, Scirpus americanus, or occasionally by Scirpus robustus. 
Finally, at the practically fresh southeast corner of the Marsh, 8S. americanus 
is replaced by a dense stand of Aspidium thelypteris (plates x1 and xx1). The 
sharpness of the boundary often seen between the stands of different species is 
the more striking because there is no appreciable change in the level or character 
of the soil. (See plates x1, xix, and xxi.) There are, however, marked 
differences in the depth of the peaty soil overlying the gravel subsoil, and also 
in the salinity of the soil-water, of these differently covered areas (fig. 3). 
~~ Agrostis 
S é J J 
10 P Sp ff 
PRES AF I i an SET TELE ct Sp 8ft. 
8 
Surface 
of marsh 
5 Gravel Se 
Mean low water level 
600 South 500 400 300 200 100 South 0 \OON. 
Fig. 3.—Vertical north-to-south section of the vegetation, soil, and subsoil of the 
Marsh at 1,100 east. Data by H. H. York, H. S. Conard, and P. M. Collins, 1909, 1910. 
Vertical scale 1: 80. Horizontal scale 1: 1,600. ~—~-—-—~— indicates height of vege- 
tation above soil. The symbols used are explained on pages 153 to 156. 
~ Among the dominant plants of the higher Marsh are scattered other species, 
some of which are found on the Spit, but others of which are peculiar to the 
Marsh or to it and the wetter portions of the east and west shores. Occasionally 
one of these species may become abundant or even subdominant over a consider- 
able area. Thus Solidago sempervirens is scattered thickly along the western 
bank of the tide-stream from 200 to 400 south at 1,160 east. Iva oraria, a bush 
which occurs at lower levels, also forms considerable patches in this supra-littoral 
belt, e. g., at 180 south by 1,200 east, and on the west side of the Marsh from 200 
south to 500 south. Elsewhere, as about 200 south by 100 east, it is merely 
sparsely scattered. Still other species may sometimes cover portions of this 
higher part of the Marsh, of from 1 or 2 up to 30 or 40 sq. meters in area. Thus 
the rather wet “ area 2” of plate v1 is dominated by T'riglochin marviima, which 
is more characteristic of the belt below. On areas 3 and 27, Gerardia maritima 
is the dominant species (see explanation of plate v1). Areas 25 and 26 are 
dominated by a thick growth of Aster subulatus, while a dense stand of Pluchea 
camphorata is clearly dominant on area 28. Atriplex patula hastata, though 
abundant at several points on the Marsh, is always outnumbered in any consider- 
able area by one or more other species. 
8 
