. Contributions from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. Plants. 332 George E. Nichols, buried by the sand, but at the present time trees are scarce and of merely sporadic occurrence. The South Bay spit with its dunes (Fig. 31), from the stand- point of physiographic ecology, affords in itself a study of exceptional interest, and has already been written up in some detail by Dr. Harvey ('18). In crossing the spit from the seaward margin on the east to the "pond," which is between one and two miles wide, one encounters in order (i) the lower beach, (2) the middle beach, (5) the upper bea
. Contributions from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. Plants. 332 George E. Nichols, buried by the sand, but at the present time trees are scarce and of merely sporadic occurrence. The South Bay spit with its dunes (Fig. 31), from the stand- point of physiographic ecology, affords in itself a study of exceptional interest, and has already been written up in some detail by Dr. Harvey ('18). In crossing the spit from the seaward margin on the east to the "pond," which is between one and two miles wide, one encounters in order (i) the lower beach, (2) the middle beach, (5) the upper beach, and (4) the salt meadows and marshes which border the spit on its western side. Along the sea- ward edge of the broad upper beach is a row, some- times double but mainly single, of sand-dunes, mostly less than six feet in height, but in one locality rising to fully fifteen feet. Some at least of the dunes have originated in moist depres- sions, or "pans," in which grow Juncus balticus littoralis and Iris versicolor. On many of the lower dunes, as might be expected, the sand-reed (Ammophila) is the pre- dominant plant, fulfilling in connection with dune-formation the twofold function of (i) breaking the force of the wind and causing it to drop part of its burden of sand, and (2) binding together and holding, by means of its copious, slender roots, the sand which thus accumulates. More often than not, however (Fig. 32), the sand-reed is absent and in its place occurs a luxuriant growth of wire-grass (Poa compressa), which seems fully competent to carry out the functions elsewhere performed by the Figure 2,2.—Low dunes at South Pond, Aspy Bay; in foreground, Poa compressa acting as a sand- Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Osborn Botanical Laboratory. [New Have
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Keywords: ., bookcollectionbiodiversity, bookcollectionnyb, booksubjectplants
