Читать книгу The Ipswich Sparrow and Its Summer Home - Jonathan Jr. Dwight - Страница 7

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It was impossible to study satisfactorily the flora of Sable Island, for at the time of my visit few of the plants had more than just opened their earliest buds, and of the species collected, many could not be positively identified even by so able a botanist as Dr. N. L. Britton of Columbia College, who was kind enough to make the attempt for me and to furnish the scientific names. The most abundant production is the Beach-grass (Ammophila arenaria (L.)) which grows, just as it does on our sandy coasts, in tufts and patches all over the island, from the edges of the low bluff’s undermined by the sea to the most inland ponds in the vicinity of which it mingles with other grasses, sedges and rushes. Some of these could be identified, as Juncus balticus littoralis Engelm. and Juncoides campestre (L.), but there are also some unrecognizable species of Carex and Panicum. Timothy (Phleum pratense L.) and Red-top Grass (Agrostis alba vulgaris With.), as well as Red Clover (Trifolium pratense L.), have been cultivated near the stations, and White Clover (T. repens L.) is frequently met with, but man’s influence has been at work on the island for so many centuries that it is almost impossible to draw the line between indigenous species, if such there be, and those artificially introduced. Next to the Beach-grass, the heather-like, alpine Crowberry (Empetrum nigrum L.), with its black little berries, vies with the sturdier Juniper (Juniperus nana Willd.) in abundance. The thick, yielding carpet that these two prostrate evergreen shrubs spread over a large portion of the island does much to preserve it from the fierce attacks of the wind, and to soften the bleak and desolate aspect it might otherwise present. To walk or ride over this bed of matted boughs gives one the sensation of being upon heavy tapestry laid upon a rough and hummocky surface. The hills and valleys at the eastern end of the island are so covered that when softened by a veil of fog the effect is not unlike that of the rolling prairie lands of the West. The Crowberry is the more abundant and the more generally distributed of the two species. Rose bushes, apparently Rosa nitida Willd., and blueberry bushes, apparently Vaccinium pennsylvanicum Lam., abound, especially in the vicinity of the little ponds, where all vegetation is more luxuriant and where late in the season great beds of roses are to be seen. Large numbers of Cranberries (Schollera macrocarpa (Ait.)) grow wild, and the yearly crop that is gathered amounts sometimes to several hundred barrelfuls. From the trailing vines in the damp hollows among the hills the large and juicy berries of last year were still to be gathered at the time of my visit. The blueberry bushes were blossoming the second week in June, many of the tiny sprigs trailing in the sand, partly covered by it, and the leaf buds of the rose bushes were little more than half unfolded. Strawberries (Fragaria canadensis Michx.) grow in profusion, and the plants were in full blossom during my stay. The Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens L.), the Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis L.) and the Bayberry (Myrica cerifera L.) are also found.

No trees grow on Sable Island, and efforts to introduce them have proved futile. To be sure a stunted willow bush stands in the superintendent’s dooryard, protected by a board fence, but each winter the icy winds nip the few shoots that dare to push above this shelter. All the bushes of every kind are much dwarfed, few of them reaching half way to the knee, but forming very dense clumps in sheltered situations. Frequently the clumps catch the drifting sand; grass, weeds, and moss soon find a foothold, and some day a turfy hummock is the result. This perhaps gradually extends its limits and joins its neighbor, and in the course of time the characteristic hummocky ground of certain parts of the island is formed. At the time of my arrival all looked bare and brown. Before my departure nearly the whole surface had acquired a visibly greener tinge with here and there the ruddy glow of blossoming Sorrel (Rumex acetosella L.), while such weeds as the Beach Pea (Lathyrus maritimus (L.)), Everlasting (Gnaphalium sp.?), and Meadow-rue (Thalictrum sp.?) were becoming conspicuous. Blue violets (Viola obliqua Hill) and white ones (V. lanceolata L.) were abundant, and many inconspicuous plants were pushing above the ground and unfolding their early buds or blossoms, the majority of them too young for accurate determination. This is to be regretted, for my specimens show that not less than forty species occur. Several mosses and lichens are found, among them a Sphagnum. Eel-grass (Zostera marina L.) abounds in the lagoon, and occurs as drift along its shores, associated with green filmy sheets of Sea Lettuce (Ulva sp.?) that soon become dried and bleached. Rockweed (Ascophyllum nodosum (L.)), torn from its anchorage on some distant shore, is daily cast on the beach, but like some of the shells found there, of West Indian species, its appearance is quite accidental. There is one more plant that is worthy of mention, the Sandwort, as represented by Arenaria peploides L. and A. grœnlandica (Retz). It covers the dry bars, and among its shiny leaves, only a few inches high when I left, the Terns are fond of placing their nests. As for the “golden-rod, asters, and blue lilies” that are said to bloom later in the season, I failed to obtain any specimens. Some of the grasses are cut for hay, but it did not look as if the crop could be a very heavy one. Potatoes and a few other vegetables are raised, but successful farming in such sandy soil is out of the question, even if the summers were not so cold. I make no pretence to a complete enumeration of the plants of Sable Island, for reasons given, but those that I have mentioned are among the most conspicuous and characteristic of its flora, which resembles in many respects that of the adjacent mainland.