The Ferns and “Fern-allies” of Accomac and Northampton Counties, Virginia and adjacent Maryland

The southernmost area of the Delmarva Peninsula is a hundred-mile peninsula of sandy soil of Coastal origin with occasional freshwater millponds and streams, saline marshes and estuaries,. It is made up of the southern. portions of Somerset and Worcester Counties, Maryland, and Accomac and Northampton Counties, Virginia. The peninsula is completely isolated from the mainland of Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay to the west. The eastern side is, totally against the Atlantic Ocean. Both sides of the peninsula are bordered by islands which have developed by the continuous erosion of the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Chesapeake Bay on the west. The Pocomoke River runs from just north of the Virginia line northward between Somerset and Worcester Counties, and thence between Wicomico and Worcester Counties, and finally into Sussex County, Delaware. It is the area to the east and south of the Pocomoke River in, Worcester County and then south to Cape Charles through Accomac and Northampton Counties which is studied in this paper.