SCIENTIFIC PAPERS. 
AN ECOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF SOME TYPICAL SWAMP 
AREAS.* 
BY SAMUEL MONDS COULTER. 
In the preparation of the present paper the writer has 
undertaken the presentation of generally known facts re- 
garding the swamp areas investigated, as a foundation for 
a future working out of the problems there suggested. It 
:s intended to be a collection and grouping together of these 
data and so may be regarded as a necessary preliminary to 
such work as may be done hereafter in this field by the 
writer or by others. 
The discussion of the various types of swamp which are 
here compared must necessarily consist of a description of 
the present topographical condition of each area, together 
with a summary of the principal plant forms which char- 
acterize it. Hence this paper may be considered as a brief 
presentation of the similarities and differences between 
certain swamp areas, expressed in terms of physiography 
and taxonomy, while the geological history and dynamics 
of each area are reserved until they can be studied in detail. 
Numerous interesting problems have presented themselves 
during the collection of these data and a few of them are 
mentioned in the paper. It is hoped that some of them 
may be taken up by others and the results of such investi- 
gation added to the too meager working library of the 
ecologist. The materials for this paper have been gathered 
during various ecological trips in the last three years, and 
* A thesis presented to the Faculty of Washington University, in can- 
didacy for the degree of Ph. D., April, 1903. 
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