THE PLANT WOKLD 69 



THE NATIVE OAK GROVES OF IOWA. 

 By T. J. AND M. F. L. Fitzpatrick. 



IOWA, whose prairie land rolls from river to river, can neither boast 

 of great forests nor of many species, yet such as she has are by no 

 means worthy of contempt. It is our purpose in this article to give 

 the salient features of Iowa's native oak groves, which are made up of 

 fifteen species, a number we believe quite incomparable considering our 

 location. 



The oak has been looked upon as the peer of forest trees, and even 

 taken as the symbol of strength. Its close strong fibers enable the tree 

 to resist a thousand storms, and some of the species live several hun- 

 dred years before storms, fungi, accidents, and natural old age succeed 

 in consuming the tree's \dtality, and causing death. 



Let us pass through a native oak grove of eastern Iowa. At first 

 we shall be impressed by the remarkable paucity of large trees, though 

 here and there fine specimens are seen. Further observation, however, 

 reveals many decaying stumps, clearly indicating the cause of the scarc- 

 ity. In place of the primeval, there are numerous young trees which 

 collectively constitute the so-called second growth. On noticing spe- 

 cies, we find they bear a rather general numerical relation to each 

 other. Sometimes one species predominates, and sometimes another, 

 so that the areas receive the distinctive names of white oak, bur oak, 

 or so-called black oak groves. One particular grove on the uplands is 

 composed largely of scarlet oak {Quercus coccinea Wang.); the trees 

 are thick-set, well-limbed or not as may be convenient for them, stately, 

 thriving or passive as the seasons of average moisture or drought ap- 

 pears. Here and there may be seen a solitary red oak {Q. rubra L.), or 

 at best but few individuals, for they seem not to thrive in numbers 

 where the scarlet oak abounds. The bur oak (Q. macrocarpa Michx.) 

 fares better, though not many individuals can be counted in close prox- 

 imity with the scarlet oak, yet passing in certain directions we find the 

 number increasing until we are in a typical bur oak grove. We said 

 we were on the uplands, but we find on passing to the lowlands that 

 the bur oak is there. The trees are large, but the qualitj' of the timber 

 is poor. The white oak {Q. alba L.) has much the same habit as the 

 bur oak. Solitary individuals occur among the scarlet oaks, and in cer- 

 tain places predominate, though as we pass from point to point, we may 

 find white oaks mixed with bur oaks along with scarlet oaks, until dif- 

 ferentiated by natural causes into predominant or subordinate numeri- 

 cal jiositions. Let us pass over to the bluff side next the river, and 

 here we may exi:)ect to find a few chestnut oaks {Q. a('umi}iafa (Michx.) 

 Sargent). As the chestnut oaks we usually find are few and small, we 



