10 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



Geologically this area is said to have been once a part of 

 the Missouri Plateau, becoming separated by long processes of 

 erosion until it remained an island as it were, some distance 

 from similar formations. In the glacial period the top was 

 more or less smoothed off and a moranic covering of 10 to 

 200 feet left upon it. 



Geographically, the '"mountains" form a spot about 40 

 by 25 miles astride the Canadian boundary nearly midway of 

 the length of the state. Three branches of the Great North- 

 ern Railway touch them, one at St. John on the eastern end, 

 one at Bottineau on the southwest, and the third having its 

 terminus at Dunseith on the south. Traveling on the so-called 

 "wheat-line" of the "Soo" the hills are usually in view in the 

 distance from Bisbee to Omaha. The writer's observations 

 are from three brief trips in the vicinity of Bottineau. 



The elevation ot the "mountains" is 400 to 600 feet 

 above the surrounding plain. Thus they fall considerably 

 short of the 1000 feet necessary to qualify in the mountain 

 class. Locally they are spoken of as "the hills." The sur- 

 face, like that of other glaciated hills, is a succession of low 

 rounded hills with intervening depressions of sizes ranging 

 from mere potholes to quite respectable small lakes. Natur- 

 ally wooded, the larger timber was early removed, and in 

 later years much has been cleared for farming. The woods 

 now standing are composed largely of aspen and balsam 

 poplar (Populus tremidoides and P. balsaniifera) of a foot 

 or less in diameter. In other places ash and elm (Fraxinus 

 lanceolata and Ulmus americana)a.re common while birch 

 {Bettila papyrifera) is frequent in suitable locations. The 

 more open spaces are quite densely covered with shrubs, 

 chiefly willow, dogwood, hazel wild-rose, June-berry and 

 choke-cherry. 



