16 



The area has a great variety of habitats ranging from lakes and rivers, 

 bogs and marshes, dry sand and gravelly places, prairies, and remnants 

 of prairies (oak openings) to the mesophytic forest. Within this area about 

 300 species of a northern range find their southern limit. Within this area 

 a small number of plants have been found also that have their mass distri- 

 bution on the Coastal Plain and the Lower Mississippi Valley. Among these 

 are Panicum albemarlense, Panicum spretum, Panicum verrucosum, 

 Cyperus dentatus, Eleocharis melanocarpa, Eleocharis Torreyana, Fim- 

 bristylis puberula, Scleria pauciflora var. caroliniana, Scleria reticularis, 

 Scleria setacea, and Hypericum adpressum. These are found in a few- 

 marshes and on their borders between low dunes in section 2 a mile east 

 and a mile and a half south of Tefft, Jasper County, or about 4 miles south 

 of the Kankakee River. A few of these species occur also in the dune area 

 and in a few adjacent counties in like habitats. I have not botanized the 

 marshes in adjacent sections to ascertain how widely these species are 

 spread or whether additional species may be found. The whole area for 

 a width of about 5 miles from Bass Lake in Starke County westward to 

 the Illinois line, a distance of about 50 miles is, for the most part, a series 

 of low dunes and interdunal marshes. I am of the opinion that these Coastal 

 Plain plants have migrated into Indiana through the Mississippi Valley 

 rather than through the Mohawk Valley and the Great Lakes area as 

 Peattie and Svenson suggest. To this list of plants should be added Styrax 

 americana which is found along the Kankakee River and is not found again 

 until the Patoka River Basin is reached in Dubois County. Mikania scan- 

 dens is found along the Kankakee River just east of Baum Bridge, Porter 

 County. I have not found it elsewhere in Indiana although it has been 

 reported. This very disjunct distribution suggests migration from the 

 Mississippi Valley by streams through Illinois. Recently several Coastal 

 Plain plants have been found in Minnesota which adds weight to the 

 theory that our Coastal Plain plants came into Indiana through the Missis- 

 sippi Valley. 



Tipton Till Plain 



This area is not strictly a botanical one but is given as such for the con- 

 venience of discussing distribution and habitat. Excepting the prairie 

 area it nearly coincides with the physiographic area given it by Malott 

 (Handbook of Geology). It is bounded on the north by the "lake area" 

 and on the south by the southern boundary of the Wisconsin drift. The 

 surface of this area is comparatively level although marked by many ter- 

 minal moraines. The soil is mostly neutral or only slightly acid. The soil 

 acidity factor may be the one which prevents plants from migrating into 

 it from the Illinoian drift area where the soil is much more acid. Within 

 this area some plants from all directions reach their limits of distribution 

 in Indiana. This area contains the best agricultural land of the state and 

 in the brief period of a hundred years almost all of the woodland has dis- 

 appeared and the whole is now under cultivation. As a consequence it is 

 now impossible to learn just how far plants invaded this area and what 

 stopped them. Too, our distribution maps show few records because the 



