im BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



parts of it we did not even reach, as they were too inaccessible for our lim- 

 ited time, but what we heard of them made us expect great things. 



We noticed five v ell defined classes into which it would be possible and 

 convenient to divide the flora of this region. 



I. First there is the flora of the sand hills and plains bordering upon 

 Lake Michigan. The whole neighborhood of this lake appears strange to 

 one who is not accustomed to th^ enormous deposits of sand resulting from 

 the melting of the great glacier. This sand occurs in some places hun 

 dreds of feet thick, piled up into huge hills, swept out into steep valleys, so 

 white that the reflection of the bright sunlight from it soon becomes pain- 

 ful, and so fine that it is the most fatiguing labor to walk in it. Clinging 

 to this uncertain, shifting soil some plants find a precarious living. The 

 sand hills seem perfectly bare except as they are covered here and there by 

 clumps of shrubs and stunted growths of Pinm Strobus. The shrubs are 

 Ceanothus Americanus, Hamamelis Virginicu, Rhus copallina, R. Toxico- 

 dendron, Quercus nigra and a Juniperus. The first herb noticed and col- 

 lected was Campanula rotundifoUa, L., var. linifolia, Gr., with very rigid 

 leaves and rooting deep into the sand. Then there were Arahis hjrata, 

 Tephrosia Virginiana, Krigia Virginica, Moiuivda punctata, Lithospernuon 

 hirtum, and more alnindant, Sapmiaria officinalis, Lespedeza hirta. CEnofhe- 

 ra biennis, Asclepias tuberosa. Euphorbia coroUata, etc. Among the sedges 

 a,ad grasses we found Cgperus Schweinifzii, C. filiculmis, Carex Muhlen- 

 bergii, Foa co)n]:)ressa, and KofJeria cristata. The only fern noted was 

 Ptcris aquilina. The flora of these sands is meager but well defined, for 

 we found very few of the species mentioned in other localities. Of course 

 it is not meant that they are all only found upon sand hills, for some of 

 them we have collected in Southern Indiana, but such seemed to be their 

 habit in this region. 



II. The second division is the flora of the wet grassy meadows and choked- 

 up swamps. Such regions we always found a short distance from the lakes, 

 evidently former prolongations of their beds. We studied them principally 

 a few miles south of Otis, and south of LaPorte, which lies upon a cluster 

 of beautiful lakes. The only shrubs we noticed in the conditions just de- 

 scribed were Rhus glabra, Spircea saUcifolict, Rosa blanda, Ribes rubrum 

 Cephalanthiis occidentaJis, Viburnum prunifoliwn, and Salix hum His. 

 Among the herbaceous phaenogaras were Elodes Virginica, Epilobium colora- 

 tum, E. palustre, var. lineare, Lgthrum alatum, Cicuta bulbifera. Stum Jineare 

 Coreopsis trichosperma, with leaves so slender that they resemble those of C.rer- 



