1910] Brunckcih Studies in Plant Distribution. 157 



lake shore, where the new climate is locally modified in the direc- 

 tion of what the old climate may have been, is the last stronghold 

 of the formerly dominant society. A xerophytic conifer society 

 would be postulated, on a priori grounds, as that of the end of the 

 Glacial and Champlain periods. When the buried forests of Eas- 

 tern Wisconsin 10 shall have been thoroughly examined, the postu- 

 late may be established by evidence. 



The future of the boreal species will be dependent on the prog- 

 ress of erosion. While pluvial erosion is practically absent in the 

 forested parts of the shore, the little brooks in the ravines are 

 rapidly undercutting" the steep sides, thus destroying the forests 

 clothing them. In time, the sides may thereby be re-converted into 

 naked banks, to be gradually conquered again by vegetation as 

 described above ; the only difference would be that the south sides 

 of the ravines would be more shaded and therefore less xerophy- 

 tic than the north sides. At the present time, the mouths of most 

 of the larger ravines are in this condition of bareness ; that a for- 

 est formerly clothed their sides is shown by the fallen logs, more 

 or less buried by bank material, which are strewn over the slopes. 11 



Little is to be said about the vegetation of the two diastrophic 

 terraces included in our area. The southern one is part of Lake 

 Park, the northern principally cultivated field. From the rem- 

 nants of the original forest still visible, one would conclude that 

 the maple-beech society was dominant, but whether the boreal 

 elements were represented or not, is now impossible to say. The 

 banks in the rear of the terraces seem to be a little less favorable to 

 the latter than the banks closer to the lake. 



Washington, D. C. 



March, 1910. 



10) See Bull. Wis. Nat. Hist. Soc, 1902. 



11) Logs are also buried in the bank of the lake front itself, and occa- 

 sionally brought to light again by erosion. These may have been buried in 

 the same way ; or they may be older and part of the Champlain forest. 



