THE FOREST ASSOCIATIONS OF WAYNE COUNTY, 



MICHIGAN.* 



BY FOREST K. II. BROWN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Tlie work of collecting data upon the forest associations of Wayne 

 County, Michigan, was started by the writer in 1902 and has been con- 

 tinued at vacation intervals as opportunity afforded since that date, until 

 three hundred and fifty-three woodlots have been studied, the species of 

 all woody plants and the important herbs being listed and ecologically 

 considered. The nomenclature is that of Gray's Manual, 7th Edition. 



From the lists and notes thus obtained, together with the information 

 collected from the residents witliin whose memory the forests existed 

 nearly intact, it has been possible to gain a fairly definite notion of the 

 composition of the forest associations which covered the county prior to 

 settlement, and to reconstruct and map such associations with consider- 

 able accuracy. 



Considering the very level nature of the surface of this county, ex- 

 cluding a small part in the northwest corner, it may seem surprising to 

 find the associations as diversified in character as will be shown in the 

 treatment of which this paper is an abstract. It may be said that Wayne 

 County almost eliminates the factors of topography from the usual 

 complex of factors with which one has to deal in studying plant associa- 

 tions, so that the effect of other factors, such as soil^ geological changes, 

 etc., may be the more clearly observed. Wayne County affords almost 

 ideal conditions to study the forest associations in relation to soil types, 

 and the writer hopes to further the growing tendency among ecologists 

 to recognize the importance of the plant association as an index of soil 

 fertility. 



As opportunity afforded, observations were made upon the people, 

 density of population, and industrial development following the removal of 

 the forests, and it was found that the races of people, type of farm build- 

 ings, kind of agriculture, and even the social development of the people 

 on the site of the several forest associations now removed, were as dis- 

 tinct as the forest associations which had preceded them. 



19th Mich. Acad. Sci. Rept., 1917. 



*Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. 



