132 SIXTEENTH REPORT. 



THE FLOAVERING PLANTS, FERNS AND FERN ALLIES GROWING 

 WITHOUT CULTIVATION IN LAMBTON COUNTY, ONTARIO. 



BY C K. DODGE. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



To one interested in plant distribution, the need for gathering the data at 

 once is very apparent. The advent of the white man into North America 

 has been attended by sweeping changes in the vegetation, and every year 

 the opportunities of obtaining a working knowledge of the primitive flora 

 are becoming less. The need of immediate work may seem somewhat less 

 in Michigan and adjoining territory because there are still considerable areas 

 of nearly virgin ground, and yet it is very urgent, even with us, as is illus- 

 trated by the region that is reported upon in the present paper. 



It is relatively but a few years since Michigan and Ontario were covered 

 with dense forests traversed only by a few rude trails. At the present time 

 much of the forest has been cleared away, many of the minor species have 

 disappeared in the process, and the ground is occupied largely l)y introduced 

 species both cultivated and v,i]d. Nor, unfortunately for the botanist, 

 have the changes ceased. Every j^ear the native associations are be- 

 coming mocHfied or terminated, and it will be but a reiativelj^ short time 

 until most of the data on the original conditions will have to be gleaned 

 from books. 



It is believed that a record of the present vegetat'on of Lambton County 

 will prove of interest to students both of the Ontario and ^Michigan flora, 

 as well as to the general student, for no botanist in studying the plants and 

 their distribution along the Great Lakes and their connecting streams can 

 do the work well without examining both sides from Lake Erie to Sault 

 Ste. Marie. The following list has been the result of investigations, which 

 extend over a period of over twenty-five years. 



I am much indebted to the late Prof. C. F. Wheeler of the Department of 

 Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry-, for kindly looking over the various 

 species of Cj^peraceae, to A. S. Hitchcock, agrostologist of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, for the determination of many grasses, to New- 

 ton Tripp, of Forest, and T. C. Wheatley, of Blackwell Station, Lambton 

 County, who have given much assistance in the following compilation, and 

 to Prof. John ^lacoun, who has given me much encouragement in this 

 work. 



LOCATION OF THE COUNTY. 



The County of Lambton in the Province of Ontario is situated at the foot 

 of Lake Huron and east of the St. Clair River, having about 40 miles of Lake 

 Huron shore and about 35 miles of St. Clair River shore, and extending east 

 from the river over 30 miles. It is one of the extreme southwestern coun- 

 ties of the province, and includes the delta islands of St. Clair River which 

 belong to Ontario and lie immediately west of the northern part of Kent 

 County. The larger islands are Walpole Island, Squirrel Island and St. 

 Ann's Island. 



