133 



of the hills are a few ferns, lady-fern, maiden-liair and brittle l)Iadder 

 fern (('. fniiiilis). In general. hoAA-ever, the delicate wood ferns are not 

 abundant in this region. Mitrlla dipln/llo fringes the slope of the hills 

 here and there. Both in this gnlly and at places in the lake plain, as the 

 southern end of the Assembly grounds, are soggj^ hills covered with a 

 gi'owth of sedges, shrubby five-finger, grass of parnassus. and so on. 

 Ntimerous springs issue from these hills. In the bottom of the gully, and 

 near the creek itself, is an al)undauce of swampy ground, with Sagittarias 

 and other marsh plants. Here is an abundance of the liverwort. Coito- 

 cephaliis. 



One dry hillside along this gully is completely covered with hoauds- 

 tougue. The hillsides fi'om which springs issue bear in places large patches 

 of horse-mint {Monarda fistulosa) and are made purple in August by 

 masses of iron-Aveed in bloom. 



The upper part of the gully of Clear Creek is different both in appeai*- 

 ance and flora, from that of Cherry Creek. Here the creek cuts its way 

 through hills of sand and gTaA'el. The bottom of the tolerably wide gully 

 is mostly sandy soil, and the creek bottom is solid and often contains sand- 

 bars and graA'el-banks. The different slopes have a somewhat different 

 flora. There are a few large bassAvood trees, and some beech and a feAA" 

 box-elder on the east side. On the slope on this side are found rock cress, 

 Blephilia, nettles, beech-drops, and so on. On the west side of the gully 

 were found spice bushes, Celastnis scoiideiis, or climbing bitter-sweet, 

 hedge hyssop, tall scouring rushes, blood-root, celandine poppies, re- 

 mains of trillium, wood anemones, dutchman's breeches, and the like. 



The sides of the outlet, where there is a broad marshy region without 

 any pronounced gully, showed no plants different from those common to 

 the region, except there was an especial alnmdance of the reindeer lichen. 

 Cladonia rangiferina. There is here a broad, densely OA^ergrown, swampy 

 tract, full of willows. 



At different places between the sand hills and the lake are the low 

 ground forests, the bottoms of Avhich seem to be slightly higher than the 

 surface of the lake plain itself. One of these forests is to be found in the 

 vicinity of the laboratories and another down along Clear Creek. This 

 forest differs considerably fi'om the high-ground forest in both soil and 

 vegetation. The soil is a rich, black, sandy loam. The trees are burr oak, 

 ash. aspen, willow, elm, plum, and so on. At the junction between the 

 low-ground and liigh-ground forests we have at one place, near Chicago 



