203 



indication of it wliatevei*. It has made its appearance in only one region 

 in the old lake bed, namely, within a mile of the present lake shore around 

 Clear Creek. The beech forest west of the lake is outside of the territory 

 covered by this report. Why this type has lagged so far behind is perhaps 

 due to the large percentage of gravel in the soil, as its development is 

 much slower in gravelly soil than in that in which we have a large per- 

 centage of clay. The presence of beeches depends upon the amount of 

 humus in the soil. Then, too, both beech and maple seedlings can grow 

 in the dense shade these trees themselves make or in the lighter forests 

 of oak and hickory. The plants of the lattei- type, on the otlier hand, 

 do not flourish in the deeper shade of the beech. 



Accompanying the beech (Fagus ferruginea) which is yet somewhat 

 rare in this type of forest about the lake, and the sugar maple (Acer sac- 

 charinum) are the tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), the walnut, the 

 pawpaw (Asimina triloba), Hepatica, Trillium, Virginia Oi'eeper, Mayapple, 

 skunk cabbage, various species of ferns, together with the older oaks 

 and hickories, which point back to the past. 



4. The Sti'eam.— The territoiy over which now flows the lower part 

 of the two streams that feed the lake was once the lake bed and is now 

 a flood-plain. Cherry Creek, the largest of these, is a pre-erosion type in 

 what is apparently an ei'osion valley. Along the lower course of this is 

 a mixture of influences which results in a "hodge podge" of vegetation 

 not easy to unravel. Lake and swamp, spring and stream, all combine 

 their forces to produce this effect. Near the mouth of the stream Pota- 

 mogeton fluitans is abundant. In that part most often submei'sed are the 

 rice cut grass (Leersla oryzoides), cat-tails, bulrushes and sedges, among 

 them Scirpus atrovirens, Carex lupulina, and Carex vulpinoidia. Many 

 plants characteristic of springs and spring brooks are found, such as 

 swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnatai, skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus 

 foetidus), Eupatorium purpureum, Eupatorium perfoliatum, Lycopus 

 luc.idus (water horehound), and several other species of mint. Lobelia 

 leptostachys and Lobelia syphilitica. Salix longifolia and Salix nigra are 

 common (see Fig. 4), and in the locality west of the creek and bordering 

 upon the lake seedlings of the river or silver maple (Acer dasycarpum) 

 and the aspens (Populus tremuloides) form a mai-ked feature of the laud- 

 scape. Other plants characteristic of this flood-plain are the ash (Fraxi- 

 mus Americana), the walnut (.luglans nigra), the red-bud (Oercis Caiia- 



12— Academy of Science. 



