80 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



ary Report on the Native Trees and Shrubs of Nebraska." These two papers 

 cover a large territory, while Hitchcock's Catalogue of the "Anthophyta and 

 Pteridophyta of Ames," is limited in its scope, but includes, perhaps, nearly 

 all of the woody plants within a radius of thirty miles. Bessey's list con- 

 tains sixty-one trees and sixty-four shrubs, making one hundred and twenty- 

 live woody plants. When Nebraska is more fully explored a few more may 

 be added. Hitchcock's catalogue only gives seventy-five. Within a radius 

 of thirty miles several more species probably occur, but the number will 

 certainly not reach much beyond eighty. In the region about La Crosse, 

 Wisconsin, one hundred and fifteen are enumerated. The genera Crataegus, 

 Salix and Fraxinus carefully worked over will probably bring the number 

 close to one hundred and twenty. Three of the species enumerated above 

 have escaped from cultivation and a fourth has been naturalized. Comptonia 

 asplenifoUa, Picea nigra and Thuja occidentalis may still be found within 

 this range. Several species named ai'e scarcely shrubby. On the whole the 

 region is well represented in woody plants. With few exceptions the species 

 are northern, Juglans nigra, Morus rubra, Oymnocladus dioicus, have 

 reached nearly their northern limit. 



FOREST VEGETATION OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 



BY L. H. PAJIMEL. 



The paper before the Academy consisted in a verbal communication of 

 the salient features of the forest vegetation. It was afterward written out 

 in full and sent to Garden and Forest (See Vol. IV. pp. 460, 472 and 531). As 

 the paper may be of general interest to Iowa readers I give it essentially as 

 it appeared in Garden and Forest. A few notes have been added. 



The Mississippi river and its tributaries, from Trempleau, Wisconsin, to 

 Dubuque, Iowa, are enclosed by bluffs, varying from two hundred to six 

 hundred feet high. At Dubuque they are much lower than at La Crosse; in 

 the latter place they are something more than five hundred feet above the 

 level of Lake Michigan; sometimes they present steep, sandy rocks, in other 

 places they are covered with a dense growth of trees. The region is well 

 watered by numerous small streams emptying into the Mississippi, while it 

 contains a number of streams of good size, as the Wisconsin, Black, La 

 Crosse, Root and Turkey rivers. The smaller as well as the larger streams 

 are well timbered with Oaks, Poplars, Birches, Maples, Hickories, Butternut, 

 Walnut, Plums, Cherries, a few Conifers and southward, the Coffee-tree and 

 Honey-Locust. 



Much has been written concerning soils and the character of the vegeta- 

 tion. It is indeed a puzzling question, and I doubt whether it can truly be 



