NOTES ON THE FLORISTIC FEATURES OF A PRAIRIE 

 PROVINCE IN CENTRAL IOWA. 



ADA HAYDEN. 



The primeval prairie of Iowa is fast vanishino;. This region 

 where gi-ass grew taJI and prairie fires yearly swept over ex- 

 panses bounded by the horizon or broken here and there by zones 

 of forest along the streams, man, one of the most important of 

 ecological forces, has selected for his permanent habitat. The 

 prairie of former years now lingers in small patches bounded 

 by wire fences and known as hay fields ; or where the less ambi- 

 tious farmer has failed to insert an arterial system of tile, occa- 

 sional sloughs and swamps furnish homes for hosts of sturdy 

 cat-tails, slim reeds, plumy grasses and their associates growing 

 with all the glory of former generations. Several of these re- 

 served prairie patches within a radius of a mile show represen- 

 tative growth including a range of characteristic species consid- 

 erable, for such an area. The gradual changes through a period 

 of thirty years have been noted by one observer but only in the 

 last ten years have specific notes been made. 



Analyses of the soil, seasonal temperature, weather records, 

 topographic and geologic features have been reported in Ecologic 

 Topographic Notes on a Prairie Province in Central Iowa. Ana- 

 tomic characters of some of these plants are discussecl in Ana- 

 tomic-EcoIoio'ic Notes on Some Plants of a Prairie Province. 

 ANALYSIS OF THE FORMATIONS OF THE PRAIRIE PROVINCES. 



In this survey the intention is to state oibservations unadorned 

 by nomenclature. Such terms as are used conform to Clement's 

 sj^tem as stated in Research ]\Iethods in Ecology. 



Schimper, Clements and Warming summarize the more im- 

 portant literature on the sub,ject of ecological nomenclature. 

 These writers do not agree in regard to the use of ecological 

 terms. According to Farlow's report, tlie Brussels Congress of 

 !i910 recommended the use of the tenns "formation" in the 

 broader and "association" in the restricted sense. This limita- 

 tion of the term formiation is, however, not defined. Clements 

 claims that, it should be synonymous with the term habitat while 

 Schimper uses it with such a broad range of meaning as to em- 

 brace a prairie province or a forest province. Despite the dif- 

 ferences in the limitation of the region embraced, tbe salient 

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