NOTES ON AN INTRODUCED WOODLAND FLORA. 



R. I. CRATTY. 



It is seldom that one sees a tract of our original prairie broken 

 up, planted to trees and then left in such a condition that the 

 natural agencies for the distribution of plants are given a free 

 hand in introducing a typical woodland flora. Such, however, 

 was the good fortune of the writer, and a few brief notes re- 

 garding the matter may not be devoid of interest to the mem- 

 bers of this Acadeany. 



Just across the road from what was the writer's home for 

 forty years, there is located an artificial grove of two or three 

 acres, on section twelve, Armstrong Grove township, Emmet 

 county, Iowa, which was planted about 1870 wlien the land was 

 part of the homestead of C. B. Mathews. Like all the artificial 

 groves set out by the early settlers it was intended to serve as 

 a windbreak, the owner expecting to build a new house just 

 south of it. But after proving up he sold his land to the owner 

 of the adjoining quarter on the east and the grove, which had 

 been thoroug*hly cultivated, the original flora being almost en- 

 tirely destroyed, was left to the kind hands of Mother Nature 

 to furnish the undergrowth plants. The grove being three- 

 quarters of a mile from the new owner's residence, it was left 

 entirely alone so far as regards any depredations by poultry, 

 hogs or other kinds of stock. 



As the ground sloped gently towards the northeast the mois- 

 ture was fairly well conserved, and in a few years after the 

 trees, which were cottonwood, Lombardy poplar and white wil- 

 low, had attained a considerable size, a typical woodland humus 

 was formed, and the introduction of new species of plant life 

 began. 



The nearest native timber is about three miles south along' 

 the east fork of Des Moines river. Six miles north occurs a 

 larger tract around Iowa lake, and another grove is found on 

 the south shore of Swan lake, about ten miles west. 



The introduced plants were undoubtedly almost entirely in- 

 debted to the birds for their new location. Some grew from 

 seeds which passed uninjured through the digestive tract, others 

 perhaps adhered to their feathers, while two ferns ver^^ likely 

 owed their introduction to the spores being carried on the muddy 

 feet or legs of our feathered friends. 



