132 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 



woods the woodland marshes are different, usually containing quak- 

 ing aspen about the margin along with winterberry or black alder 

 and choke-berry with Sphagnum in the center. One of the circular 

 woodland ponds studied more in detail consisted of 4 distinct zones 

 of vegetation, the outer border being the usual high-ground forest, 

 then a ring of willows and Rosa Carolina, then a ring of sedges, 

 boneset, smartweed and Erechtites, and in the center a circle of rice 

 cut-grass. Swamp white oak was common in this pond. 



The peat bogs, once extensive west of the lake, have most of 

 them been greatly changed if not destroyed by drainage, and their 

 curious faunas exterminated. Most of them contained the tama- 

 rack as their principal or only tree. Hawk's marsh, on the south- 

 west corner of Culver, fortunately remains, and it is to be hoped 

 will long continue in its present state. It is surrounded by an al- 

 most impenetrable tangle of various low bushes, principally moun- 

 tain holly, black alder, tall bush huckleberry and poison sumac. 

 Inside this tangle is a deep, spongy bed of Sphagnum, the outer 

 border thickly overgrown with tall, erect ferns (Anchistea) and 

 farther inward evergreen heaths, leather-leaf, marsh-rosemary, 

 etc., with a sprinkling of pitcher-plants and cotton-grass. Various 

 orchids, such as the yellow-fringed orchis, are common. At the 

 inner edge of the Sphagnum are masses of cranberry vines and 

 spatulate-leaved sundew, while innermost of all is a pond full of 

 spatterdock and Utricularia. 



The shifting sand regions are composed of a somewhat heavier 

 sand than dune sand and are areas once covered with a growth of 

 forest, chiefly low scrub oak (Q. velutina) . These sand-hills do 

 not drift in a mass as do the genuine dunes, but the winds gutter 

 out the sand in places leaving angular rock fragments. The blown 

 sand drifts fence corners and forests full and gradually buries them. 

 The flora is generally a scattered growth of Cyperus filmicuhnis. 

 Some cacti, said to have escaped from a neighboring cemetery 

 where they are said to have been planted, are slowly occupying 

 these hills. 



Patches or peculiarities of distribution of individual species, 

 such as the long line of sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica) along the edge 

 of Green's woods and the east bank of the outlet in Walley's woods, 

 clumps of witch hazel back of Green's and on the east side of the 

 lake, are best treated in discussing the different species. 



In the following discussion of species the various plants are de- 

 scribed as seen in varied places and times, representing the species 

 in as many lights as possible. 



