8 i ON THE TIMBER LANDS TRAVERSED BY A 
The magnolias are likewise first met with not far from Irvine, 
and between that piace and Beattyville, while the American 
laurels (Rhododendron and Kalmia) are not found until the 
rockier mountains and wilder ravines farther east and south 
are reached. The same may also be said of the Amelanchiers 
and some other smaller shrubs. Thus, within comparatively 
few miles, and without any apparent topographical or geological 
reason for it, the whole character of the forest growth changes; 
and while the oaks and hickories of the west remain, there 
are added to them lindens, pines, laurels, and magnolias— 
stately and beautiful trees of the east alone. I say, without 
any apparent topographical reason, because these timbers are 
found alike on the mountains and in the valleys of Eastern 
Kentucky, while in Western Kentucky they do not appear, 
even on the highest hills. The same geological conditions 
can be found in the western part of the State as those on 
which these timbers grow in the east; so that the only point 
of difference which suggests itself, is in the higher mountains 
and hills of the east. It may be, therefore, with some of these 
timbers, that a wild and mountainous country is a necessary 
condition precedent to their introduction, and that their sub- 
sequent spread over the lower hills and valleys is a matter 
of course; but this is a subject which would require a great 
deal of preliminary investigation, before an opinion upon it 
could be safely hazarded. 
Nothing is more certain to attract the attention of students 
of forestry in Kentucky, than the contrast met with in passing 
from the splendid woodlands of Muldraugh’s Hill onto the 
‘Cincinnati limestone of the Bluegrass Region, near Danville. 
Especially is this contrast striking in Garrard county, which, 
though one of the finest and richest in the State, is neverthe- 
less, with the exception of a few fenced-up groves, a treeless 
waste, devoid alike of water and forests. Coursing across it 
here and there can still be traced the dried-up beds of numer- 
ous streams, in which, within the memory of citizens living 
along them, water continuously flowed. Inasmuch as the Cin- 
cinnati limestone is an exceedingly waterless formation, or one 
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