62 BIG SPRING PRAIRIE. 
more prominent than in the lower area to the west and 
north, on account of the abundance of water discharged 
formerly by these springs, which preserved the accumu- 
lation of plant remains, as in the neighborhood of Ox 
Spring. This more elevated portion is characterized 
by its rather dense sod of grasses and sedges with its 
occasional Solidago, Eupatorium, Dryopteris thelyp- 
teris, etc. 
To the west of this area there is another typical 
Potentilla fruticosa, Betula pumila, Salix myrtilloides, 
Rhus vernix heath, but the Lacinaria spicata and 
Allium cernuum are lacking, the soil here being a pure 
black muck of great depth. 
The following are as common here as at Ox Spring: 
Solidago riddellii, Solidago ohioensis, Solidago cana- 
densis, Dryopteris thelypteris, Aster novae-angliae, 
Helenium autumnal, Agrimonia parviflora, Coreopsis 
tinctoria, Spathema foetida is more common. 
Ordinary weeds from cultivated ground seldom 
occur here as few slight, and no severe prairie fires have 
devastated this portion. The absence of severe prairie 
fires is chiefly accounted for by its distance from rail- 
road. ‘The sod is broken in such few places that seed- 
ling poplars and willows are notcommon. Still further 
to the west and north there occurs an extensive heath 
of the Rosa carolina, Potentilla fruticosa variety rep- 
resented in fig. 13. 
South of new road No. 2 there is an extensive 
Rosa carolina, Sambucus canadensis, Potentilla fruti- 
cosa heath. No willows or poplars of any consequence 
occur here now, although numerous young trees were 
quite abundant eight to ten years ago, as the remains 
were still strewn about upon the ground, or were still 
standing as dead trunks. Most probably they were 
destroyed by a prairie fire, severe enough to kill the 
trees, not severe enough to burn the soil. 
