PLANTS OF BOONE COUNTY, KENTUCKY. 
JAMES CARLTON NELSON, Salem, Ore. 
The following is a list of plants collected in that part of Boone 
County, Kentucky lying along the Ohio River opposite the Indiana 
counties of Ohio and Switzerland, extending along the river from the 
town of Grant to the mouth of Gunpowder Creek—some ten miles—and 
back from the river an average <istance of seven miles. The region 
belongs geologically to the “Cincinnati Uplift,” and is very hilly, except 
in the wide East Bend river-bottom. There is no exposed rock, such as 
forms the picturesque limestone cliffs farther down the Ohio, except a 
soft blue shale in deep stream-channels, and some large masses of con- 
glomerate marking the terminal moraine of the Ice Age, which extends 
inland from the Ohio at “Split Rock,” opposite the mouth of Laughery 
Creek, to a point about three miles west of the town of Union. The 
flora of this morainic district presents a marked contrast to that of the 
rest of the county. The region was originally covered with a dense 
forest of deciduous trees, which have been largely cleared away, leaving 
a very rich soil, which is rapidly washed away on the steep slopes, so 
that the prevailing soil is a tough yellow clay mixed with fragments of 
extremely hard blue fossiliferous limestone. The chief crop is tobacco, 
which has rapidly exhausted the soil and rendered it in many places 
sterile and unproductive. These collections were made during the years 
1881-1893. I had no assistance in the work except such as was afforded 
by Gray’s Manual, and the determinations represent in nearly every case 
simply my own unsupported opinion. The nomenclature is that of Gray’s 
Manual, Seventh Edition. In making the determinations I used the 
Fifth and later the Sixth Edition of this Manual. I am indebted to 
Mr. Chas. C. Deam of Bluffton, Indiana, for his kindness in looking over 
the entire list and offering suggestions based on his own wide knowledge 
of the plants of Indiana. These suggestions I have in every case incor- 
porated in the list. The region lies well within the limits of Gray’s 
Manual, and there was little intrusion of extra-limital species. The 
Northern collector will note, however, the predominance of Southern 
types. Noteworthy is the total absence of Ericacee proper and Orchid- 
acez, and the scanty representation of Umbellifere. No attempt was 
made to determine ferns, grasses and sedges. 
(125) 
