152 



2. Tamaracf: Swamps. Much of this peat (jr muck land was formerly covered 

 with tamarack, Larix Americana Michx. The trees grew very near to one another 

 and formed a very dense forest, often with an undergrowth of llhuit vcmnata DC, 

 and Betula pumila L. 



The tamarack has for the most part been cut down, and where standing, the 

 trees are often dead. The drying of the soil takes away one essential condition 

 to their growth. 



In and near a few tamarack swamps still standing I collected the only 

 specimens of Betula pumila L., I have seen in Kosciusko County. It is not 

 reported from Noble County by Van Gorder * % but is from Steuben County, by 

 Bradner^*, so that it is probably found sparingly throughout the region and dis- 

 appearing with the tamaracks. 



About ten years ago I collected one specimen of Ci/pripedium acaule Ait., in 

 the edge of a tamarack swamp in the vicinity of Warsaw, Kosciusko Count}'. 



In 1882 Dr. Coulter i' lists it as found in a tamarack swamp in Noble County. 

 Mr. Van Gorder gives reference to the " Editors of the Botanical Gazette, 1881," 

 as his authority for listing it in his Noble County Flora i'^*. It is not reported 

 from Steuben County by Mr. Bradneri*, and has not been seen in Kosciusko 

 Count}' since the specimen mentioned. The authors of the Lake County list ' '^ 

 claim that as the only Indiana station, and mark it "local." The specimen has 

 evidently been lost to this Hora by absence of proper conditions for growth. 



In connection with the decadence of tamarack swamps in this region, it has 

 been observed that a great many of the plants listed by Dr. Jno. Coulter^' as 

 being characteristic plants of his "Lake Region" are not at present the charac- 

 teristic plants of the "Lake Region of Northeastern Indiana." Of his list of 



twenty plants, Betula pumila L., Tofieldia (jlutinosa Willd., Lilium superbum L., 



' r 

 Ruellia clliom Pursh., Solidayo stricta Ait., Ribes rubrum L., Potentilla aryenfea 



L., and Mi/riaphyllum spicatum L., are very rarely found; while Gypripedium 



acaule Ait., O.ralis acetasella L., Aster longifolius Lam., and Vacciniuiu Pennsyl- 



vanicum Lam., have not been reported since that time. Arabii^ h/ratu L., and 



Lechea major Michx., are only occasionally found. Elodes campanulata Pursh., 



■nsth Rep. State Geologist Ind., 1893, p. 3:'.. 



'*17th Rep. State Geologist Ind., 1891-92, p. 135. 



"^ Bet. Gazette, V. Sup. I., 1882, Flora of Indiana. 



'"Higby, Wm. K., and Raddin, Chas. S.. Flora of Cook Co., 111., and a part of Lake 

 Co., Ind. Bull Chicago Acad. Sci. II. 



^' 15th Rep. State Geologist Ind., p. 259. 



'■•Mr. Van Gorder recently report.s it personally found in Noble County, but it is by no 

 means common. 



