162 
others. It is probable that further study will place the sedges and 
grasses in the third and fourth places instead of the fifth and sixth, in 
which they are now found. Twenty-seven families are represented by a 
single species, so far as reports have come to the survey. 
Of the 1,369 species, about one hundred and fifty are hydrophytes, 
about one hundred xerophytes, the remainder being mesophytes. The 
hydrophytic area has its center in the lake region in the northern counties 
and in the marsh lands of the Kankakee River, though in a lesser degree 
occurring along waterways and in local swamp regions. The true xero- 
phytic flera is for the most part confined to the sand regions near Lake 
Michigan, although along the roadbeds of the older railways true xero- 
phytes are occasionally found. 
The mesophytie flora of the State is being largely modified and the 
hydrophytic flora is rapidly disappearing or assuming mesophytic adapta- 
tions because of the extensive drainage of swamp regions. With the 
drainage of the Kankakee marshes many forms, now a part of the flora, 
will disappear. Evident modifications of the flora are also occurring 
as the result of cultivation of the soil, and the removal of forest areas 
and undergrowth. The effects of these changes are especially noticeable 
in the virgin forest areas that still remain. In Marshall county such an 
area carefully preserved from the time of the entering of the land for set- 
tlement, has within the last few years shown a marked and rapid loss 
of value; the tops and larger branches dying, and in many cases the 
main trunk also showing signs of decay. It is estimated that within five 
years the timber has decreased in value at least twenty-five per cent. 
The apparent modifications of conditions are, clearing of adjacent forest 
areas leaving the virgin tract isolated, cultivation of the lands up to the 
borders of the area and an enormous increase in the number and carry- 
ing capacity of the tile drains. The timber of the area is ‘‘mixed,” as is 
the rule in Indiana forests, but no species seems exempt from the effects 
of these changed conditions. It is possible that the trees may haye ap- 
proached their normal life and that the changed conditions have merely 
served to hasten the decay properly chargeable to age. That this infer- 
ence can scarcely be true, is shown from the fact that in Jackson county 
and the lower stretches of the Wabash much larger and evidently much 
older forms of the same species maintain themselves in full vigor. In 
Hamilton county and in other localities the Beeches have been most seri- 
ously affected. This is possibly due to a lowering of the soil water line 
