156 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Gorby; Henry County by Phinney; Clint oji, Mar.sliall and Slarke (/ounties 

 by W. H. Thompson; Boone County by Gorby and Lee, and Haneoek County 

 by R. T. Brown. 



These county reports are followed by a paper of especial interest to l)otan- 

 ists, and probably the only one of permanent scientifie value in the volume, 

 entitled "The Origin of the Indiana Flora," by John M. Coulter and Harvey 

 Thompson. After a discussion of the topographical features of Indiana, they 

 divided the State into "seven distinct botanical regions, each differing from 

 all the others in conditions of soil, moisture and topography and consequently 

 in climate and vegetation." A list of the most characteristic plants of each 

 region was then given. Following these lists is a discussion of the main 

 causes and means of the migration of plants and the origin of the North 

 American flora. This was succeeded by a list of 342 plants common to the 

 northeastern United States and Europe. Of plant migration into Indiana 

 they say: "Lying, as the State does, in the very central northern part of the 

 country, it became the common meeting ground of migrations from various 

 directions. As the glacial times were beginning, and streams of migrations 

 began to set in from the north, the hardy invaders began to take possession 

 of the soil and the more tender natives retired southward before the same 

 conditions. Two distinct streams of northern migi'ation have been made 

 out, one from the northeast, the other from the northwest, the former being 

 the first in point of time and apparently the most important in results. With 

 the coming on of warmer conditions, and the consequent melting and re- 

 treat of the glaciers, these arctic plants were compelled to move northward 

 again, some as has been said, finding suitable conditions of growth in our 

 deep valleys or highlands. The more southern forms spread northward 

 again within the State, but never regained the foothold they had lost." 



"Plants from the east and south that have since come in, and are still coming 

 to us, have mostly reached us by the great river systems of the Ohio and 

 Mississippi. Plants from the west, the most recent of our invaders, have 

 come chiefly along lines of railroad, most important lines for plant advance. 

 At least five distinct directions have thus been clearly made out from which 

 our plants have come to us. First, from the northeast; second, from the 

 northwest; third and fourth, from the east and south; and fifth, from the 

 west." They then give lists of the species which came in from each of these 

 directions and conclude that, of the 1191 plants then known from tbe State 

 more than four-fifths have a range north and east of Indiana. 



In the latter part of the year 1886 Natural Gas was first discovered in 

 Indiana, and the final paper of the Thompson Report was devoted to a dis- 

 cussion of this then little known fuel. Of it Thompson wrote : ' 'The discovery 

 of gas at Findlay and at other points in northwestern Ohio, created a furor 

 for well boring, which ran all over Indiana, and the drill began its work at 

 whatever point money was to be had to pay for the expensive operation. 

 The consequence has been a loss to the citizens of Indiana of many thousands 

 of dollars. The State Geologist was not consulted, save in two or three in- 



