391 



The Trees of White County, Indiana, with Some 

 Reference to Those of the State. 



For a long time botanists have been busy describing species and 

 working out their distribution over the surface of the earth. Dendrolo- 

 gists, more particularly, have been contented with the description and 

 distribution of trees. From studies and reports made thus far, the 

 general ranges of trees and most flowering plants are fairly well known. 

 One might well suspect what plants grow in a certain area, but definite 

 reports are to be preferred. 



Now the significant way to study vegetation is from an ecological 

 standpoint. Completeness is not attained by noting the species of a 

 certain group within any political boundary. Armed with the reliable 

 information of a geologist, the distribution and number of species and 

 individuals, from unicellular plants in the soil and water to the most 

 complex flowering types, should be worked out by the taxonomist-ecol- 

 ogist. This of course would take time, but taking each county, or 

 stream and then working in the intervening spaces, as a unit for the 

 working field, the completed report would show a new natural map 

 with a far greater meaning than isolated and incomplete reports coming 

 from various sections. This would become very far-reaching, taking 

 into account plant diseases, and, being but a step to animal parasites 

 on plants, an account of the complete fauna of the region as well as a 

 complete flora as hinted at above, would be still more desirable. We 

 should then have some really effective Life Zones. 



A complete flora for the State is the aim of the committee on the 

 Biological Survey of the Indiana Academy of Science. To my knowledge 

 there is no similar committee or thought of a complete fauna for the 

 State. 



The Indiana State Board of Forestry is interested in determining 

 just what species of trees grow in Indiana and just what their ranges 

 in the State are. In the Eleventh Annual Report of the State Board 

 of Forestry, 1911, is to be found the most authentic record of Indiana 

 trees up to the present time. There is no pretense that the report is 

 complete either for the total number of species in the State, or much 

 less so for the ranges of those reported. Some counties have been very 

 thoroughly worked, others only partly, and some not at all — at least 



