250 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



General Recommendations. 



The preservation of the natural forest vegetation over 

 certain limited areas to serve as public parks is imj)ortant 

 and has received some of the attention it so greatly de- 

 serves. Private owners have done their part as well as the 

 state. Instances of the public spirit and generosity of 

 individual citizens are seen in the pleasure grounds of 

 Deer Park and Matthison Park just outside the limits 

 of the city of La Salle, both due to the generosity of the 

 late Mr. Matthison. While his heirs are still extending 

 the use of these beautiful spots to the public and also pro- 

 viding for their upkeep, their permanency should be in- 

 sured by vesting their control in the state, the county or 

 the city. The former area might well become an extension 

 of the present Starved Eock State Park, while the latter 

 from its size and situation would naturally become a pub- 

 lic park for the city of La Salle. 



The State has shown its appreciation of the importance 

 of such forest reservation by the inclusion of a most beau- 

 tiful and well wooded portion of tlie Illinois River valley 

 in the Starved Rock State Park. 



A smaller but equally commendable enterprise was the 

 establishment of the Shabona State Park upon the site of 

 an Indian massacre in 1832. This forms an excellent prece- 

 dent for the commemoration of other events of historic 

 interest by the preservation of larger or smaller areas of 

 forested land as state or county parks. 



Classification op Forests. 



Forests may be grouped into classes depending upon 

 the similarity of the situations in which they occur and of 

 the species of which they are composed. The forester 

 speaks of these classes as "forest types," while the ecolo- 

 gist more usually refers to them as "forest associations" 

 and the meaning of the terms is so similar that for our 

 purpose they may be considered as identical and prefer- 

 ence may be given to the forester's terminology. In a 

 former report on the forests of the state, Hall^ has dis- 

 tinguished two classes of forest types, those of the upland 



1 Hall. R. Clifford and Ingall, O. D. Forest conditious in Illinois. Ill State 

 Lab. of Nat. Hist. 9 : 173-253. pis. 21-36. 1911. 



