ii62 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



the rich upland and (3) the flat upland. The first is seen 

 typically in the south half of a tract northeast of Earl- 

 ville (Map III, a) where along with black and bur oaks 

 are found such shrubs as choke-cherry, panicled dogwood, 

 hazel nut and New Jersey tea, while among the herbace- 

 ous plants are sunflowers, horse gentian, asters and golden 

 rod. Another area of this type is seen in Section 21 (Map 

 III, b). 



The flat upland oak type is not extensively developed 

 but is seen in a 40 acre tract in Section 17 (Map III, c). 

 The essential feature of the soil is poor drainage and 

 while oaks still predominate a list of tree species begin- 

 ning with the most abundant and passing gradually to the 

 least would be: bur oak, white ash, elm, black oak, bass- 

 wood, red oak, walnut, butternut. Hill's black oak 

 (Q. ellipsoidalis), white oak, sugar maple, bitternut 

 hickory and shagbark hickory. 



Before cutting began the rich oak forest was probably 

 the most abundant type and a well preserved ungrazed 

 area of some eight acres in Section 20 (Map III, d) now 

 seems to represent a condition approaching somewhat 

 nearly to that which existed formerly over a very consider- 

 able portion of the timber soil. Here white and red oak 

 predominate, and sugar maple comes next in abundance, 

 there are scattering trees of white ash, basswood, elm, 

 and black walnut with an occasional shagbark hickory 

 and mulberiy. The red-berried elder and the prickly ash 

 among the shrubs and blood root, hepatica, phlox, water 

 leaf and the broad leafed sedge in the undergrowth, all 

 indicate the climax richness of this forest. While the ab- 

 sence of trees more than two feet in diameter indicates 

 that some cutting has occurred, there seems to be good evi- 

 dence that there has been none during the past 30 or 40 

 years. 



Few of the areas show clean cutting and subsequent 

 reproduction, the usual range of sizes being from 8 to 18 

 inches, grazing having kept down reproduction for many 

 years. Two tracts, however, in Sections 4 and 27 (Map 

 III, e, f ) show a second growth stand, trees ranging from 

 4 to 8 inches across dominating the area. 



