PAPERS ON BOTANY 129 
PLANT SUCCESSION ON AN ARTIFICIAL BARE 
AREA IN ILLINOIS 
W. B. McDovueaui, UNiversrry or ILLINOIS 
The opportunities that botanists have had for studying the 
revegetation of bare areas of great extent have been few. The 
island of Kracatoa, laid bare by its volcanic explosion in 1883, 
has become a classic example. The Salton Sea area in southern 
California which is being so carefully studied by Dr. D. T. Mac- 
Dougal and his collaborators bids fair to become as great a 
classic. The region laid bare by the eruption of Mount Katmai 
in Alaska, which is being made famous by Dr. R. F. Griggs, is 
a still more recent example. But this nearly completes the list. 
It is, therefore, of interest to note that we have in Illinois sey- 
eral bare areas of no mean proportions some of which are being 
left for nature to reclothe. 
The areas to which I refer are those bottomland areas that 
have been “stripped” by coal mining companies in the practice 
of surface mining. Aid received from the Illinois State Labo- 
ratory of Natural History enabled me to make several visits to 
the properties of the Missionfield Coal Company, situated about 
five miles west of Danville, Llinois, during the summer of 1917. 
These properties which cover some thirty or forty acres are of 
special interest because they consist of three distinct sections 
which were worked at different times and therefore represent 
different stages of revegetation. 
The area under consideration was originally covered with the 
bottomland forest characteristic of the region in which the 
sycamore is one of the dominant trees. This vegetation was all 
destroyed of course by the operations of the mining company 
and the land was left as a bare area consisting of alternating 
ridges, and furrows, the ridges varying from three or four feet 
to twelve or fifteen feet in height. I am indebted to Mr. W. G. 
Hartshorn for information concerning the time that has 
elapsed since the various parts of the area were worked by the 
coal company. The facts brought out by him are that the east 
section was operated about eighteen years ago and the middle 
