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ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



sidered most promising for settlement and home build- 

 ing. Always in those places where it has been long es- 

 tablished, it has escaped from cultivation and spread it- 

 self throughout the countryside; sometimes in many 

 plantings consisting of large numbers of well developed 

 shrubs and multitudes of seedlings ; and sometimes only 

 in occasional adventitious plantings having a few 

 scrawny weakling shrubs. 



Such variation in numbers, both of escaped plantings 

 and shrubs, together with a very apparent lack of uni- 

 formity regarding the chemical nature of the soils they 

 inhabit, has led to a certain amount of speculation as to 

 the ideal habitat for the barberry. 



It is obvious that, since the barberry depends for the 

 dispersal of its seeds upon the assistance of birds (4), 



Map 4. McHenry County. Scale Vi" = 1 mile. Markings same as Map 2. 



