GENERAL ECOLOGY OF SWOPE PARK 13 



a heavy growth of deciduous trees, including giant American 

 elms, cork elms, sycamore, silver maple, walnut, hackberry. 

 honey locust, coffee bean, ash, various oaks, four species of 

 hickory, and other trees. There are also smaller trees like the 

 buckeye, hop-hornbeam, redbud, dogwood, the haws and wild 

 crab. 



Covering the crests of the hills the soil is underlaid near 

 the surface with Bethany Falls limestone, which crops out in 

 ragged cliffs near the brow of the hills. In many places great 

 fragments of the ledge have broken off and have slid a dis- 

 tance down the hills, the whole giving a picturesque wildness 

 of scenery that is delightful. 



The soil covering the upper hill slopes is so shallow that 

 it becomes quite dry during dry summers and the vegetation 

 is of a type that can endure such drouth. The predominating 

 trees for these dryer regions are post oak and black oak with 

 quite a sprinkling of other species that are more abundant in 

 the valleys and on the slopes. In the more barren portions. 

 the post oak is dwarfed to a mere shrub, while in more favored 

 regions it grows to a height of forty feet or more. 



A miscellaneous collection of vines and shrubs form a 

 second strata of vegetation among the trees. Those of most 

 prominence are the dogwoods, wahoo, buckbrush, bladder-nut. 

 and wild gooseberry among the shrubs, and Virginia creeper, 

 poison ivv, bitter-sweet, wild grape and wild smilax for the 

 vines. There are also many herbaceous perennials, some of 

 them being beautiful "wild flowers" when in bloom. This 

 undergrowth of vegetation is undisturbed in much of the Park. 

 In the extreme south part of the Park there is a ridge 



