degree of latitude, with its southern line restinj;- upon the 36th 

 parallel. This annex is sometimes called the peninsula of 

 Missouri; it contains approximately one thousand square miles 

 and constitutes, therefore, only a small (the sixty-eighth) part 

 of the State ; but, though territorially so small, considered from 

 the standpoint of the naturalist it is a very important and valuable 

 addition. 



In establishing the boundary line between Missouri and 

 Arkansas it was at first intended to run it all along the parallel 

 of 3^° 30' to the Mississippi River, but the early settlers of the 

 peninsula strongly opposed the political separation from Missouri 

 on the very good reason that they were entirely cut off from 

 the State of Arkansas by impassable swamps while a few ridges 

 with wagon roads connected them with Missouri. For eight 

 months of the year about one-half of the peninsula is under water 

 and the dry land is cut up into a number of islands of all sizes, 

 separated by a "network of sloughs and cross-sloughs. The main 

 sloughs run north and south and carry not only the precipitation 

 of the region, but they are also fed by the highwaters of the 

 Mississippi in the east, the Francis in the west, and the Little 

 River in the centre. With the exception of a few narrow ridges, 

 called prairies, running north and south between these rivers, the 

 whole territory is still covered with the original forest, and the 

 comparatively small clearings and deadenings. made for farming 

 purposes on the higher levels of the islands, have not yet changed 

 the woodland character of the region. Even the rivers and 

 sloughs are not free from trees, except in the so-called openings 

 or lakes. Leaving only a narrow channel, there are scattered 

 through the water magnificent cypresses, picturesque tupelos, 

 clusters of waterelms {Planera)^ elbowwood covered with buck- 

 vine, flanked by acres upon acres of flags, which in turn are 

 bordered by wide belts of smartweed. patches of Nehunlnum, 

 NymphiBa, and other aquatic plants. Adjoining the slough, the 

 true home of the cypress and tupelo, is the land of the sweet gum, 

 a tree of formidable size, often over a hundred feet high, with sour 

 gum, hackberry, sycamore, gigantic willows, swamp chestnut oak 

 (cow oak), ash, soft maple, sassafras, mulberry, boxelder, holly, 

 and, as undergrowth, waterbeech {Carpiniis), dogwood, redbud, 



