LAKE TO FOREST OR PRAIRIE 



245 



deeper layer in the forest than in the corresponding layer in the 

 relatively short vegetation of the prairie. The forest atmosphere 

 is more humid than that of the prairie. 

 Evaporation is relatively greater on the 

 prairie. 



Most of the original prairie has passed 

 under cultivation, and the prairie flora and 

 fauna have largely been obliterated. Scat- 

 tered remnants of it persist, a few plants 

 and the associated animals surviving in 

 this locality, a few others elsewhere. But 

 in few if any localities is the old wealth of 

 prairie forms to be encountered in .any- 

 thing like its early luxuriance. Probably 

 along the rights of way of the railroads the FlG z ^- 

 prairie forms are found more abundantly furcatus. 



FIG. 359. Luxuriant grasses of wet prairie 



