INTRODUCTION. 17 



The Southern Bottom Lands. As a typical example of a lo- 

 cality presenting the characteristic features of the southern bottom- 

 lands, I shall select, for special description, the "Cypress Swamps" of 

 Knox county, Indiana, which, to the writer, have been the scene 

 both of many fruitful explorations and delightful memories. 



The series of ponds which, together with their connecting "sloughs," 

 constitute the so-called cypress swamps, are situated on the point 

 of land known as "The Neck," a sort of peninsula between the mouth 

 of White River, on the south and east, and the Wabash, on the 

 west. The most southerly of these ponds lies about two miles to 

 the northeast of Mount Carmel, in a direct line; and interspersed 

 through the forest, at distances from one another of from a hun- 

 dred yards or less to perhaps a quarter of a mile, are other ponds, 

 varying in their shape, extent and character. Those best known 

 ,are designated as the "Cypress," "Forked," "Beaver-dam," and 

 "Washburne's " ponds, the latter being the largest. They all drain, 

 by connecting swamps, into White river, a short distance above the 

 mouth of the latter stream, through a crooked ditch, known as the 

 "White River slough," deeply cut through the alluvial soil and 

 everywhere overshadowed by dense forest. 



Some of these ponds are mostly open, but others are filled with 

 willow trees (Salix nigra), averaging perhaps 50 feet, but occasion- 

 ally growing more than 70 feet, in height, but of slender form; 

 while even the open ponds have a bordering fringe of these trees, 

 occasionally mixed with swamp cottonwood (Populus heterophylla). 

 In the swampy tracts between the ponds grow dense and tangled 

 thickets of button-bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), clumps of black 

 alder or water holly ( Hex devidua tall stems of Amorpha fruticosa, 

 and occasional crooked, thorny trees of the water locust (Gleditschia 

 monosperma). The open portions of the ponds are in summer 

 choked with a rank growth of various aquatic plants, the "spatter- 

 dock" (Nuphar advena) prevailing, but giving way in deeper water 

 to the beautiful western pond lily (Nymphcea tuberosa). 



The southern cypress (Taxodium distichum) here almost at its 

 northern limit formerly grew in abundance and attained magnifi- 

 cent proportions about the borders of the ponds and in the inter- 

 vening swamps, as well as along the main "slough," but at present 

 few fine trees are to be seen. Nowhere do they now form the ex- 

 clusive or even prevailing growth, but are scattered singly or in 

 groups among tall sycamores, ashes (Fraxinus americana), sweet 

 gums (Liquidambar styraciflua), water oaks (Quercus palustris) and 

 2 



