Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 209 



The tamarack is one of the earliest of our trees to leaf out in 

 spring, and one of the latest to shed its leaves in autumn. Before 

 falling, the leaves turn to a clear bright gold. The trees had begun 

 to show green by April 27, 1901, and were still quite green Novem- 

 ber 4, 1906. The wood of the tamarack is very hard and durable 

 in contact with the soil, and it is valuable for posts. The tree 

 rarely gets large enough to make into saw timber and is rarely 

 or never used for that purpose. Wounds in the tree cause the 

 exudation of a clear resin which dries to a white firm gum that is 

 very agreeably odorous. The tree bears transplanting to uplands 

 well. The tamarack swamp northeast of the lake which had been 

 drained and was being cleared in 1904, differed in some details 

 in flora from those west of the lake. It contained considerable 

 sweet-birch and wild red raspberry, and in that particular re- 

 sembled those of the La ke-of-the- Woods, Ind., region, which be- 

 longs to the Kankakee system. 



The largest tamarack swamp or grove in this part of Indiana, 

 and so far as we know the most southern one in the state, is a short 

 distance northeast of Kewanna, about 12 miles south of Lake Max- 

 inkuckee, on the east side of the Vandalia railroad from which it 

 may be easily seen. This grove covers many acres. The trees are 

 unusually large and the grove is very dense and interesting. 



28. RED CEDAR 



JUNIPERUS VIRGINIANA L. 



A few small Red Cedar trees were found crowning the steep 

 bank of the lake on the east side a little north of Van Schoiack's. 

 They were probably seedlings from dooryard trees. Like many 

 plants whose leaves are persistent, this plant turns quite red in 

 winter. The red cedar is generally quite scarce in northern. In- 

 diana and is usually found, when it occurs, in sandy or gravelly 

 places in the regions about lakes. It is often planted in dooryards. 

 By far the greater number of trees appear to be staminate. When- 

 ever a pistillate tree occurs it usually bears heavy crops of blue ber- 

 ries. These are eagerly eaten by birds, especially house sparrows, 

 which scatter the seed, so that the woodlands near a house where 

 a bearing tree is found, are usually well scattered with young trees. 

 In the southern part of the state the young seedlings are abundant 

 in woodlands and pastures and are in places almost a nuisance, 

 forming prickly shrubs something like a permanent thistle. 



14— 17618— Vol. 2 



