3H 



THb: FUKtISTEK. 



December, 



people in the country and strenuously 

 fought the flames. The fire at one time 

 readied a point only half a mile from the 

 town, and was being driven by a high 

 wind. Much fencing and several fruit 

 orchards were destroyed. 



Missouri. About the middle of Novem- 

 ber forest fires broke out south of Poplar 

 Bluff, Missouri. The sky was soon cov- 

 ered with dense volumes of smoke and a 

 great amount of property was endangered. 

 Hunters were driven in on account of the 

 intense heat and smoke, and they reported 



that deer, wolves, and other game fled 

 north to escape the flames. 



Arkansas. A telegram from Seder- 

 wick, on November 16, stated that the 

 plant of the Culver Lumber Manufactur- 

 ing Company was burned, along with sev- 

 eral hundred thousand feet of lumber. 



Tennessee. During the second week 

 in November a fire broke out in the oak 

 and chestnut forests near Sewanee, Tenn., 

 and before it could be controlled damaged 

 several hundred acres of timber. 



TWENTY NATIVE FOREST TREES OF NEBRASKA. 



By Dr. Charles E. Bessey, 

 Of the University of Nebraska. 



IN studying the forest trees of Nebraska 

 it has been a comparatively easy mat- 

 ter to determine the fact that by far 

 the greater number of species have mi- 

 grated out upon the plains from the great 

 body of North American forests lying in 

 the Mississippi Valley and eastward. 

 These trees found their way into what is 

 now the State of Nebraska by way of the 

 forests which border the Missouri River. 

 As we pass downward along the river from 

 southeastern Nebraska the forest belt 

 becomes larger and larger until it event- 

 ually merges into the great body of forest 

 trees lying on the easterly side of the Miss- 

 issippi Valley. 



The trees which have come into Ne- 

 braska in this way are the common Red 

 Cedar, Pawpaw, probably all of our Wil- 

 lows which attain the dimensions of trees 

 (six in number), one Cottonwood, Bass- 

 wood, all of our Elms (three in number), 

 Hackberry, Mulberry, all of our species of 

 Ash trees (three in number), our Wild 

 Apple, four species of Hawthorns, June 

 Berry, Wild Cherry, Choke Cherry, Wild 

 Plum, Coffee Bean, Honey Locust, Red- 

 bud, Sycamore, two species of Buckthorn, 

 Buckeye, one of our Maples, Box elder, 

 Sumach, two species of Walnut, all of our 

 Hickories (five in number), all of our Oaks 

 (nine or ten in number), Ironwood, Blue 

 Beech, and possibly one Birch. There are 



thus fifty-six or fifty-seven species of trees 

 which have without much question come 

 into the State from the forests of the South- 

 east. 



The trees which have come into the 

 State from the Rocky Mountain forests 

 number but ten species, and they have 

 made much less impression upon the 

 forests of the State than those which came 

 from the eastern forests. In this list are 

 the Bull Pine, the Western Red Cedar, 

 four species of Cottonwood, Buffalo Berry, 

 one Maple, and two Birches. 



There are sixty-six or sixty-seven species 

 of native trees in Nebraska, and of these 

 fifty-six or fifty-seven have advanced into 

 the State from the southeast, while ten 

 have advanced eastward more or less into 

 the State from the Rocky Mountain forests 

 being west of the State line. I have shown 

 elsewhere that these trees are not now, 

 and probably never have been, at rest in 

 the State. Some of them are possibly los- 

 ing their foothold, but others are certainly 

 advancing still further into the State. 



For this paper I have selected twenty of 

 the Nebraska trees, as through a discussion 

 of their distribution it will not be difficult 

 to understand that of all the species. For 

 a similar discussion of all the species see 

 my paper " The Forests and Forest Trees 

 of Nebraska," published in the Annual 

 Report of the Nebraska State Board of 



