OBSERVATIONS ON THE FLOWERING PLANTS, FERNS AND 

 FERN ALLIES GROWING WILD IN SCHOOLCRAFT COUNTY 

 AND VICINITY IN THE UPPER PENINSULA OF MICHIGAN 

 IN 1915 



During the season of 1915 a camp for general biological work was 

 established on the bank of Manistique River, perhaps 22 or more miles 

 northeast of the city of Manistique, at a place known as Floodwood, a 

 very wild and uninhabited locality. It having been decided to examine 

 also the wild plants of the region, the writer undertook the work, 

 the wild vegetation of Mackinac and Chippewa Counties had previously 

 received some attention, it was thought best as far as time would permit, 

 to connect the present with former work. 



Schoolcraft County 



This county is bounded on the south by Lake Michigan, east by 

 Mackinac and Luce counties, north by Alger County, west by Alger 

 County in part and by Delta County. It is from 36 to 40 miles north 

 and south and from 30 to 36 miles east and west. Its Lake Michigan 

 shore line is about 40 miles and its northern boundary is from less than 

 6 to 12 miles from the south shore of Lake Superior. Manistique, the 

 county seat on Lake Michigan, is about 300 miles and the south shore 

 of Lake Superior about 350 miles from the south state lino. From the 

 city of Detroit it is about 165 west and 200 miles north. The city of 

 Manistique has a population of about 5,000, all other places being very 

 small, and the county in general being sparsely settled. So far as the 

 writer has been able to learn there is no available literature on the wild 

 plants of this region. 



General Surface Conditions 



The surface of the county is very irregular and much broken up into 

 tamarack-black spruce swamps, cranberry marshes, large open wet 

 and undrained areas, jack pine plains, sand ridges, and sand duru 

 small spots and larger tracts of hardwoods. Comparatively speaking 

 it is not a rocky country as is so generally supposed by those who have 

 not visited the county. No rock outcropping in the comity was noticed 

 except limestone exposures along or near the Lake Michigan shore. 

 White and Norwa} r pines were formerly quite abundant in many places, 

 but such tracts were mostly long ago lumbered, shrubs and small trees 

 only now remaining. Verj^ small areas of original pine are occasionally 



