DESCRIPTION OF JACKSON COUNTY. 



JACKSON County, Missouri, is bounded on the north by the Missouri 

 Eiver, separating it from Clay and Ray Counties, Missouri ; on the west 

 by Wyandotte and Johnson Counties, Kansas ; on the south by Cass 

 County, Missouri ; and on the east by Lafayette and Johnson Counties, 

 Missouri. It is about twenty-seven miles long east and west, and from 

 seventeen to twenty-seven miles wide north and south, and contains 

 some six hundred and twenty-five square miles. In altitude it ranges 

 from about 675 feet above sea level near Levasy to 1,100 feet near Lee's 

 Summit. For so limited an area it exhibits a great diversity of surface, 

 and consequently the flora is rich and varied. 



As most people are aware, the Missouri River is extremely crooked, 

 first approaching the bluff on one side and then the bluff on the other, 

 thus alternately leaving great bottoms on opposite sides of the river. Of 

 these bottoms there are five principal ones in this county, which are 

 known as the Sheffield, Rush, Little Blue, Sibley and Levasy bottoms. 

 The river is continually cutting into and eating away the up-river sides 

 of these bottoms and adding to the lower sides. The sand and mud de- 

 posited on the lower side is at first only uncovered at low water, but 

 being gradually added to is at length never covered save when the river is 

 very high, parts indeed escaping from submergence entirely. In each of 

 the bottoms there is a series of these areas added in successive years, each 

 a little lower than the one next above. The flora of the outer of these 

 areas or sandbars proper is very interesting and peculiar. In places Salix 

 interior is so abundant that one can scarcely force his way through, and 

 everywhere it is the predominant plant. In the more open places are 

 found many herbaceous plants occurring no place else. Many species of 

 Cyperus, Potentilla, Roripa and Eragrostis abound. Juncus Richardsonianus, 

 Juncus bufonius, Juncus Balticus, Aristida intermedia, Oxygraphis Cymba- 

 laria, Sporobolus asperifolius, Corispermum hyssopifolium, Bergia Texana, 

 Fuirena simplex, Limosella aquatica and many other rarities have been 

 found on these sandbars. 



Passing from these outer sand-bars inland the flora gradually changes. 

 Salix interior is first replaced by Salix amygdaloides, Salix cor data Missou- 

 riensis and Populus deltoides, and the herbaceous plants by Equisetum robus- 

 tum, and these in turn give way to the giant elms, oaks and sycamores of 

 the bottom forests. I n the more open parts of these forests several species of 

 Meibomia, SiegUngia seslerioides, Helianthus tuberosus subcanesctns, Anemone 

 Canadensis, Apocynum hypericifolium, Vernonia maxima, Solidago serotina, 

 Aster Missouriensis, Aster paniculatus and various species of Bidens are 



