Palmer — Flora of the Grand Falls Chert Barrens. 105 
need of further explanation. On both sides of the creek, 
wherever the chert is exposed and even over the small 
area on Turkey Creek in Jasper County, these peculiar 
mounds may be observed. ‘They are perhaps most typi- 
cally developed along Silver Creek, a small stream that 
flows into Shoal Creek from the north, near Reding’s Mill. 
A large number may be seen along this stream, just west 
of the Joplin wagon road, and between this point and the 
mouth of ‘‘Tanyard Hollow’’ hundreds could doubtless 
be counted. 
These elevations are usually from ten to thirty feet in 
diameter, roughly circular in outline and rise in the center 
to a height of from two to three feet above the general 
level. The plants occupying these knolls are, as might 
be expected, chiefly those of the dry woods, which monop- 
olize these more favorable spots nearly to the exclusion 
of the barren species. Amongst trees and shrubs Quer- 
cus stellata, Q. marylandica, Diospyros virgimana, Frax- 
inus americana, Amelanchier canadensis, Rubus villosus, 
Rosa setigera, Vaccinium arboreum and V. vacillans are 
common. 
A general similarity in size and form and something 
like uniformity of distribution at several points strongly 
suggests the theory that the mounds are of artificial ori- 
gin. With this idea, no doubt, persons digging for relics 
have dug trenches in several of them at different points. 
However, so far as known, nothing has been found in any 
of them to repay the investigation or to bear out the 
theory. The material forming the mounds, as encoun- 
tered in these excavations, is a mixture of soil, clay and 
chert fragments, showing no evidence of human agency in 
its arrangement, but on the contrary having every ap- 
pearance of being a natural deposit of residuary material. 
Indian relies are found at a number of places in the near- 
by alluvial valley; but one could scarcely believe that 
the rocky barrens would be likely to have appealed to the 
aboriginal settlers as a favorable site either for a vil- 
lage or a necropolis. Moreover a careful search has 
