302 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MAY 
of the total number of trees. The beech is absent in the 
Marquette region, and the significance of this is not clear. It 
may be due to the fact that the climate is not favorable for its 
development. It is present, however, in the northern peninsula 
east of Marquette. 
The whole interior of North Manitou island (fg. z), except 
in clearings and undrained areas, is covered with a mature maple- 
beech-hemlock forest. The presence of seedlings and young trees 
of these three in abundance and the absence of all other young 
trees in their shade indicate that the future forest growth will 
be the same as the present. The climax forest in places reaches 
nearly to the shore of Lake Michigan, restricting the coniferous 
and heath societies to very narrow belts. If the present shore line 
should remain constant, and if the natural succession of plant 
societies were not interfered with by man, undoubtedly the whole 
island would in time become completely covered with a 
deciduous forest save a narrow strip, the last remnants of a 
coniferous forest, next the water’s edge. 
The undergrowth in the dense shade of the maples, beeches, 
and hemlock is scanty. Taxus Canadensis and Mitchella repens 
are usually the most abundant. The spring plants are character- 
istic, but their vegetative period is confined to the leafing time 
of the trees under which they grow, so that by midsummer 
only traces of the many forms survive. The loose sandy soil is 
favorable for creeping underground stems. Lianas are entirely 
wanting. This is probably due to the lack of sufficient light and 
heat, for in the open woods farther south the liana habit is com- 
mon, and as one approaches the tropics the increasing warmth, 
even in dense shade, favors a luxuriant growth of lianas. 
Epiphytes, except mosses, liverworts, and lichens growing on the 
bark of trees, are also absent. 
Aspidium spinulosum intermedium, A. marginale, Lycopodium 
lucidulum, L. inundatum, Actaea alba, Goodyera pubescens, Osmor- 
rhiza brevistylis, Maianthemum Canadense, Monotropa uniflora, 
Corallorhiza odontorhiza, and Epiphegus Virginiana are among 
the most common plants that occupy a place in these forests. 

