1900] FLORA OF THE WHITE LAKE REGION 423 
On the south side it was much more varied, heath-loving plants 
mingling more with mesophytic kinds. In the sand plain to 
the north the tree covering was almost wholly white pine and 
oak, Quercus velutina, Q. coccinea, Q. rubra, Q. alba, and Q. 
macrocarpa being observed, while on the south side, as well as 
by Duck lake, Muskrat lake, and the valley to the west of the 
plain, these trees were interspersed with beech, sugar maple, 
basswood, hemlock, white elm, black ash, white ash, black 
birch, paper birch, silver maple, tupelo, black cherry, wild red 
cherry, sassafras, and white cedar. The difference was manifest 
in the color of the corn in the fields and the behavior of the 
grass. On the north side the corn was pale and the grass with 
difficulty made a sod; on the south side the corn had a deeper 
green, but not the rich green color which comes from a deep 
firm soil, and the grass sodded fairly well in damper places. 
But wherever there was a bare surface, as in plowed fields and 
roadways, the ground showed a sand plain. 
The floral societies formed by this mixture did not readily 
harmonize with ideas of plant ecology based on experience 
with plants growing in a soil more natural to them and under 
conditions more uniform. I was familiar with this in the dune 
region at the head of Lake Michigan, where the herbaceous 
vegetation is much varied and the arboreous considerably so, but 
the tree covering south of White lake much exceeded it in 
variety. It was a surprise to find on the top of a dune, or sand 
covered hill with a base of clay like that on which Sylvan 
beach is located, a comparatively pure beech wood. The hill is 
capped with sand blown up from the neighboring beach. Its 
south end to some extent still battles with the winds, and owes 
its immunity in part to their prevailing direction from the 
“northwest, which makes their work more effectual on the north 
end of the dunes lying toward Michillinda. These dunes, 
together with the sand washed up in the low interval between, 
furnish the material of the large active dune now encroaching si 
White lake. The timbered dune between this QPEnine and 
Michillinda is high and steep on both sides. Within the space 
