208 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



that trees would not grow on these prairies, — and we have had theories relating 

 to soil or climate, to show why they could not grow. Then there were others 

 who believed that trees did grow there in ancient times, but had been burnt off, 

 and kept burnt off by annual fires. 



Mr. Meehan considered in detail, the authors who had propounded various 

 theories, and the distinguished men who had advocated them, and said that it 

 was evident cUmate could have nothing to do with the question, because in these 

 prairie regions there were often large belts of timber lands, projected like huge 

 arms into the grassy regions, with precisely the same climatal conditions over 

 both. That the soil was not unfavorable, was proved now by the artificial plan- 

 tations everywhere successful, and that the soil was unfavorable to the germina- 

 tion of tree seed, as suggested by Prof. Whitney, was on the face of it untenable, 

 from the fact that it required but the same conditions for the seeds of trees as lor 

 those of herbaceous plants, the number of species of which on the prairies was well 

 known to be very large. Another great gain to out present knowledge, was that 

 since the annual firing of the grassy prairies had been discontinued by the ad- 

 vance of civilization, the timber was everywhere encroaching on them. Among 

 the facts which he offered in proof of this, was a reference to page 505 of the 

 Seventh Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, where Dr. Schneck shows 

 how land which was once grassy prairie, is now covered with a luxuriant growth 

 of forest trees; to the evidence of Major Hotchkiss, Geologist of Staunton, Vir- 

 ginia, that the Shenandoah Valley, now heavily timbered, was clear of trees in 

 the early history of Virginia; to the discovery of buffalo bones, in caves near 

 Stroudsburg, Pa., by Dr. Joseph Leidy, — now a timbered region, the buffalo only 

 existing in open, grassy countries;* and to various traditions of settlers in some 

 valleys now timbered, that the land was originally clear of trees. He pointed 

 out that in all known parts of the United States at the present time, except the 

 arid regions, where only drought loving plants could exist, the natural result 

 of freedom was the succession of forest growth. Seeds were scattered by winds 

 or animals over acres of cleared and; if such land became neglected, these, 

 again seeding in time, extended the forest area continually. The tallest growing 

 vegetation, like trees, crowded out the weaker, and the forest naturally crowded 

 out the lower growing and weaker herbaceous plants. He illustrated this by 

 reference to the neglected cotton fields of the Southern States. 



From all this, the speaker said that it was evident that there was nothing in 

 Nature either now or in the past, to prevent the gradual encroachment of the 

 forest over the grassy plains, till long before the white man came here, the whole 

 would have been completely covered by arborescent growth. Were there any 

 artificial causes equal to the exclusion of trees, and yet permitting an herbaceous 

 growth? If we were to sow a piece of land in the autumn with some tree seed 

 and some seeds of annuals, the latter would be up, flower, mature and scatter 

 their seed to the ground before next autumn, and many of these seeds would be 



* Since these remarks were made it has been brought to the attention of the author, that the bones may- 

 have belonged to the Wood Buffalo. 



