75 



probaljly accidental entrants, the hemlock and walnut relicts of 

 former more abundant growth. The chestnuts were all dead 

 trunks with young root shoots. Other chestnuts had been cut in 

 recent years, as witnessed by the stumps, so that the 62 dead trees 

 (making 3.6 per cent, of the total) is only about half the number 

 that would have been found before the chestnut canker wrought 

 havoc among them. The young shoots are the heroic effort 

 of the dying trees to hold their place in the forest, but are, 

 of course, of no importance to the future of the forest. Evidently 

 the climax forest will differ from the one it succeeds chiefly in the 

 loss of the chestnuts, walnut and hemlock and in the addition of 

 sour cherry, hackberry and ailanthus. The apple trees, while 

 holding their own with the younger growth, show no sign 

 of being able to persist in a denser and larger forest growth. The 

 locust, sumach, aspens and gray birch are pioneer trees that will 

 later give way. Judging of the future composition of the forest 

 by the young growth, ash will become relatively more important 

 than at present, as there were more of both seedlings and shoots 

 than of any other tree. Hickory, white and black oak, black birch 

 and sugar maple all have frequent shoots and less frequent seed- 

 lings, and even with the frequent ground fires will be at least as 

 important in the future as at present. If fires could be prevented 

 dense forest would soon develop. Tulip trees seem to be more 

 sensitive to fire than others, for while seedlings of one season were 

 common older ones or root shoots were entirely absent. 



Xo definite correlation could be made between the shrubby and 

 herbaceous vegetation and the trees. Chestnut oaks, which domi- 

 nated certain parts of the ridge, had associated with them laurel, 

 a;:alea and \'acciniums, none of which grew with the black oaks. 

 Under the same trees, too, HclianfJins divaricatus and Anychia 

 canadensis had their greatest frequency indices. Black oak, the 

 most abundant tree, and for large areas the dominant one, had no 

 plants especially associated with it, though the most abundant 

 plant of the region, Falcata comosa, had its highest frequency 

 index under these trees, as did also Poa compressa and Potcntilla 

 canadensis. With sugar maple in the damper soil grew all the 



