58 



about Lincoln was made in automobiles, but lack of time and 

 intense heat precluded anything resembling careful study. 



That evening the party continued the journey, stopping next 

 at Akron, Colorado, 400 miles west of Lincoln. Akron lies in 

 the midst of the Great Plains. North and south, east and west, 

 as far as the eye can reach, stretches a vast, featureless expanse 

 of grassland. Two most interesting days were spent here. The 

 first of these was occupied by an eighty-mile automobile ride 

 across the plains, to and from the sand hills, with frequent stops. 

 The second day was spent about the United States Dry Land 

 Experiment Station. The prevalent type of vegetation on the 

 plains proper, as contrasted with the sand hills, consists largely 

 of various species of Bouteloua, Buchloe, and Aristida, and is 

 commonly spoken of as short-grass. The short-grass associa- 

 tions, together with those characteristic of the sand hills, have 

 been fully discussed by Shantz.* 



Two days were next occupied along the eastern border of the 

 Rocky Mountains — at Palmer Lake and near Colorado City — 

 studying the vegetation of the tension zone between forest 

 toward the west and grassland toward the east. In the invasion 

 of grassland by forest the advance guard is usually a thicket in 

 which Quercus Gunnisonii commonly is dominant. The thicket 

 stage may be followed by Pinus edulis and Juniperus scopulorum, 

 but more often, as in the Garden of the Gods, the two stages are 

 telescoped. On the ridges and hills the pinyon and juniper in 

 many places are becoming supplanted by Pinus ponderosa 

 scopulorum. 



Eight days were devoted to the exploration of the region about 

 Pikes Peak, headquarters during this period being at Minne- 

 haha-on-Ruxton, about halfway up the cog railway to the 

 summit of the peak. Although in certain respects not typical 

 of the area as a whole, this region gives one a very fair concep- 

 tion of the general nature of the forests of the Rocky Mountains, 

 and of the way in which vegetation here is modified as a result of 

 differences in exposure and altitude. The climax forest in the 



* Shantz, H. L. Natural vegetation as an indicator of the capabilities of land 

 for crop production in the Great Plains area. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bureau of Plant 

 Industry Bull. 201. 1911. 



