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highway and is now drained by the roadside ditch. It was necessary to 

 blast through rock in order to get an outlet for the bog, showing that it is a 

 rockbound depression. Tile drains from the bog carry streams of cold water 

 throughout the 3 T ear. Galleries supplying part of the water for the city of 

 Richmond occupy a drier part of the bog. 



The very advanced state of the bog is due, no doubt, to its nearness to 

 the southern limit of glaciation and its consequent great age. Few typical 

 bog plants remain. The following, however, are more or less characteristic 

 of bogs: Rhus vernix, Salix pedicellaris, Hypericum prolifieum, Parnassia 

 caroliniana, PotentiUa fruticosa. Only one specimen of Rhus vernix remains 

 and it is dying — a fate typical of that of many bog plants which must formerly 

 have existed here. 



Nearly all boreal forms have likewise disappeared. The following species 

 have a range reaching far into the north: PotentiUa fruticosa, Salix rostrata, 

 Populus tremuloides. Only one specimen of Salix rostrata was found. 

 No other specimen is known in the region. Populus tremuloides occurs 

 sparingly thru central Indiana, but is common in the bog. 



A very striking fact is the presence of a large number of species character- 

 istic of prairies. This is somewhat strange when it is remembered that the 

 prairie is a formation not at all characteristic of eastern Indiana, which was 

 originally heavily forested. Eastern Indiana is, however, not far from the 

 tension line between the forest formation characteristic of the east and 

 southeast and the prarie formation characteristic of the west and south- 

 west. No doubt after the retreat of the glacial ice there was a migration 

 of plants of both of these formations and a consequent struggle between them 

 for the possession of the new territory. In some instances the pond-swamp- 

 prairie succession or the pond-bog-prairie succession may have occurred, 

 Avhile in other cases the pond-swamp-forest or the pond-bog-forest succession 

 may have taken place. The last named is the succession that occurred at 

 Cedar Swamp. In Eastern Indiana, the condition that finally prevailed 

 over the entire area was the mesophytic forest, but it is not likely that the 

 patches that may have followed the succession toward the prairie woiild 

 have entirely disappeared. This hypothesis would account for such islands 

 of prairie plants in a forested area as we find in this bog. This is not an 

 isolated case, for other such situations are found in eastern Indiana and 

 western Ohio and are known locally as "quaking prairies.'' ' The writer 

 hopes to make further studies of these areas. 



