THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Photographed by Robert Ridgway. 



Several hundred acres as here are now being cleared (Nov. 14, 1918). Here grew Acer 

 Drummondii, Ulmus serotina, Ilex, decidua, Quercus lyrala, Quercus Michauxii, Populus 

 heterophylla, etc. 



few weeds grew between and beneath the trees. Within two years after 

 fencing and the exclusion of stock the ground had, as if by magic, become 

 covered with an herbaceous growth in great variety, including several 

 species of ferns and many kinds of flowering plants, and these have in- 

 creased from year to year. At the same time seedlings of different kinds of 

 trees sprang up, including several species which were not included among 

 the trees already growing on the place ; in fact additional species are being 

 discovered almost every year. 



This place was selected by me, after careful inspection of a considerable 

 portion of the county, on account of the extraordinary number of species of 

 trees growing there, the number far exceeding that of any other equal area 

 in the North Temperate Zone so far as the records show. The species thus 

 far identified on the eighteen acres number sixty-two, which exceeds the 

 number of broad-leaved trees native to the entire Pacific Coast, from 

 southern California to Alaska (inclusive) ; and the twelve species of oaks 

 are one more than grow, naturally, in the whole of New England ! Not one 

 of the sixty-two species is present as the result of man's agency, but all 

 are of natural or spontaneous growth. This fact, together with the known 

 age of the larger growth and other historical data, renders the place of 

 special interest and value. 



Few people realize how rapidly trees may grow. In September, 1918, 

 I had the trees growing along the banks of a small stream on the tract 

 above referred to cut down, because they intercepted the view from hill 

 to hill across a narrow, mostly open valley* and to make room for shrubbery 

 to grow. With one exception these trees had all grown up since 1910. 

 One of them, a "sycamore" (Platanus occidentalis) was measured after 

 felling and found to be forty feet and seven inches tall and ten inches in 



