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cultivated the land in 

 corn. Yet the larger 

 trees are about equal in 

 size to the largest of the 

 same kinds that remain 

 in our forests, and the 

 larger sycamores (a tree 

 of rapid growth) are 

 more than one hundred 

 feet high and four or 

 five feet in diameter. 



My opportunities for 

 investigating the wood- 

 lands hereabout have been 

 very limited — indeed I 

 have never even been 

 inside of more than one 

 out of fifty — and conse- 

 quently some tracts in 

 this county may exist of 

 even greater interest that 

 are as yet unknown to 

 me. There is one more, 

 however, which may be 

 mentioned. This is an 

 eighty- acre body of fine 

 timber which approaches 

 more closely to the orig- 

 inal forest conditions 

 than any other I have 

 seen. Relatively few of 

 the larger trees have 

 been cut, and there has 

 been very little change in the character of the undergrowth. I have not 

 had the time to explore this tract thoroughly nor to make a list of the 

 species, but the number must be very large, as the surface includes both 

 upland and bottoms. Should this tract be purchased for a preserve (and 

 it is well worth preservation, in fact it should be preserved) action would 

 have to be taken soon, as all the merchantable trees have been marked for 

 sacrifice by a timber cruiser who surveyed it for the purpose a few months 

 ago. 



In this matter of dealing with the remaining woodlands of Southern 

 Illinois, one of two things should be done at once : either their thorough 

 investigation by trained botanists or the purchase for preservation of a 

 sufficient number of tracts to embrace all the types. The necessity of 

 botanical investigation before it is too late is shown by the fact that on a 

 tract which is now being cleared the present writer found growing the 

 Southern Red Maple (Acer Drummondii) and Southern Red Elm (Ulmus 

 serotina) the former new to the Illinois flora, the latter collected only once 

 before (many years ago) within the State, in Union County; and in the 

 same locality a climbing rose which is probably new, and a green-brier 



Sweet Gum (Liquidambar Styraciflua) . Near Mt. Carmel, 

 111. Circumference, 12*4 ft. ; clear trunk, 78 ft. ; spread of 

 top, 85 ft. Several feet of the base are hidden from view, 

 the tree standing in a low swale. (October, 1875). 



