VI DESCEIPTION OF JACKSON COUNTY 



characteristic plants, while in the denser forests various vines such as 

 Ampelopm cordata, Vitis vulpina, Faleaia Pitcheri, and Ehus radicana 

 make traveling burdensome. In these dense forests occur those rare 

 orchids : Aplectrum spicatum, Gyrostachys plantaginea and Pogonia trian- 

 ihophora, and keeping them company the fungus-like Monotropa uniflora 

 rarely appears. 



Bordering these lowlands is a chain of bluffs, high and rocky in the 

 western part of the county, but becoming lower and more sandy in the 

 eastern part. Various creeks, greater or less in extent, break the contin- 

 uity of this chain, and with their branches make the northern part of the 

 county very uneven.. The larger of these creeks are really small rivers, 

 and extending through the width of the county, carry with them the 

 flora peculiar to the broken uneven country. Getting away from the in- 

 fluence of these creeks and their branches one comes to the prairie, once 

 open and nearly treeless, but now through the efforts of man fast losing its 

 characteristic features. This prairie extends throughout the southern, 

 especially the southwestern, part of the county, being there broken only by 

 the larger streams. 



The chief streams of the county are the Blue, running through the 

 western part nearly due north and south ; the Little Blue, running 

 through the central part from the southwest to the northeast : Sni-a bar 

 Creek and its tributaries which cover the southeastern part ; and Fire- 

 Prairie Creek, which drains the northeastern part. The first three of these 

 are bordered by wooded bluffs, but Fire- Prairie Creek, save for a narrow 

 fringe of timber immediately adjoining it, runs through a nearly treeless 

 bottom. Barely penetrating the southeastern part of the county are a 

 tev! small wooded creeks ultimately emptying into the Osage and bring- 

 ing in a few rare herbaceous species. 



Along our streams Salix nigra, Acer sacehannum, Aesculus glabra arguta, 

 Ulmus Americana, Ulmus fulva, Juglans nigra, Quercus macrocarpa and 

 Gymnocladus dioica form the greater part of the forest, while on the bluffs 

 and the uplands various species of oaks and hickories find their home. 

 The sugar-maple is common in the northeastern part and the rock-elm 

 abounds only along the rocky bluffs in the northwestern, but as a 

 whole our trees are not local. The common smaller trees are Oatrya Vir- 

 giniana, Malm loensis and various species of Crataegus and Prunus. The 

 buckberry {Symphoricarpos) is the most common under-shrub, but the 

 hazelnut {Gorylus Americana) and the wild blackberry are close rivals, 

 while along rooky branches, especially in the southern part, Rhamnus 

 lanceolaia is common. Various sumacs and several species of Cornus 

 also abound, and twining over the larger plants are various species of 

 wild grapes, true and false ; the poison ivy and the wild hop are every- 

 where met with. 



The herbaceous plants as a rule are more locally distributed than the 

 woody, though of course many range almost throughout the county. In 



