WASHINGTON, AND MARION COUNTIES. 1 3 



crops of the most valuable lands. Above these nearly pure 

 calcareous soils were some heavy clay beds that gave a return 

 to a region almost exclusively ol white oak. This belt was 

 not a wide one, being included in small areas within a narrow 

 range ; but its longitudinal extension was as great as that of 

 the others. Mixed timbers were over the remainder of the 

 division, in what proportion and of what species we have not 

 notes to determine. 



Medina Sandstone.— The characteristic trees on the 

 Medina Sandstone were oaks, and those with thick tomentous 

 leaves, like post-oak and Spanish oak, largely predominated. 

 In fact, those species seem to have marked the limits ol this 

 silicious series. The white oak was in respectable numbers, 

 never growing to a very large size, but producing very good 

 tough wood. Red cedar was quite a plentiful growth on these 

 soils ; while larere sassafras was in greater numbers than on 

 other groups. 



Crab Orchard Shales. — Those shales were usually 

 wet and decomposed to a considerable depth, making quite a 

 contrast to the thin loose soils of the Medina, and produced 



another change in the distribution of plant life. Here sweet 

 gum was first seen, and with it the following unusual assem- 

 blage of trees : white elm, white oak, post-oak, red oak, 

 yellow chestnut oak, burr oak, red maple, shell-bark hickory, 

 black walnut, honey-locust, sycamore, and box-elder. The 

 sweet gum grew to very fair proportions, while the others 

 ranked well in size and quality. 



Oorniferous Limestones.— While marking a belt 



through all of the counties of this district, the lateral exten- 

 sion of the soils derived from the Corniferous is very limited. 

 The cherty fragments overlie, and are often mixed with, other 

 soils in tracts of some extent ; but as purely derived soils, 

 they are too narrow in range for the past relation oi their 

 timbers to be studied. They seem to have been well marked 

 with sugar-maple, as is a common fact where limestones are in 

 ledges on and near the surface and the drainage is good. 



