WASHINGTON, AND MARION COUNTIES. f 



ble that soon after the beginning of the uplift of the Cumber- 

 land Fold and the Kentucky Anticlinal, some of the species 

 may have sprung up on the accumulating islands ; and it seems 

 possible, from the peculiar distribution of the pines in Eastern 

 and Central Kentucky, that the cone bearing trees may have 

 been amongst the first introduced. The peculiar habitat of the 

 yellow-wood, found only at two or three stations in the Prate, 

 and those on the disturbances mentioned above, would seem 

 to place it among the original trees. Some species must have 

 been distributed very slowly until the introduction of animals 

 and man. Both of those agencies must have had much to do 

 with the distribution of certain trees which bear edible fruits. 

 There are certain evidences that appeal to the senses — and 

 we seem to have but little occasion to describe them— which 

 make it appear that the distribution of some plants, like the 

 hickory, walnut, oak, black haw, persimmon, etc., was to some 

 extent the work of the ancient "Mound-Builders." We do 

 not know that an)- attention has been given to this theory, but 

 it is worth)- of some attention. Outside of the influences of 

 wind and water in the dissemination of plants and the acci- 

 dental dropping of seed by man, the various species of rodents 

 appear as the great propagators of some species. We think 

 probably, from our own observations, that more than ninety 

 per cent, of the young hickory and walnut trees that come up 

 in the forests, now, have been planted by squirrels. Those 

 animals will bur)- great numbers in a single season to prevent 

 their destruction by freezing and other causes, and that their 

 shells may be softened. As they are placed at the right depth 

 to germinate well, and are selected for their soundness, it is 

 evident that it the animals are killed or driven away, that all 

 these nuts come up; without such agency, only an accident 

 would so cover them under the surface that they could ger- 

 minate. Nuts are often carried long distances from where 

 they grew, and dropped in places favorable for germination. 

 The little striped ground-squirrel has something to do with 

 the planting of acorns, etc., and perhaps the wood-mice are 

 not unimportant seed-sowers. 



