The Woody Plants of Kentucky. 3 



planted to rather dry situations. Others, like the sycamore, the 

 river birch and the willows, follow the streams pretty closely, yet 

 can accommodate themselves to other situations when transplanted. 

 They depend largely, it seems, upon water for dissemination, and 

 this is a sufficient explanation of their being most numerous along 

 streams. In early spring when streams are at flood and bottom land? 

 are covered one may see the seeds of sycamore dropping upon the 

 water and floating away with the current. 



Many of our native trees grow, or once grew, in nearly or quite 

 all of the counties of the State. I have the "Barrens" in mind as a 

 partial exception in writing this. It would tax one's ingenuity, 

 I imagine, to find a vital relation between geological formations 

 and the following widely distributed Kentucky species : Black wal- 

 nut, sugar maple, soft maple, box elder, mulberry, black cherry, 

 wild plum, white ash, black oak, white oak, shell-bark hickory, 

 bitternut, red bud, black locust, honey locust, flowering dogwood, 

 persimmon, black haw and trumpet creeper. If scattered by birds 

 and small rodents, as in the case of the mulberry, walnut, cherries, 

 red cedar and mistletoe, plants will be found widely and evenly 

 scattered,, for they spread both with and against wind and water 

 currents. If disseminated by running waters they are unevenly 

 scattered. If neither of these influences affect them and the seeds 

 are heavy, the dispersal may be slow, and the species local in dis- 

 tribution. With the winds to help, as in the case of the maples, 

 linden and others, the prevailing winds should mark out the path 

 over which in the long course of time the species will travel. I 

 have no doubt that all of these influences have been concerned in as- 

 sembling the forest flora of Kentucky, but have operated so long 

 that it is now difficult to estimate the part each has taken. 



But one native tree, the chestnut, shows in any marked way 

 the influence of soil on its distribution. In this State it will be 

 found growing wild only, or almost entirely, in soils containing 

 sand. It can be transplanted to the clay loams of Bluegra~> Ken- 

 tucky, but so far as I know never grew here spontaneously. Yet 

 just outside this region it is a common tree where sandstone ap- 

 pears at the surface. How it has managed to follow so closely these 

 outcroppings is an interesting question. Its dissemination seems 



