THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. x1x.— APRIL, 1885.—No. 4. 
WHY CERTAIN KINDS OF TIMBER PREVAIL IN 
CERTAIN LOCALITIES. 
BY JOHN T. CAMPBELL, 
T has often been observed that in certain localities a certain 
species of timber will prevail, or be more numerous than any, 
and sometimes than every other kind. It has been further ob- 
served that when anji prevailing timber has been cleared away, 
and the land allowed to grow up again in timber, that some other 
species will prevail. This, I think, has often been erroneously 
attributed to the inability or indisposition of the soil to repro- 
duce the former prevailing timber. I have observed much on 
this subject, and I never could see any important difference in 
the ability or disposition of the soil to nourish any of the different 
kinds of native trees, and also no important difference in the suc- 
cess in planting and starting them. 
My observations convince me that it all, or mainly, lies in the 
favorable condition of the ground to receive the seeds of the 
various species of timber when it happens to fall thereon. A 
sycamore in the Wabash region will grow as large and rapidly on 
` the uplands, where they are seldom found, as in the sandy bot- 
toms along the margins of the streams, where they seem to best 
thrive. A white oak when planted will grow as well in the low 
river bottoms, where they are never or seldom found, as on the 
hills and ridges near by,.where they seem to be the spontaneous 
product of the ground. ; 
But if an acorn should be blown from a white oak on the hills 
into the low bottoms beneath, it would fall on ground very un- 
favorable to the sprouting of such acorns, and it would rot where 
it fell. So, on the other hand, if a sycamore ball (which contains 
VOL. XIX.—NO. IY, 22 
