1885.] prevail in certain Localities. 339 
touch them, and particularly along the highest part of the sand 
bars. Were it not for the subsequent floods the same spring, 
there could no other trees grow, as the sycamore, being the first 
to shed, would seed all the tree-growing space (each large tree 
bearing one hundred and fifty million seeds), and their broad 
leaves would shade the ground till nothing else could sprout. 
But during their early infancy they are easily killed by an over- 
flow, and this ill fortune happens to the greater portion of them. 
The cottonwood is the next in order of shedding seed. If an- 
other flood is receding while the cottonwood is shedding, this 
flood will have killed all the sycamores which it covered for only 
a few days, and will sprout all the cottonwood seed that may fall 
on and along the banks and bars. As the earlier floods are gen- 
erally the highest there will be some sycamores not reached by 
the following floods, and they will hold sway along that margin. 
If, when the cottonwoods are a few inches high, another flood 
follows, they too will be killed to the extent that they are kept 
under water a few days. \ 
Next to the cottonwood the soft, or bottom maple sheds its 
seed. If a flood is receding this seed will occupy all the space, 
as, having a smaller leaf than the sycamore or cottonwood, they 
will grow closer together. They in turn may be killed by a flood 
when they are very young. 
I have forgotten the exact time that each of these trees sheds 
its seed, something will of course depend on the forwardness of 
the spring. But along the Wabash banks, last spring, I could see 
three belts of young trees, and distinguish them by their general 
appearance. The farther off, the plainer these belts show, till lost 
to view. The upper belt was sycamore, the second (downward) 
cottonwood, and the third soft maple. In June following there 
came a bigger flood than any that caused the seeds to sprout, and 
killed all of them. There was a much bigger flood in the pre- 
ceding February, but no seed fell then. 
It will sometimes happen that the flood that plants the syca- 
mores will be the last one for that year, and when they have lived 
through one summer they are safe from any danger from over- 
flow. In still other seasons it will happen to favor the cotton- 
wood, or the maple, or elm, or willow. New bars are all the time 
extending from the lower ends of the old ones, and as the eleva- 
tion of these will be such as to be sometimes flooded once and 
