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effects may not just as well enter into the species idea 

 as the morphological characteristics, if we can get them; 

 but I do not know how we are going to get them for such 

 plants as forest trees. In the case of the white oak, we 

 have got to take the morphological characteristics alone, 

 so far as I see. We can not plant the seeds and witness 

 the trees as they develop in their various stages until 

 they produce seed again. But in case of the lower forms 

 with a generation a day, we can certainly do that, and 

 I think we ought to do it for specific characteristics. 



Let me say, what I am most interested in is that we 

 shall know some things yet by some very well known 

 names. 



Mr. E. G. Hill: As we have had considerable talk 

 from the pulpit, perhaps a little experience from the pew 

 in regard to species might be of use. In 1874, I came to 

 that part of Illinois which is now embraced in the city of 

 Chicago, and the year after I began the study of the flora 

 of the region, the sand region (it was all sand then), 

 particularly this dune region east of the city, and there 

 has not been a year since that I have not been out there 

 more or less. Now, I have not been over every foot of 

 it, but with regard to this plant, the Polygonum amphib- 

 ium that has been cited, I always until about 1890 or 

 1895, I can not give the exact year, I always saw Poly- 

 gonum (tmphibium, I never saw the other kind. At that 

 time I noticed this hairy plant, with shorter internodes, 

 growing on dryer places. The exigencies of the expand- 

 ing city and manufactures outside of it led to the partial 

 drainage or entire drainage of considerable areas of our 

 dune flora. The underground parts of Polygonum am- 

 phibium are pretty extensive. I never satisfy myself 

 without digging up the entire under part of plants, or 

 digging up the root— I can follow a root ten feet, if 

 necessary. When those wet places were drained, the 

 roots persisted in the sand, and the plants while pre- 

 serving their full form when in the water, would be hairy, 

 and you can trace them all the way from the water up, 



