THE BRYOLOGIST 
Vol. XII March igog No. 2 
LICHENO=ECOLOGIC STUDIES FROM BEECHWOOD CAMP. 
(Read at the Sullivant Moss Society Meeting, Baltimore, Dec. 30, 1908.) 
Bruce Fink 
Beechwood camp lies by the roadside, in a two-hundred acre forest, four 
and one-half miles from Oxford, Ohio. This forest, much of it practically 
undisturbed, was obtained from the government by the Hueston family and 
is now in the hands of the third generation of Huestons, through whose 
courtesy the department of botany of Miami University is able to use it dur- 
ing a part of each summer as an outing place for botanical study. The 
Hueston family of the present generation takes great pride in this forest, 
which is known far and wide, and every assurance is given that it will not 
be destroyed for many years. A considerable number of the trees have 
attained practically their full size, and in the portions where beeches abound, 
offer shade so dense that very little herbaceous vegetation exists under them. 
Trees have fallen from, time to time and have been left undisturbed so that 
logs and stumps in all stages of decay abound in various portions of the 
forest. With all conditions regarding light at hand; a few high and nearly 
bare hills giving xerophytic conditions; an abundance of streams, springs, 
ledges of rocks, sandy banks ; low flood plains, partly alluvial and in part 
sandy or gravelly, the environment of the camp is quite ideal for ecologic and 
taxonomic work. 
The camp was occupied for the first time last August (rgo8), and the 
seed plants, the ferns, the mosses, the lichens and the fungi were all studied 
more or less from the taxonomic point of view. Nor was the ecologic work 
initiated confined to the lichens, but was extended to all kinds of plants. 
However, especial attention was given to certain problems in lichen ecology 
and to a beginning of tracing the succession of fungi on the logs and stumps. 
It may be questionable whether a presentation of beginnings is at all worth 
while, for no data of value have been secured. However, it is the belief 
of the writer that the methods and aims, simple as they are, are worth stating 
with a view to stimulating others to similar work. Doubtless much of the 
more difficult and extended work that the writer has undertaken on lichen 
ecology will not endure the'sifting to which ecology is now being subjected, 
but it is believed that, whatever more difficult and uncertain lines of research 
may be undertaken later at the camp, the results that may come from the 
simple experiments now in progress will be secure and valuable. 
We hear and see much stated about the slow growth of lichens, and 
occasionally one comes upon very opposite statements, such as the growth 
of podetia and the production of apothecia in certain Cladonias in a single 
season, and the migration of Umbilicarias a half a dozen miles along a high 
rocky ledge in as many years; but thus far there seems to be little if any 
accurate knowledge regarding such matters. We are also sometimes told 
The January BRYOLOGIST was issued December 28, 1908. 
