Ecology of the Cincinnati Region 
181 
flats (here of limited extent) and small depressions occur, as well as 
gentle ravine slopes. 
Poorly drained and drained areas of slight relief. —The few depres¬ 
sions which are found in the Norwood trough are usually smaller, but 
more decided than those of the upland. These not uncommonly contain 
shallow ponds of small size in which the only aquatic plants are algae. 
They are bordered by the usual marginal plants—buttonbush (Cephalan- 
thiis oeeidentalis), bitter cress (Cardamine pennsylvaniea), poison ivy, 
and sedges. There is no gradation between depression vegetation and 
that of the surrounding area. A swamp may succeed the pond, by the 
closing in of the marginal vegetation, but this is not succeeded by meadow. 
The area is so small, and usually so well shaded, that the plants of the 
surrounding forest can occupy the area as soon as it is dry enough. 
Occasionally, there are a few hydrophytic trees around the depression. 
These are the same as found on the uplands— Nyssa sylvatica, Quercus 
hieolor, and Q. palustris. 
On the flat and undissected portions, drainage conditions are poor, 
and a wet meadow association much like that of the uplands prevails in 
the cleared areas. The environs of Norwood—the divide between east 
and west drainage—probably exhibited in the largest degree, the features 
common to flat uplands, but here little of the original vegetation remains. 
Other flat areas of the valley exhibit the upland forest types. Both a 
mixed hydrophytic forest similar to that of uplands, and a beech forest— 
the pre-erosion climax—occur here. 
Disseeted areas. —The marginal parts of the Norwood trough are 
so well dissected that they present none of the features of uplands. The 
relief is never great, however, and ravine slopes in the clays are gentle 
except on under-cut banks. The forests of these areas are therefore 
prevailingly mesophytic. Beech is often, if not usually, the dominant 
tree, but with it are many of the other most pronounced mesophytes. 
This forest extends a short distance up the slopes of surrounding hill¬ 
sides, usually to the top of the gentle slopes of the till. It is in strong 
contrast to the oak forest of the rest of the hillside. The view across the 
Norwood trough (fig. 41 ) shows a number of forested areas in the valley, 
in all of which, beech is dominant. The beech forest is also seen on 
the lower slopes of the hill in the foreground. The oak tree in the left 
foreground higher up this hill, is a remnant of the oak forest characteristic 
of rock slopes. 
