1 66  Flora  of  Northern  Ohio.  {AmklrchJmrm- 
out  change  ;  if,  however,  a  solution  of  the  base  in  an  equal  weight 
of  water  is  fractionally  distilled,  water  alone  passes  over  until  the 
temperature  exceeds  1500;  trimethylamine  then  begins  to  come  off, 
and  continues  to  do  so  until  the  temperature  reaches  200°,  when  an 
oily  product  accompanies  it.  If  the  apparatus  is  now  exhausted, 
the  residue  distils  over  between  200°  and  2300,  the  distillate  con- 
sisting of  a  mixture  of  aqueous  solutions  of  hexahydropyridinecar- 
boxylic  acid,  amyl  glycol,  dihydroxyamylpiperidine,  trimethylamine 
and  traces  of  pyridine  bases. 
ON  THE  FLORA  OF  NORTHERN  OHIO. 
By  Edo  Claassen. 
It  is  certainly  with  an  ardent  desire  that  after  the  long  winter  peculiar  to 
this  part  of  the  United  States  everybody  living  there  greets  the  arrival  of  spring 
and  the  reawakening  of  Nature ;  many  kinds  of  work  interrupted  by  frost  and 
rough  weather  are  then  recommenced,  and  in  their  leisure  hours  all,  with  hardly 
an  exception,  take  their  steps  into  the  open  air  to  breathe  the  delightful 
exhalation  of  spring  vegetation,  and  return  to  their  homes  and  to  their  work, 
strengthened  and  invigorated.  Although,  without  doubt,  everyone  hails  joy- 
fully the  opening  of  the  buds  and  the  appearance  of  leaves  and  blossoms,  there 
seems  to  be  one  only  whose  heart  in  such  a  time  beats  louder  and  whose  blood 
runs  quicker  through  his  veins  ;  he  thinks  of  the  reappearance  of  the  darlings 
and  favorites  which  he  has  annually  saluted  on  his  travels  over  hills,  through 
fields  and  forests.  This  one  is  the  botanist  !  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  he  will 
then  look  at  all  his  acquaintances  with  a  happy  face  ;  but  at  the  same  time  it 
surely  cannot  be  denied  that  his  affection  does  not  belong  so  much  to  those  who 
in  former  years  have  been  his  daily  companions  as  to  those  other  ones  whom 
he  has  met  now  and  then  only,  and  of  whom  we  may  often  say,  that  they  have 
immigrated  from  countries  far  off,  from  places  where  there  is  a  soil  and  a 
climate  in  which  they  always  thrive  well.  Such  a  region  is  Northern  Ohio, 
where,  on  account  of  the  peculiar  climate  produced  by  the  gigantic  quantity  of 
water  of  Lake  Erie  as  well  as  by  the  manifoldness  of  soil,  many  plants  can  be 
met  with  which  usually  are  indigenous  to  more  southern  parts  of  the  United 
States  or  to  the  shore  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  slate  rocks,  the  sand-  and 
limestones  of  the  counties  east,  south  and  west  of  Cleveland  belong  to  the 
Devonic,  the  Carboniferous  and  the  Silurian  Systems  ;  in  olden  times,  they 
were  gradually  covered,  especially  in  the  valleys  of  the  rivers  and  of  the  creeks 
as  also  on  and  near  the  lakeshore,  by  layers  of  sand  and  of  clay,  the  products 
of  the  decomposition  of  the  above  rocks,  furnishing  often  a  soil  favorable  to  the 
growth  of  peculiar  plants.  More  interesting  to  the  botanist  even  than  these 
places  are  the  innumerable  lakes  and  ponds,  of  which  some  are  situated  in  every 
neighboring  county,  surrounded  by  hills,  and  thereby  entirely  shut  off  from  the 
brooks  and  rivers  which  carry  the  waters  of  Northern  Ohio  to  Lake  Erie.  As 
in  their  water  we  find  shells  peculiar  to  them,  so  we  meet  in  them  and  on  their 
borders  plants  rarely  seen  elsewhere.    It  is  therefore  not  astonishing  if  the 
