chiefly pawpaw (Asimina triloba), mulberry (Morus rubra), sassafras (Sassafras officinale), red-bud (Cercis Canadensis), iron woods (Carpinus Americanus and Ostrya Virginica), mixed with numerous other smaller trees, as Amelanchier Canadensis, wild plums, crab apple (Pyrus coronaria), several species of haws or thorn apples (Crataegus), flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), black haw (Viburnum prunifolium); while the shrubby undergrowth, which was frequently too dense to penetrate without cutting, consisted in the main of prickly ash (Xanthoxylum Americanum), hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), bladder nut (Staphylea trifolia), burning bush or "Wahoo" (Euonymus atropurpureus), Crataegus spathulata* and several species of Cornus, besides numerous other shrubs. The prevalent undergrowth, however, consisted of spice wood (Lindera benzoin) which grew 10 or 12 feet high, its branches often forming a complete canopy overhead, which entirely shut off the view of the tree-tops.

In the "hollows" parallel to the river, the small cane (Arundinaria tecta) formed dense brakes and grew 10 or 12 feet high, the canes matted with thorny "green brier" (Smilax several species) and mixed with tall stinging nettles (Utrica and Laportea); or where the cane was scant or absent, the ground bristled with Equisetace. In the more open portions of the woods the herbaceous vegetation was more luxuriant, consisting, in the main, of rank nettles (Urtica and Laportea), tall iron weeds (Vernonia) and silk weeds (Asclepias), associated with an apparently infinite variety of other weeds of similar habit.

In lower spots the "lizard-tail" (Saururus cernuus) was the predominant plant, and when in flower imparted a pleasing fragrance to the locality. In the more open glades numerous vines flourished in great luxuriance; grape-vines (of half a dozen species) canopied with their foliage the smaller trees, or ascended to the tops of the very tallest. The winter grape (Vitis cordifolia) often grew to a great size, many vines measuring 24 and some 40 inches in circumference several feet from the ground,—sometimes dangling from a branch a hundred feet overhead, as often stretching like a cable from one tree to another, or twisted in fantastic and intricate contortions as they wrapped the trunks or swayed from them. The gaudy trumpet creeper (Tecoma radicans) with its vivid clusters of large and conspicuous tubular orange-red

*Heretofore considered of more southern habitat.

flowers accompanied the grape-vines in their riot among the branches, or with the luxuriant poison vines (Rhus radicans) adorned the trunks; it was growing to a remarkably large size, a trunk of this species which we measured being 41 inches in circumference at several feet from the root. The splendid Wistaria frutescens climbed up the trees and draped their branches; the graceful cross vine (Bignonia capreolata) crept perpendicularly up the larger trunks, its dark green, lanceolate leaves, arranged symmetrically in right angles with the stem, and its clusters of trumpet-shaped carmine and yellow flowers, or long pendent pods, the flowers being then nearly all gone, rendering this fine creeper an object of striking beauty. The old decaying trunks, on every hand, were encased in a thick matted covering of the Virginia creeper (Ampelopsis quinquefolia), and appeared like huge columns draped in green. Smaller woody vines, as the Cocculus Carolinus, moonseed (Menispermum Canadense), waxwork (Celastrus scandens), green briers (Smilax rotundifolia, S. glauca, S. tamnoides, S. Walteri! S. lanceolata! and perhaps one or two other species), pipe vines (Aristolochia) and many others screened the shrubbery or festooned the underwood, while a great variety of herbaceous vines, far too numerous to name in full, trailed over the undergrowth or ran up the shrubbery. Chief among these were the virgin's bowers (Clematis Pitcheri, C. viorna and C. Virginiana), the yellow passion flower (Passiflora lutea), wild cypress vine (Quamoclit coccinea), wild blue morning glory (Ipomœa nil), Rutland beauty (Calystegia sepium and C. spithamea) balsam apple (Echinocystis lobata), wild hop (Humulus lupulus), wild yam (Dioscorea villosa) and carrion flower (Smilax herbacea). Besides these were the several species of dodder (Cuscuta) which spread a carpet of orange-colored yarn, as it were, over the herbage, and numerous species of delicate Leguminosæ, with handsome pea-like flowers, nestled meekly beneath the ranker herbage, or accompanied the other vines in their spiral ascent. Very often the smaller vines twined around the larger; and in one instance we noticed five species thus ascending one tree. They were Rhus radicans, Tecoma radicans, Smilax rotundifolia, Celastrus scandens and Menispermum Canadense.

In this neighborhood we found no cypress swamps and did not hear that any occurred there. But about twenty or thirty miles to the northward, just across the mouth of White River and on the

point of land known as "the neck" between that stream and the Wabash, is a cypress swamp of very considerable extent, embracing, according to the report of the Indiana Geological Survey (p. 179), an area of 17,000 acres! I have visited this swamp, but as yet have only just entered its borders, a penetration into its centre being almost a matter of impossibility; and, if possible, is attended by great difficulties and fatigue. In June and July, 1871, I made several attempts to explore to my satisfaction these cypress ponds, but partly from want of familiarity with the locality, and partly from the great difficulties encountered in penetrating the almost impassable undergrowth and débris, became tired out before I had fairly found myself surrounded by cypresses. In these swamps, the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) is, of course, the prevailing growth; but the gigantic pillars of this species overtop a smaller growth of such trees as Nyssa uniflora, Liquidambar styraciflua, Gleditschia monosperma, and such others as require a boggy situation. Though the finest accessible trees of the cypress had been long destroyed, there were yet a few standing which appeared to approach, perhaps to exceed, 150 feet in height, while there were trunks, with immense conical bases, more than 10 feet in diameter. I have no doubt, however, that the almost inaccessible recesses of the swamp contain trees of this species of far greater dimensions. In the portion of the "swamp" which I was able to penetrate, the ground was not overflowed, but moist, or in a few spots boggy, with now and then a lagoon of clear water-clear of trees, but filled up with aquatic plants. One must penetrate such a place before he can appreciate its difficulties; then before he has penetrated fifty feet he is likely to have stumbled over a dozen logs, butted, every few steps, against a cypress "knee" concealed in the rank weeds, and thereby tumbled head-foremost into a thorny bush, or mired in the black mud. After such an experience, stopping on a prostrate log to rest, I prepared to contemplate my surroundings as calmly as I could while wiping the sweat from my eyes, and panting with the rough treatment I had met. Except upward, a view in any direction could not possibly extend beyond a few rods. The tall cypresses stretched their arms overhead, though often they were concealed by the intervening growth of smaller trees, or by the close canopy of button bush (Cephalanthus) and spice wood (Lindera). The fallen trunks, in every position, from an angle of

45°, as when arrested in their fall by another tree, to the prostrate log, were in every stage of decay. Some, as they lay rotting on. the damp ground, were as high as the head, and all completely overspread by a varied growth of weeds, which here take a hold upon every available spot, covering as completely the logs and rubbish as they do the ground.

Emerging, in a somewhat dilapidated condition, from this underwood, a beautiful and entirely different scene lay before me; a "pond," but instead of a sheet of dark stagnant water, there spread out before me a sea of green vegetation, with the grasses and sedges waving, and the Nelumbiums nodding, in the gen tle breeze, while the graceful, delicately foliaged willows, which fringed its borders, swayed with every impulse of the wind. Above the latter reached upward the spires of the tall cypresses, which stretched out their arms, clad in their fine light green feathery foliage; but even these were overtopped by occasional gigantic sycamores which overlooked the entire forest, stretching out for miles on every side. This pond, which occupied an area of about a mile and a half in length by a maximum breadth of perhaps half a mile, was at this time nearly dry, in consequence of the protracted summer's drought. The bed from which the water had entirely disappeared was covered with a luxuriant growth of handsome and varied species of grasses and sedges, while in the damper spots stood tall blades of Scirpus and Typha; and, in the dryer places, patches of tall marsh mallow (Hibiscus militaris and H. Moscheutos). Toward the centre of the pond the ground grew gradually moister, and sustained a growth of Pontederia, Sagittariæ, etc., then miry, and supporting the broad circular leaves of Nelumbium, and finally formed pools of shallow water, filled with Nuphar, Nymphæa and other plants, which, being inaccessible to us, we could not determine. As we walked along, about knee-deep in the grasses and Polygonacea of the dryer border of the pond, we shot a large specimen of Nerodia erythrogaster, as it lay on the black mud, from which I did not distinguish it until almost stepped upon. As the moister portions were neared, the great blue herons (Ardea herodias) would fly up, startling the intruder with their horridly discordant squawk, sometimes accompanied in their retreat by great white herons (Herodias egretta); and once a flock of a dozen or twenty wood ibis (Tantalus loculator) were disturbed in their rest upon the branches of an old dead sycamore

that overhung the bank, by a shot which we hazarded at some as they flew from a pool a hundred yards or so ahead of us. In the solitude of such places as this, these birds find secure retreats; and from the half dried-up pools have their fill of fishes, crustacea and reptiles which, when the water becomes nearly exhausted by the summer's drought, are so numerous in the little pools to which they are confined as to keep the water in constant agitation.

THE CALIFORNIAN TRIVIA AND SOME
POINTS IN ITS DISTRIBUTION.

BY ROBERT E. C. STEARNS.

Fig. 144.

Balanophyllia.

IN the month of March, 1868, Mr. W. G. W. Harford and myself made a short visit to Monterey for the purpose of collecting, devoting most of the time to an investigation of the outer or ocean shore of Point Piños in the vicinity of the lighthouse. Here are great numbers of granite boulders which have been thrown up by the sea; by wading in at low tide to a depth of two or three feet, and conveying to the shore such stones as could be lifted by us, we were able to make a deliberate and careful examination. Upon the under side of some of the heavy boulders, we found numerous colonies of the corals, Paracyathus Stearnsii and Balanophyllia elegans (Fig. 144), described by Prof. Verrill of Yale; when first taken from the water and therefore alive, these corals are of a beautiful red color, a shade between orange and scarlet, and vivid as a coal of fire; when dead the stony portion soon fades and becomes a dingy white. Upon these brilliantly colored coral animals, the animal of Trivia Californica (Fig. 145, shell, enlarged twice) subsists, at least in part, for I cannot assert that it does not, like other Californians, seek a variety in its bill of fare, and it is not unlikely that it feeds sometimes upon the jelly-like portion of the living sponges. The animal of Trivia Californica (Fig. 146, enlarged twice) is of the same color as the animal of B. elegans; the mantle and

Fig. 145.

Trivia, shell.