Excerpt from The Vegetation of the Inland Sand Deposits of IllinoisIn the case of the inland sand regions of Illinois the first state ment is hardly effective, and that may explain why they have received relatively little attention from local botanists. At the present time, however, they comprise the largest, and virtually the only, areas of natural vegetation within the state. With the exception of parts of the sand deposits, of some small swamp areas, Of rock outcrops, of ponds and lakes, and of some small tracts of forest, all the original vegetation of Illinois has been destroyed or greatly modified by clear ing, planting, or pasturing. The area covered by the last four of these exceptions is very small, but there are still thousands of acres of sand deposits in nearly original condition and available for study They still contain some virgin prairie that has never been plowed or pastured. These prairies are probably somewhat different from the more representative types of prairie which formerly grew upon more fertile soil, but they are much more nearly typical than the small strips still occurring along the margins of some streams and ponds.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.