Part 1

THE O. S. U. NATURALIST

PUBLISHED BY THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF—JOHN H. SCHAFFNER, A. M., M. S.

ASSOCIATE EDITORS: ADVISORY BOARD: _Zoology_—F. L. LANDACRE, B. Sc. PROFESSOR W. A. KELLERMAN, Ph. D. _Botany_—F. J. TYLER, B. Sc. Department of Botany. _Geology_—J. A. BOWNOCKER, B. Sc. PROFESSOR HERBERT OSBORN, M. Sc. _Archaeology_—W. C. MILLS, B. Sc. Department of Zoology. _Ornithology_—R. F. GRIGGS. PROFESSOR J. A. BOWNOCKER, D. Sc. Department of Geology.

Volume 1 November, 1900 Number 1

COLUMBUS, OHIO _PRESS OF HANN & ADAIR_

[Sidenote: _THE O. S. U. NATURALIST_] A journal devoted more especially to the natural history of Ohio. The official organ of THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. Published monthly during the academic year, from November to June (8 numbers). Price 50 cents per year, payable in advance. To foreign countries, 75 cents. Single copies 10 cents.

JOHN H. SCHAFFNER, _Editor_. F. J. TYLER, _Subscriptions_. R. F. GRIGGS, _Advertising Agent_.

_Address_

THE O. S. U. NATURALIST, Ohio State University,

COLUMBUS, OHIO.

CONTENTS

Announcement

An Ohio Station for Ampelopsis Cordata _W. A. Kellerman_

The Baum Prehistoric Village site _W. C. Mills_

A Foliicolous Form of Sorghum Smut and Notes on Infection Experiments _W. A. Kellerman_

A List of Hemiptera Collected in the Vicinity of Bellaire, O. _Herbert Osborn_

Additions and Corrections to the “Odonata of Ohio.” _James S. Hine_

Dragonflies Taken in a Week _R. C. Osburn and J. S. Hine_

Additions to the Ohio Flora

Collecting and Preserving Microscopic Plants

_The_ _O. S. U. Naturalist_

PUBLISHED BY THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Vol. 1. NOVEMBER, 1900. No. 1.

ANNOUNCEMENT.

In presenting THE O. S. U. NATURALIST to the public, a few words may not be out of place as to the motives and purposes which were instrumental in bringing it into existence. The Biological Club of Ohio State University is composed of professors, instructors and students of the several departments of natural history in the University. These departments have been carrying on certain lines of work for some time, and the more important and technical has been reported in various publications. Much of the work, however, which is only of local interest, but still of great value in the development of the natural history of the state, has had no convenient avenue of publication. For this reason it was thought advisable to begin a journal in a modest way in which such material together with other articles might be made available for immediate use.

The idea had been entertained for some time that such a course would be desirable. Several members had expressed themselves in favor of a journal, and Dr. Kellerman had for some years contemplated the publication of a purely botanical paper which should be devoted largely to the flora of the state. Finally during the spring of 1900 Mr. Tyler and Mr. Griggs, students connected with the club, began to arouse interest in the matter by advocating the founding of a bulletin which should provide a suitable avenue of publication. By a motion of the club, a committee to consider the matter was appointed, consisting of the following members:

Herbert Osborn, W. A. Kellerman, F. J. Tyler, John H. Schaffner, Max Morse, R. F. Griggs.

This committee finally agreed upon a plan, which was presented to the club and adopted, with slight modifications, on the 7th of May, 1900. The editors are elected annually by the club, and following is the staff for the coming year:

Editor-in-Chief—John H. Schaffner, A. M., M. S.

Associate Editors—Zoölogy, F. L. Landacre, B. Sc; Botany, F. J. Tyler, B. Sc.; Geology, J. A. Bownocker, D. Sc.; Archæology, W. C. Mills, B. Sc.; Ornithology, R. F. Griggs.

Advisory Board—Professor W. A. Kellerman, Ph. D., Department of Botany; Professor Herbert Osborn, M. Sc., Department of Zoölogy; Professor J. A. Bownocker, D. Sc., Department of Geology.

THE NATURALIST, while aiming to be strictly scientific and technical in character, will endeavor to be of especial assistance to the teachers and amateur scientists of the state. It is believed that the kind of work contemplated will be of great educational value.

While THE NATURALIST is to be devoted especially to the interests of the state, other matter which may from time to time be offered, will not be excluded.

In these days, when specialization is the tendency in all branches of knowledge, we think there is still room for the old-fashioned naturalist who was well versed in a number of sciences.

Whatever one’s career may be, we believe that every scientist, and for that matter every person of education, should be a naturalist first and cultivate a broad general sympathy with nature, and only after that has he a right to become a specialist. No apology need therefore be made for the broad field which THE NATURALIST is to cultivate, and we present it to the public, earnestly soliciting the coöperation of university and college professors, high school teachers, students, and amateurs in the different branches of natural science; and asking that leniency of judgment which such enterprises merit when begun under special difficulties. Finally THE NATURALIST is not intended to be a money-making institution, but it will be improved and enlarged as rapidly as the income from subscriptions and other resources will permit.

J. H. S.

AN OHIO STATION FOR AMPELOPSIS CORDATA. W. A. KELLERMAN. (Plate 1.)

While collecting in Scioto County on the 8th of July, 1900, I was fortunate enough to come across an indigenous specimen of Ampelopsis cordata. [1]The station for the plant is on a hillside one mile east of Portsmouth, Ohio. The character of the environment is indicated in figure 3, Plate 1; the plant in question growing on the bank by the roadside at a point immediately above the bicycle in the central part of the picture. The photograph from which the half tone was made shows only a portion of the high hills that border the Ohio river. The soil is clay and not regarded as very fertile. It is generally the case perhaps that this species grows in “swamps and along river banks,” as stated in the manuals, but the ground here is high and dry.

Footnote 1:

Since the MS. for this article was passed to the printer, the locality was again visited and several plants, some of large size, were found further up the hillside.

The published statements as to the distribution of Ampelopsis cordata are not uniform. Riddell, in his synopsis of the Western Flora, says it occurs in the Alleghany Mountains west to Arkansas. Torrey and Gray, in the Flora of North America, Vol. 1, under the name of Vitis indivisa, give its distribution as Southern States west to Louisiana and Arkansas. Wood using the same name in his class-book, says Southern States to St. Louis. In Gray’s Manual, last edition, the plant is given under the name of Cissus ampelopsis with the statement that it occurs in Virginia to Illinois and Southward. The occurrence as noted by Britton and Brown in the Illustrated Flora, makes the species still more decidedly southern, namely, southern Virginia to Florida, west to Illinois, Kansas and Texas. Prof. Stanley Coulter, in a Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to Indiana, published in 1899 in the 24th Annual Report of the Department of Geology and Natural Resources of Indiana, says this species occurs “in the central and southern counties of Indiana in swamps and moist woods.”

In the fifth edition of Gray’s Manual the range of this Ampelopsis (under the name of Vitis indivisa) was given as “West Virginia, Ohio and southward.” In answer to an inquiry as to what in the Gray Herbarium was perhaps the basis for the reference to the Ohio distribution, Mr. Merritt L. Fernald kindly wrote me as follows:—“I find in the herbarium a specimen of Cissus ampelopsis marked ‘Ohio’. It is one of the old Torrey and Gray specimens and no further data are given.”

Dr. Millspaugh lists this species as Cissus ampelopsis in the Flora of West Virginia and adds on the authority of Mertz and Guttenberg that it also occurs in Ohio, near Wheeling. Upon inquiry of Supt. Mertz, I learn that his notes of work upwards of twenty years ago contain no mention of this species at Wheeling, West Virginia, or at Bellaire, Ohio. He further informs me that what was taken for this Ampelopsis at Bellaire was probably Vitis cordifolia, three forms of which were found growing on the islands of the Ohio River near Wheeling. Of these he adds in a letter to the writer, “I think we probably decided that one was V. indivisa; but I feel sure that it was not and you are probably the first to find it in Ohio.”

It will be observed that the distribution as noted by Professor Stanley Coulter extends its range still further northward than my Ohio station. It is likely that its occurrence still further northward in Ohio may be detected by assiduous collectors.

I wish to say a word concerning the ornamental character of this native vine. The foliage is bright green and very handsome. A figure of a single leaf is shown in Plate 1, figure 2. This is reduced from a photograph taken with the leaf itself used as a negative. I have never detected a fungous attack or insect depredation on the leaves. The small dull-colored bluish fruits in loose panicles when abundant are somewhat ornamental. The vine is a vigorous grower and clings firmly to supports. Figure 4 shows a plant used for ornamental purposes growing on the south side of the Botanical Building at the Ohio State University. A figure from a still more vigorous specimen was shown by Mrs. Kellerman in Vick’s Magazine, January, 1900. This was made from a photograph of a specimen growing at the north porch of a residence in Columbus, Ohio. The same has been reproduced by Dr. Halsted in Bulletin No. 144 of the New Jersey Experiment Station. The species can be transplanted readily. One of the plants just referred to was dug up in June in Linn County, Kansas, and easily survived its rough treatment. Roots were taken from the Portsmouth plant in July this year and they are now growing and producing stems. We have repeatedly transplanted specimens that were grown from roots and from cuttings in the green house and always with success.

A word as to the synonymy should perhaps be given. The species was described by Michaux in 1803 under the name of Ampelopsis cordata. Persoon in 1805 proposed the name Cissus ampelopsis for the species. It was unfortunate that he did not retain the specific name, cordata; for there seems to have been no need of discarding that part of its name even if the genus had been originally misapprehended. Had he followed the most commendable usage of the modern systematists, he would have published the name in this form: Cissus cordata (Mx.) Pers. In 1811 Wildenow published the name as Vitis indivisa and here as before unnecessarily a new specific name was given. Many authors have regarded the plant as a Vitis rather than an Ampelopsis or a Cissus. We rely, however, on Dr. Britton’s authority and use the name Ampelopsis cordata, relegating the other names to synonymy.

Illustration: _Plate_ 1: KELLERMAN ON AMPELOPSIS CORDATA

EXPLANATION OF PLATE 1.—Ampelopsis cordata. Figure 1: A herbarium specimen of twigs in fruit, from a photograph. Figure 2: A single leaf and tendril after a photograph direct from the same, reduced by the engraver. Figure 3: View of the station for the indigenous specimen at Portsmouth, Ohio; the Ampelopsis is in the center of the picture immediately above the bicycle. Figure 4: View of a plant growing on the south wall of the Botanical Building, Ohio State University; to the right of the door a portion of a Japan Ivy is seen.

THE BAUM PREHISTORIC VILLAGE SITE. W. C. MILLS.

The field work of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society was completed August 18. The explorations were a continuance of last year’s work at the Baum Prehistoric Village Site, which is situated in Ross County, Ohio, just across the river from the small village of Bourneville, and is located upon the first gravel terrace of the Paint Creek Valley. The village site surrounds a large pyramidal mound which was examined a number of years ago under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution of Washington. A complete report of the explorations is found in the 12th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1890-91. At this time the village site was not explored but it was known to exist, as the following extract from the 12th Annual Report will show: “This mound is situated upon the edge of the first general bottom of Paint Creek, which though protected by a huge levee is annually inundated. In overflow times the smaller circle of the adjoining enclosure is almost entirely submerged, and the summit of the mound is the only land visible above a broad expanse of water. Around the mound upon all sides, particularly to the east, are traces of former Indian occupation. Numerous fragments of pottery similar in fabrication and ornamental feature to those found in the mound bestrew the plowed ground. These were intermingled with the valves of mussel shells, pitted stones, shell disks, human bones, arrowheads, pieces of perforated stone gorgets, and a large quantity of chipped flint.” Directly north of this village site, about one mile distant is the noted hill top enclosure known as Spruce Hill, which overlooks the valley of Paint Creek for many miles north and south. The hill on which this enclosure is situated is about 500 feet high, and is a long narrow spur projecting from the tableland and extending to the south.

The wall of this enclosure is composed entirely of boulders and broken pieces of sandstone which had been collected along the margin of the summit of the hill. These sandstones are the result of disintegration of the sandstone strata which is near the surface on the hill top. Directly east from the village site, a little more than 1300 feet, is what is known as the Baum works, which was surveyed by Squier & Davis in 1846. They described this work as the best preserved, and possessing gateways that are wider than those of any other earth-works found in this valley. They also made a survey of the mound which is situated in this village site and they described it as a large, square, truncated mound, with a base of 120 feet and having a flat top, with an area 50 feet square. The mound at that time being 15 feet high. They also say that quantities of coarse broken pottery were found on and around the mound. Thus it will be seen that the early investigators found pottery surrounding the mound and later explorations by the Smithsonian Institution show that the broken pieces of pottery found on the surface surrounding the mound were very much like the pottery found in the mound and placed with the buried dead therein.

The object of the investigations carried on by the Archæological and Historical Society is to show the connection between the occupants of the prehistoric village and those who built the mound. This has been done by carefully comparing the contents of this village site with the contents of the mound as reported by the Smithsonian Institution. So far, all of the pottery and implements of bone, stone, and shell that were buried in this mound, have been duplicated in great numbers from the refuse heaps, burials, and ash pits found in the village. The village entirely surrounds the mound, but on the east it is more extensive and occupies upward of five acres of ground.

The work of examining the village site is very laborious. Every portion or particle of the earth to a depth, on the average, of two and one-half feet is carefully dug over with small hand trowels, and every particle of bone, shell or stone is carefully removed and examined. The contents of the ash pits are screened so that no implements or ornaments may be lost. The whole village site is platted, laid off in sections thirty-six feet square, which square is again laid off into sections four feet square. In this way every find is carefully located upon the map. This year the work was conducted east and north-east of the mound. Here the post-molds of their little tepees were found in abundance. Their fire-places usually were placed just outside of the tepees, and their refuse pits near at hand, and near by we found the burials. A series of photographs, showing the manner of burial and the close proximity of the burials to the ash pits and tepees, were carefully made. At one time seven skeletons were exposed within an area of fifteen feet square. Within this space two ash pits were found and one row of the post-molds, showing the relation of the little home to the burial ground. The manner of burial is shown by the photographs taken of the seven skeletons exposed at one time, showing that they had no definite manner of placing the bodies, as some were buried at right angles to each other, some were placed at full length, and lying upon the back, while others were placed upon the side; in still other cases the body was evidently doubled up and then buried. A great number of skeletons of babies were found in the ash pits, showing that the already dug ash pit was the most convenient grave for the little ones, who was then covered with ashes, consequently the skeletons were perfectly preserved. With a great number of the adult skeletons were found implements of bone, such as awls, hoes, celts, arrow and spear points of stone, beads and ornaments of shell and bone; but with the skeletons of children varying in age from four to twelve years were found the greatest number of ornaments made of shell and bone. In one instance a large gorget made from the marine univalve Strombus gigas about two and one-half inches in diameter, was found upon the skeleton of a child six years of age. In another more than two hundred beads and ornaments of shell and bone were found upon the skeleton of a child not over seven years of age. In another grave a child not over four years of age had buried with it, what at one time was no doubt, a necklace made of elk teeth, perforated for attachment. In two instances the graves of children were carefully covered over with slabs of slate. With those children whose graves were carefully covered no implements or ornaments of any sort were placed. Of the sixty-three skeletons found, not a single perfect piece of pottery was found buried with them, differing greatly from the Madisonville Prehistoric Cemetery near Cincinnati, for at the latter cemetery quantities of pottery in their perfect state was found, buried with the skeletons. The pottery, implements and ornaments at Madisonville can be readily dedicated from the village at Paint Creek.

In the ash pits can be found specimens showing the masterpieces of art wrought in stone, bone and shell, representing the civilization which at one time inhabited this village. Of the bone implements, the needle, made from the bones of the deer and elk is most beautiful in design, at the same time showing the skill displayed in the manufacture of the implements. Some of them are upward of nine inches in length. Of the bone specimens perhaps the bead is the commonest. In some pits more than two hundred have been taken out. In these ash pits were also found well wrought specimens of aboriginal fish hooks, also specimens showing the various stages of manufacture of this implement, which differs somewhat from the manufacture of those found at Madisonville, a full account of which appears in the 20th Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, in which he fully describes the manufacture of the fish hooks found in the prehistoric village site. In no instance was an unfinished specimen found in the Baum Village which would, in any way, show that a hole was first bored through the bone and the fish hook then wrought from this hole as was shown by Prof. Putnam; on the contrary a piece of bone was selected and cut into shape representing a small tablet of bone two and one-half inches long by from one-half to three-quarters of an inch broad, with rounded edges at the ends. The center was then cut out by rubbing with a stone on each side. So that two fish hooks were made instead of one from the single piece of bone. A great many perfect scrapers made from the metacarpal bone of the deer and elk were also found, while almost every pit would contain from one to four broken halves of these scrapers. Specimens were also procured showing the various stages in the manufacture of this implement which resemble very much in every particular those found at Madisonville, and also those found at the village site at Fort Ancient.

The pottery fragments found in these ash pits resemble those found at Madisonville, in the ornamentation by incised lines, implement indentations arranged in figures, and handles ornamented with effigies of birds and animals. Of the shell implements, perhaps the most common is the shell hoe, which is made from the mussel shell _Unio plicatus_.

A great number of beads, from one-half to one inch in diameter, made from mussel shells and perforated with from one to three holes, are found. The large gorgets from two to two and one-half inches in diameter are also found. These are invariably perforated with from one to three holes, and are made from a shell foreign to the Paint Creek Valley.

Of the implements and ornaments made of stone, the flint arrow heads are very common. These are mostly made from material brought from flint ridge in Licking County. Grooved axes are also found, the type prevailing is the one having the groove extend entirely around. The perforated gorgets of slate are also found, but the most interesting of the stone implements found in the pits are the perforated discoidals. These are all small, varying in diameter from two to three inches, and finely polished.