The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-10
THE DELTA OF INDIANA.
Professor C0llet Talks of the Beauties
Of the Southern District of the State.
The Cypress Swamp of the Wabash Rival
of the Victoria Regia-Days When "Par-
rokeets" Sang in Indiana Woods.


''Talk about Indiana?s said Prof John Coliett
in answer to the reporters inquiry, certainly
will I'm always ready. The subject is an ex-
haustless one, and the variety of topics included
under the general head Of Indiana is infinite.
The other day we talked little about the
Pocket That is sometimes called the delta
district of Indiana. 1t is a region of wonderful
fertility. Before the woodlands ak came to
make the clearings' the forests there were of
great extent and the trees of giant size Many
of these arboreal patriarchs remain. There are
yet poplar trees there eighteen feet in circum-
ference and black walnuts fully as large syca-
mores twenty -fourfeet in circumference, catalpas
nine to twelve feet, Expresses seven to ten feet,
and sugars thirteen feet In the White river
bottoms, near Hazleton, mulberry trees may be
seen six TO seven feet in girth, and persimmon
trees six feet. Many of these trees,
as the CYPRESS persimmon, white gum,
and number of shrubs are of trop-
ical or subtropical growth. In tine early days Of
Indiana there were extensive canebrakes over
Vanderburg, Posey and Gibson counties. There
is still some cane there, but the great brakes
have been exterminated by the trampling of
cattle.
with this fora were some members of the
sub-tropical fauna; as the red-gilled salamander
and the grass snake, retained and supported by
the lake-like ponds and swamps of Gibson and
Knox counties. Relics oe the Mound-builders
indicate the possibility of the existence in south
ern Indiana of such climate, while they occu-
pied that territory, for frequently some of their
pipes and ornaments represent the figure of the
toucan and the manatee of Mexican or South
American life
1.-THE cypress swamp, just above the condu-
ence of White river and the Wabash, occupies
an area of about TO- 600 acres. The trees there
are beautiful in their stately symmetry, their
foliage sweeping upward to the sky. The trunks
of the Expresses are curous and worthy of careful
study are the cone-like knees, excrescences
that grow up from their roots from few inches
to foot or two in height This is of solid wood,
and neither ornamental nor apparently useful
THAT interesting parasite, the mistletoe ia
nous in English song and story, is common on
the timber of The valleys in the Pocket. modest
ly hiding in the foliage of its victims during the
summer, but in winter waving its fragrant
plumes as if in triumph over the decay and
death around it. My observation is that it
selects the following trees for its food aud life.
Black gum, red elm, water birch, black walnut,
honey locust. blue ash, soft maple, blackberry,
yellow willow and shellbark hickory. At least
half of the plants are found upon the black gum,
and large proportion of the other half are upon
the red elm, the remainder being found upon
the other trees named in lessening numbers. In
England it frequently attaches itself to the ap-
pie tree, and is great pest to the fruit grower.
There are several varieties of mistletoe in this
country, from Mexico to the Pocket, none of
which, believe, are identical with the English
varieties.
"A large water lily, closely allied to the Vic
toria Regia, grows in the ponds of the lower
Wabash. Its leaf is perfect circle, like para
sol with a stem in the center. The seeds ripen
in pod which is called the devils rattle-box
1t does not grow in this State north Of Sulli-
van county, though it is found near the
mouth of the Genesee river and at Prairie
Du CHEN, Wisconsin, where Jefferson Davis
stole his wife, or rather where he says he didn't
steal her. Foote'S Grave Pond, 10 the south
west corner of Gibson county, takes it's name
from young United States surveyor drowned
entangled in the moss and lilies of the pond
while surveying it and was drowned. He was a
young man of fine education, brilliant as an
author and a poet. The body was recovered and
aged uncle, DIR. Foote, of Bedford, Lawrence
county, carried the bones of his relative to Bed
ford and placed them in great stone that he
had had followed out. The Doctors own bones
now rest in the same sepulcher, and an immense
block of limestone cap-plece covers it. Every
MIC fov RI rod 10 CHI fha
have wondered why no Indiana story teller has
never woven the story of young Foote into
romance.
''In speaking of woods should have said that
l am. so far as | know, the discover of the
merits OF catalpa Experience in this wood is
limited of course, to the time dating from the
early settlement of Indiana to the present, but
this experience shows that catalpa
timber resists decay in manner
superior to almost any of our native
exposed to water for fifty sixty years and still
untouched by decay. The growth of a timber
having these qualities should be encouraged 1t
is offensive In odor and taste, and on these ac-
counts not liable to destruction by animals or
insects. 1t makes a beautiful shade tree and
am pleased to see that many are being cultivated
in this city along our streets It fiourshes best
in overhowed lands, but grows well here. Speci-
mems measured exhibited a growth of one-half to
three fourths of an inch in diameter year.
the forests of the lower Wabash were radiant
with the brilliant plumage of the paroquets or
'parrokeets' as the early settlers always called
them. These rough voiced climbers were fond
of fruits, and especially of hackberries They
went in focks of from twenty to one hundred,
roosting at night ana in winter alternating in
hollow trees, where old residents insisted that
they slept the winter away suspended by their
beaks. Mr.. n. Thomas, of Lodi, related to me
that one winter he cut down a sycamore treefull
of these birds and hanging by their strong beaks
He cut out the section of log in which they were
kept them for some time at his bis
house. where he fed them, chiefly with
fruits Of various kinds The paroquets left the
Wabash Immediately after the blackberry trees
died, killed by the repeated over1ows of 1874
Before that time blackberry trees of great size
were more numerous than any other tree in the
Wabash bottoms. That year the river was up
nearly every month in the year. So, the hack
berry crop being destroyed, the paroquets left,
and our paro0uets are now to be found in Kan.