with some smooth-bark
hickory and sugar maple and a few shag-bark hickories. Here were also
large areas of creeping juniper and a few small patches of ground
hemlock (yew). On the flood-plains of the rivers and lakes were quite
extensive swampy forests of soft maple, black ash, and white elm. Swamp
oak and whitewood grew commonly in the drier situations toward the edge
of the swamp conditions. The red-bud and red cedar were characteristic
of the river banks. White pine probably never grew in the county,
although a few trees occur on the south bank of the Huron River near
Hamburg, a few miles north of the county line.

Tamarack bogs, some of large size, are abundant in the Interlobate
Moraine District and occur commonly also in the Clay Morainic District,
but are practically wanting in the Lake Plain District.

The Clay Morainic District was originally dominated by forests of oak
and hickory. Several kinds of oaks, white ash, and several species of
hickories, with shag-bark most characteristic, were most abundant. Mixed
with these were elm, beech, sugar maple, black walnut, and butternut. On
the higher ground many stands of quaking aspen were found. The forest
was quite dense and little underbrush normally occurred. Tamarack bogs
were common, and a small stand of black spruce occurred at the edge of
Independence Lake. There are few flood-plains along the Huron River in
this district, but along the river's edge were a few cottonwoods and
sycamores, and many willows, some of large size. On the steep bluffs
along the river was often a heavy growth of red cedar; and some large
areas of procumbent juniper occurred. In this district were several
open, level, sandy plains covered with a scattered growth of white and
bur oaks and an undergrowth of hazel brush. These were known to the
pioneers as "oak openings" or "plains." Lodi Plains in Lodi Township,
Bur Oak Plains in Manchester Township, Sharon Plains in Sharon Township,
and Boyden's Plains in Webster Township were the largest of these
natural openings in Washtenaw County.

On the low lands of the Lake Plain District great forests of black ash,
elm, whitewood, soft maple, red-bud, swamp oak, and bur oak were found
by the early settlers. Large sycamore trees were found along the river
banks, these following the Huron River up a short distance beyond Ann
Arbor and occurring all along the Raisin and Saline rivers. The paw paw
and pin oak were found rarely in the southeastern p