Abstract
As pointed out by Potzger and Friesner (9), Conard (3) and Cain (1), a mere empirical description of a forest means little as a definite presentation of conditions operating, and becomes nil in comparative studies. Most of the work on forest ecology in the United States has considered upland climax communities, and very little attention has been given the great transitional forests of the floodplains, and to the writer's knowledge only Oosting (8) has given specific quantitative data on the sociology of the species constituting the crown cover of the floodplain forests.
The present study of 20 stands was made within the White River system because it bisects not only thes tate from east to west but crosses four of Deam's (5) differentiated botanical areas. it was expected that forests of such a river valley would show a considerable degree of uniformity of habitat over a wide geographical area and that this would be reflected by fidelity and frequency of key species controlling the crown cover of the forest.
