400 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF DISMAL SWAMP REGION. 



occur as undergrowth in the pine woods, mingling with species that 

 are true shrubs. When an opening is afforded them, through the 

 removal or thinning of the pine growth by Are or the ax, the hard 

 woods grow up, often into stately forest trees. The sweet gum 

 (Liquidambar) is not rarely 30 meters high and 1 to H meters in 

 diameter near the base. It grows to its largest size on the moister, 

 heavier soils, but forms an abundant undergrowth in lighter, drier 

 land. The beech not rarely forms small groves, excluding other trees, 

 especially in low ground. Here it is frequently 25 meters high and 1 

 meter in diameter. The white oak, the red oak, the cow oak, and the 

 willow oak are often lofty trees, with wide-spreading branches and 

 trunks 1 meter through near the base. In other parts of eastern North 

 America the different oaks are usually rat 1km- constant in their liking 

 for dry or for wet soils, but like most of the forest trees they lose this 

 selective power to a great extent in the Austroriparian area, especially 

 very near the coast. Even here, however, it may be said, in a general 

 way, that the cow oak, the water oak, the willow oak, and, in a minor 

 degree, the white oak, prefer heavy soils with a large water content, 

 while the Spanish oak, post oak, quercitron, and laurel oak are most 

 at home on a drier, better-drained substratum of coarser texture. 



Mingled with the young trees, which usually form the major part 

 of the undergrowth, whether the forest is chiefly pine or chiefly hard 

 wood, is a great variety of shrubs, large and small. Indeed, the 

 abundance and density of the woody lower growth almost everywhere 

 in the Dismal Swamp region is perhaps the most salient feature of its 

 vegetation. Uesides the species already mentioned as sometimes 

 reaching the size of small trees, the following are worthy of note: 



The wax myrtle, Myrica carol hiensis, is abundant in pine woods 

 which have a light soil, sometimes constituting almost the sole under- 

 growth, but usually mixed with sweet gum, dogwood, etc. Vaccinium 

 corymbosum, Ehus copallina, Aralia spinosa, Oxydendrum arboreum, 

 Sassafras sassafras, and Diospyros Virginia na are likewise usually 

 predominant in drier, sandy soils, while service berry (Amelanchier 

 botryapium), "honeysuckle" {Azalea canescens), "shin-leaf" (Sym- 

 plocos tinctoria), and "gallberry" (Ilex glabra) grow most abundantly 

 upon a comparatively heavy moist substratum. Callicarpa ameri- 

 e.ana, ZanUioxyhuu clava-hercuUs, and Baccharis halimifolia are 

 important elements of the undergrowth only in the woods near the 

 'strand. The American laurel (Kalmia latifolia), storax (Styrour, 

 grandifolia), and sparkleberry ( Vaccinium arboreum) are compara- 

 tively rare and local. The last-mentioned species was seen only west 

 of Suffolk, where it reaches almost the size of a tree (5 meters high). 

 A number of species which attain their best development in the wooded 

 swamps are also frequent in the lower-lying parts of the nonpalus- 

 trine forest. Such are Leucothue racemosa, Aronia arbidifolia, and 

 Clethra alnifolia. 



