14 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA, 
features of the vegetation prevailing in the floral regions traversed. 
He passed through the subtropical zone, recognized by the long wreaths 
of the Spanish moss investing the huge limbs of venerable evergreen 
oaks (the laurel oak, mentioned by him as Quercus hemisphaerica), and 
huge magnolias, with the Cretaceous plain before him, which the tray- 
eler describes as a country with a rich black soil resting upon a chalky 
testaceous limestone clad with tall grasses and a variety of other herb- 
age, most conspicuous among it tall rosinweeds (S//phium), with their 
large spikes of golden vellow flowers anda resinous substance exuding 
from the bruises and splits of the stem; beyond the plains a broken 
ground of hills and vales covered with forests of stately trees—locust 
(designated as Robinia, but most likely the honey locust), linden, mul- 
berry,elm, hickory, and black walnut, with the Southern crabapple, dog- 
wood, and redbud for the smaller tree growth; further south a generally 
level plain, with a lighter soil, pebbles and sand mixing with the surface 
soil, covered with an open forest of oak, hickories, ash, red buckeye, 
and the smaller trees mentioned above, associated with an abundance 
of chestnut’ and with pines (Pinus /utea, i. e., short-leaf pine, P/nus 
echinata) interrupted by expansive cane meadows and detached groves, 
in strong contrast with the gravelly and rocky hills and vales support- 
ing the forests mentioned above. The traveler speaks enthusiastically 
of the dense cool groves of dogwood and of the fragrant groves of 
sweet illicium and odorous calycanthus or spicewood covering the 
higher banks of the streams, together with the beautiful //udes/a d/p- 
tere (silver bells, Mohrodendron), stuartia, storax bushes, azaleas, and 
particularly Magnolia aurieulata (undoubtedly meaning Magnol/u 
macrophylla), all overtowered by the stately large-tlowered magnolia 
(Magnolia foetida). Across the Shambee (Escambia) River the coun- 
try is described as low and open, descending for the next 80 miles 
to the southeast, exhibiting a landscape different from others, not 
unlike the low country of the Carolinas, consisting of grassy savan- 
nas, intersected by narrow forests along the water courses, hummocks, 
and swamps, with long-leaved pines ‘*scatteringly planted among the 
grass, associated on the higher knolls and swells with barren oaks,’ 
the rivulets running swiftly over their gravelly beds, their banks 
adorned with evergreen andromedas, American olive, illicium, hollies, 
sweet bay, and azaleas. Descending to the lowlands toward the bay 
of Mobile, **cane swamps alternate with pine-clad knolls.”  Tensas, 
situated on the eastern arm of the great Mobile River, on a high bluff, 
about 30 miles above Fort Conde and the city of Mobile, was reached 
in the early days of August (1777). After a short visit to Mobile 
present In some parts onlv indicated by the laree stumps, whieh have during the long 
periods of time resisted decay. 
