100 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
these uplands, which, being rich in humus, as a result of the reaction 
of its calcareous constituents upon vegetable matter, closely resembles 
the equally productive soil of the western treeless prairies. Before 
its settlement by whites this region was largely covered by forests of 
a decidedly mesophile character, mostly of hardwood trees, in some 
localities mixed with red cedar. On the fertile uplands the forest has 
been almost entirely removed; the bottoms of the Alabama and Tom- 
bigbee rivers and their largest. tributaries, where subject to overflow, 
are still heavily timbered with a mesophile growth of cow oak, over- 
cup oak (Quercus lyrata), laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia), water oak, 
red or sweet gum—in such perfection as this tree attains only in the 
Atlantic forests of the lower latitudes—beech, mockernut (llicoria 
aba), and bitternut hickory (Jicoria min ima), all draped with Spanish 
moss. A fine elm is also frequently met with here of a sturdy growth, 
often fully 2 feet in diameter, the branchlets covered with corky flat 
expansions of the bark. Although not seen in flower or fruit. this 
tree certainly is distinct from the white elm (Ulmus americana), and 
is doubtless identical with the Southern white elm lately discovered by 
Messrs. Sargent and Canby near Huntsville, and described in the suc- 
ceeding catalogue. With the rise of the land above overflow tulip 
trees, linden, mulberry, stately magnolias, hackberry, and red hay 
(Lerseu borbonica) mingle with the trees of the bottom, The diversity 
of the arboreal vegetation increases further on the broad swells of the 
uplands with a rich dark soil, as is apparent from the rather scanty 
remains of their tree covering observed between Uniontown and De- 
mopolis. On these rich uplands the Texas white oak (Quercus breviloba), 
commonly known in this section as pin oak, is found most frequent and 
in the same perfection as in the rich bottom lands of southern Texas, 
rivaling in size the common white oak. This beautiful oak is at once 
recognized by the diverse shapes of the leaves, which frequently vary 
on the same tree from oblong-lanceolate and entire to broadly ovate or 
obovate and obtusely three-lobed at the apex; and also by the small 
fruit. The post oak, in its best-developed state, is frec juently associated 
with the above. Black walnut, frequently mentioned in the records 
of earlier times, is at present extremely scarce; in fact, as a timber 
tree it has disappeared from these forests. ‘The peean (/Ticoria pecan) 
and nutmeg hickory (/icor/a myristicaeformis) are frequently seat- 
tered among the oaks throughout the woodlands of this region in the 
basin of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. There can be no doubt 
about the pecan being indigenous to this region, although heretofore 
not regarded as a native of the eastern Gulf region outside of the 
Mississippi and Yazoo deltas. Groves of full-erown trees, which must 
have been in existence before the arrival of the first white settlers, are 
remembered by very old inhabitants. A few of these landmarks of 
the original forest growth still survive, surrounded by their offspring 
