AGRICULTURE OF CENTRAL PRAIRIE REGION. 105 
Of other herbaceous plants belonging to the same campestrian asso- 
ciation and confined to the Louisianian area are to be mentioned 
Polygala boykinii and Xylopleurum speciosum, conspicuous on account 
of their large flowers of bright rose color, common on the prairies of 
central Texas, southern Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana and 
appearing to be indigenous in Alabama, and Gaillardia pulchella, 
Rudbeckia amplexicaulis, and Monarda ertriodora, of the same distri- 
bution but less frequent here, and perhaps adventive by the seed hav- 
ing come with the seed oats frequently brought from central Texas. 
Sand hills near Montgomery.—A peculiar association of xerophile 
herbs, remarkable for the occurrence of types not observed elsewhere 
in the State, is found on the hills with a loamy, sandy soil, rising 
above the cypress swamps on the eastern banks of the Alabama River 
near the city of Montgomery. At the base of the hills occur: 
Curduus elliottii. lsopappus divaricatus. 
Cnicus benedictus (naturalized from — Tragia urticaefolia. 
Europe). 
The sides of the hills are covered with xerophile grasses: 
Aristida dichotoma. Panicum cognatum. 
Eragrostis capillaris. Panicum flecile. 
Eragrostis refracta. 
The grass is studded with: 
Aster undulatus. Allionia hirsuta, 
Aster patens. Silene ovata. 
Kuhnia eupatorioides. 
The northern Kuhnia is extremely rare in the State. Addionca 
hirsuta is at home in the prairies of the West from Minnesota to 
Texas. Silene ovata is found in the exposed ravines of these hills. 
It is also found in the Cumberland highlands of Tennessee, and is dis- 
tributed somewhat widely in the mountains of the Carolinas and 
Georgia. 
CULTURAL PLANT FORMATIONS. 
This region constitutes the great agricultural region of the State, 
celebrated for its large production of cotton, With the decline in the 
price of this staple crop during late years greater attention has been 
given to the growing of breadstuffs and forage crops. Broad fields 
of Indian corn and oats are seen on every hand; and since an increased 
interest is taken in the raising of stock, the old fields exhausted by 
the continuous practice of the one-crop system are: either being con- 
verted into wide pastures of Bermuda grass (Capriola dactylon) or, to 
hasten their recuperation, are planted in white melilot (M/e/¢/otus alba), 
known in these parts as Bokhara clover, which, like red clover, as an 
ameliorating forage crop for hay and for pasture, has proved of the 
greatest benefit on the exhausted caleareous prairie lands. In the 
beginning of the new era in the agriculture of the South, Sorghum 
halepense was extensively raised as a perennial hay crop. After it was 
