182 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
in the sand often closely cover the soil. On the borders of. these 
woods, and almost contined to them, Rynchospora dodecandra is fre- 
quent with the rare Carex dasycarpa, both of which occur also in 
South Carolina. 
Mesophile plant associations of the salt marshes covering the outlying 
eslands.—Dauphine Island is the most e: sterly of the interrupted chain 
of islands which incloses the waters of Mississippi Sound; it is the 
largest that fronts the Alabama coast and was originally covered with 
the Cuban pine. The flora of this island presents no new features, the 
vegetation of its dunes, saline marshes, and pine flats being identical 
with that of the corresponding situations on the mainland. 
The low islets closer to the main shore and flooded by every high 
tide are bare of tree growth, and their borders, if not their whole 
surface, are almost always soaked by the briny sea, and are not rarely 
covered with a floor of fine salt. Where sand and shingle, thrown up 
by the waves, have raised the ground above continued overflow, ever- 
green shrubs preferring a saline. soil (halophytes), such as Zia fru- 
tescens, Baccharis halimifolia and B. angustifolia, fringe their shores, 
together with Chenopodium berlandier’ and Lycium carolinianum (sea 
cherry). Batts maritima, Salicornia higdowli, and 8. ambigua, low 
shrubby paludial halophytes, with Fimbristylis spudicea, form a dense, 
close cover of perpetual verdure on these islands. 
Mesophile plant associations (halophytie) of the salt marshes on. the 
main shore.—The shallow, tranquil waters of the numerous inlets of 
the sea, with their floor of deep, sandy mud, which receive the smaller 
pine-barren streams, are covered exclusively by the black rush (Jincus 
roemervanus). The rigid, sharp-pointed, leafless stems which rise 2 
feet or more above the water, and are more or less crowded, present 
a rather compact plant formation highly characteristic of the vegeta- 
tion of the littoral region of the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States. 
This formation might titly be designated as the Southern Juncaceous 
formation. This rush also forms the great bulk of the vegetation of 
the extensive saline marshes lining the shore, which at low tide are 
above water and which by their position are protected against the 
violent action of the waves. In these marshes. associated with the 
black rush occur: 
Fimbristylis castanea, Distichlis spicata, 
Fimbristylis puberula, Chaetochloa imberhis perennis 
Spartina polystachya. Paspalum vaginatum. 
Cladium effusum. 
Also the following halophytes: 
Limonium carolinianum. Borrichia frutescens, 
Gerardia maritima. Cynanchum palustre. 
In receding from the water front the marsh gradually rises above 
continuous overflow, and the ground affords a firmer foothold. In 
such situations the rushes and grasses disappear and a more or legs 
