THE COASTAL PLAIN OF ARKANSAS 37 



On the tenth of the month nanuHl I stepped off a Mississippi 

 River steamboat at Luna Landing, in the southeasternmost 

 country, and went in a general northwesterly direction by the 

 Iron iMountain Route to Little Rock, the capital and railroad 

 center as well as the approximate geographical center of the state, 

 missing the last 45 miles of scenery on account of the train being 

 over two hours late. During the night I went to Ai-kadelphia, 

 near the fall-line in Clark County, 65 miles southwest of Little 

 Rock, where I remained until the afternoon of the thirteenth. 

 I then returned to Little Rock by daylight, and on the fourteenth 

 and fifteenth went eastward to Memphis, Tennessee, by the Rock 

 Island Route, 133 miles, stopping a few hours in Prairie County 

 and about a day in St. Francis County. 



The coastal plain of Arkansas, unlike that of most other states, 

 is about half alluvial bottoms, very similar to the ''Yazoo delta" 

 just across the river in Mississippi.^ From Luna Landing on the 

 Mississippi to Pine BlufT on the Arkansas (where darkness over- 

 took me) I was in bottom lands practically all the way. The land 

 of course rises as one leaves the Mississippi River, and more than 

 it does on the east side, but so gradually as to be almost imper- 

 ceptible to the traveler. And although the bottoms near Pine 

 Bluff are evidently higher and drier than those in Chicot County, 

 it does not seem possible to draw a geographical boundary at any 

 intermediate point. 



Southeastern Arkansas seems to have a much larger proportion 

 of woodland at the present time than the corresponding "delta" 

 of Mississippi, but probably more on account of its more recent 

 settlement than of any fundamental edaphic factors. The plants 

 listed in Table A were observed more than once between Luna 

 Landing and Pine Bluff, by way of Lake Village and McGehee, a 

 distance of about 89 miles. 



^See Biill. Torr. Bot. Club 40:390-384, pi. 21, August, 1913. 



