NOTES ON THE FLORA OF LOUISIANA. I 



R. S. COCKS 



Tulane University, New Orleans, La. 



The object of these notes upon the flora of Louisiana is to 

 record various observations made during the past few years upon 

 the distribution and occurrence of such plants as seem worthy of 

 special notice whether on account of their rarity or because their 

 presence in Louisiana would seem to be remarkable judging by 

 their hitherto published range as set forth in Small's Flora of the 

 Southeastern United States (1913) and Mohr's Flora of Alabama 

 (1903), the only two publications which deal at all comprehensive- 

 ly with this region. In this present paper it is proposed to deal 

 especially with the parish of West Feliciana which presents many 

 features not found elsewhere in the state. The parish of West Fe- 

 liciana is in the southeastern portion of Louisiana, using the term 

 south as it is generally used in Louisiana to denote below the mouth 

 of the Red River. On its northern boundary it adjoins the state of 

 Mississippi and on its western side is bounded by the Mississippi 

 River. From the state line of Mississippi extending southward 

 there is on the eastern side of the river a belt of ''bluff lands" 

 running through West and East Feliciana and East Baton Rouge. 

 In length the belt is about 50 miles, its width in West Feliciana 

 about 18 miles. The bluffs on the Mississippi line rise to a height 

 of 100 feet or more and are hilly and broken. Further south 

 they flatten out, being only about 75 feet high at Port Hudson and 

 45 at Baton Rouge, continuing to fall eastward and southward 

 until they reach the level of the pine flats and alluvial bottom 

 lands. The parish of West Feliciana consists almost entirely of 

 these bluff lands which lie between a small amount of alluvial 

 land along the river and the so-called hill lands on the east. In 

 West Feliciana the bluff lands are very hilly and broken with 



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