THE ALTAMAHA GRIT REGION IN DECEMBER 



ROLAND M. HARPER 



University, Alabama 



In December, 1910, the writer had occasion to cross the Alta- 

 maha Grit region or middle third of the coastal plain of Georgia 

 from north to south near its center, by a new route, the Georgia 

 and Florida Railway, most of which had been built since the 

 publication of a description of the region about four years before. 1 

 This railroad, which now has more mileage in the Altamaha 

 Grit region than any other one system, enters the region from 

 the south at Valdosta, traverses it for about 165 miles in a direc- 

 tion averaging a little east of north, and leaves it a few miles 

 north of Swainsboro. Before the date of this narrative the only 

 portions of the main line north of Valdosta that I had traveled 

 on were between Willacoochee and Nashville, 17 miles, and 

 between Hazlehurst and an undetermined point about 20 miles 

 south of there, where the route was changed a few years ago. 



On the sixth of the month named I traveled by this route from 

 its southern terminus (in Florida) to Douglas, and two days later 

 from Douglas to Swainsboro. This gave me an opportunity 

 for seeing over 100 miles of new territory, in a month in which 

 I had never been in that region at all before. Although no new 

 facts of exceptional interest were discovered, the following notes 

 on the trip will at least serve to illustrate a simple method of 

 phytogeographical research of which most botanists who travel 

 by rail fail to take advantage, thus throwing away valuable oppor- 

 tunities. 



For about the first 50 miles north of Valdosta the country is 

 comparatively level, not quite as much so perhaps as the flat 

 pine-barren region nearer the Atlantic coast, into which it seems 

 to pass by imperceptible gradations, but considerably more so 



1 Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 17: 1-414. November, 1906. 



241 



THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 15, NO. 10, OCTOBER, 1912 



