100 OUTLINE OF PLANT GEOGRAPHY 



same forests a blaze of color in the autumn. Where the snowy 

 flowers of the dogwood, and the rosy pink of the red-bud light up 

 the forest just as the leaves begin to unfold, the picture is complete. 



South of the Carolinas and Tennessee the forests begin to assume 

 a more tropical aspect, with an infusion of broad-leaved ever- 

 greens, like magnolia, live oaks, holly and laurel (Persea), and 

 in the coastal region, palmettos, the northernmost representatives 

 of the tropical family of palms. 



There is a decided increase, too, in the number of woody 

 climbers or lianas; Bignonia, trumpet creeper (Tecoma), Wis- 

 taria, yellow jasmine (Gelsemium) passion flowers and some 

 others, are added to the grapes, Clematis, Virginia creeper, and 

 other northern climbers. 



The Coastal Plain 



Eastward from the Appalachian mountain system, from New 

 Jersey southward, is the Atlantic coastal plain, narrow in its 

 northern portion, but widening at the south, and becoming very 

 broad in the Carolinas and Georgia, where it passes into the 

 coastal region of the Gulf of Mexico. This whole region is geologi- 

 cally comparatively recent, and much of it raised but little above 

 sea-level. 



North of Chesapeake Bay, it is a narrow, more or less interrupted 

 strip of barren strand. A few plants, such as the dwarf prickly- 

 pear, characteristic of this region, occur at points further north, 

 as in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, and relics of this coastal 

 flora are also found in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, indicat- 

 ing a former connection with the coastal plain further south, 

 severed by the subsidence of the continental shelf. 



The extensive beaches of Long Island and New Jersey belong 

 to this formation and support a characteristic strand flora, much 

 like that found along the Massachusetts coast in similar locali- 

 ties, such as huckleberries, wax-myrtles and others, and the stunted 

 trees are also many of the same species. In places the drifting 

 sand is gradually burying the forest on the land side. 1 



The Jersey pine-barrens have been very thoroughly studied. 

 The pitch pine (Pinus rigida) is the predominant species, and 



1 Harshbergcr, loc. cit., pp. 413-423. 



