FORESTS OF CAHABA VALLEY AND WARRIOR BASIN. 91 



ette counties, the lower half of Winston, the southern edge of Cull- 

 man and much of Blount, all of Walker and Jefferson, a great part of 

 Tuscaloosa, the northern border of Bibb, and portions of Shelby and 

 St. Clair counties. The hills within this region rarely exceed 600 

 feet above sea level. The soil resulting from the disintegration of 

 coal-bearing shales, frequently rocky and shallow, is poor and dry. 



Xerojyhile forests. — The xerophile forests consist largely of decidu- 

 ous trees of inferior size. These are upland oaks of the })lack and red 

 oak group, with stunted post oak, more rareh' chinquapin oak {Quercus 

 acuminat(i) of a more or less arborescent habit; pignut hickor}- and 

 pale-leaf hickory {Ilicoria viUosa)., a tree of medium size, lately distin- 

 guished, occurring from Missouri, Tennessee, and North (Carolina to 

 Alal)ama, being frequent on the rocky hills of the siliceous conglom- 

 erates. White-bark maple {Acei' leucoderm^ and various hawthorns 

 ( Crataegus collma., C cocGinea., C. spathulata., C. raohri.^ and C. tri- 

 fj(yrd)^ all common to this and the mountain region, form the vegeta- 

 tion of the dejise copses and the undergrowth in these xerophile forests. 

 On the outcrops of the subcarboniferous limestone the chestnut oak 

 {Quercus acuminata)., here in its best development, is not infrequent, 

 and Texas white 0'c\h {Querciis hreviloha).^ known commonly as pin oak, 

 finds its northern limit on the calcareous hills near the Mulberry Fork 

 of the Warrior River, in Blount County. 



On the cliffs of sandstone which form the eastern brink of the Black 

 Warrior River, a short distance above the city of Tuscaloosa, a mono- 

 typical shrub, Neviiisia alahamensis., finds its only home. The numer- 

 ous slender wand-like stems bear abundant white apetalous flowers in 

 the earliest days of spring, when the leaves begin to appear. This 

 unique shrub belongs to the Asiatic element of Alabama's flora, and is 

 strictly contined to the above locality. It was discovered by the Rev. 

 R. A. Nevius and Professor Wyman in 1858. 



In Tuscaloosa County, between North River and the Black Warrior 

 River, a tract of longleaf pine extends to the banks of Yellow Creek 

 near Oregonia, and in the northern part of Walker Countv a dense 

 forest of this pine covers an isolated area of sand and pebbles extend- 

 ing over several townships, and is in its timber growth not surpassed 

 by the best pine lands, further south. South Lowell, Walker County, 

 450 feet above the sea, is near the center of this pine forest. The 

 upland willow oak or blue jack, common in the lower Coast Pine belt, 

 in this isolated pine forest reaches its most northern station. The 

 herbaceous flora presents the same associations of xerophile grasses, 

 Leguminosae, and Compositae, common in the maritime belts of long- 

 leaf pine. Noteworthy is Ilelianthus mollis.^ a rare plant widely 

 diffused from the prairies in southern Missouri and Arkansas to Ten- 

 nessee and upper Georgia, and known in Alabama also from another 

 locality, viz, the pine forests near Gadsden, Etowah County. 



