a JOUKXAL OF THE 



2. A middle district, which extends westward to the 

 Blue Ridge, two hundred miles beyond the coastal plain, 

 and extends across the State parallel to it, having an area 

 of about 22,000 square miles. In the east it is rolling, but 

 towards the western border is rugged and hilly, and in 

 places ev^en mountainous, being penetrated by mountain 

 spurs from the Blue Ridge. It has an average altitude of 

 eio^ht hundred and fiftv to nine hundred feet, but rises at 

 its highest peaks to a little over 3,000 feet, while along its 

 extreme eastern border it is not over four hundred to five 

 hundred feet. On the uplands the soil may be classed in 

 o-eneral terms as a loam, which becomes sandv in some 

 places and clayey in others. Along the streams there is 

 usuallv a rich, dark-colored loam with an admixture of 

 humus. This region has an average temperature of about 

 58.5° or 59° F. , and an annual rain-fall of about fifty 

 inches. 



3. The western district is an elevated, mountainous 

 region, with an average altitude of 3,500 feet, but rising 

 (at Mt. Mitchell) to 6,711 feet. This region includes the 

 Blue Rido^e, which forms its general eastern boundary, and 

 the Great Smoky Mountains, which border it on the west. 

 Numerous cross ridges, separated by irregular valleys, con- 

 nect these two mountain ranges. The area of the region 

 is about 6,000 square miles. Though the mountain slopes 

 are often steep, and the valleys quite narrow, the soil is 

 exceedingly fertile, being a loam generally rich in organic 

 matter. The average temperature for the counties of this 

 western district probably approximate 50° F. , varying from 

 57.8° at Hot Springs to an estimated temperature for the 

 top of Mt. Mitchell of less than 38°,* and the normal 

 annual precipitation is about fifty-seven inches. 



There are three fairlv well-marked botanic divisions coin- 



*Climatolf)gy nf Sorth Carolina— N. C. Agr. Kxp. Sta. Report. Raleigh, 1892; p. 166. 



