Ch. IV] WARM TEMPERATE MOIST SUMMER DISTRICTS 47; 



conspicuous in early spring, owing to its large, yellow, fragrant bell-like flowers, is 

 Gelsemium sempervirens (Loganiaceae) occurring in all places that are exposed to 

 the light, in particular along the banks of rivers. Among epiphytes, besides 

 Tillandsia usneoides, there are other Tillandsieae, some like the narrow-leaved 

 T. recurvata, others with the common rosette-forming habit of T. utriculata, Sec, 

 a small orchid (Epidendrum conopseum, Ait.), which extends northwards as far as 

 South Carolina, the abundant Polypodium incanum, which goes still further to the 

 north, Polypodium aureum, the large fronds of which mostly deck the scaly stems 

 of Sabal Palmetto, also the delicate 

 Vittaria lincata, which prefers to 

 raise its narrow leaves among the 

 white cushions of the likewise 

 tropical moss Octoblepharum 

 albidum. 



The pine-forest consists largely 

 of Pinus australis, Michx. (P. pa- 

 lustris, Linn.). It is very open 

 and possesses a bushy under- 

 wood, in which in particular small 

 species of Sabal (S. Adansonii 

 and S. serrulata) usually abound. 



ii. THE TEMPERATE RAIN- 

 FOREST IN GENERAL. 



While the impoverished and 

 circumscribed subtropical ex- 

 tensions of the tropical rain- 

 forest that have just been de- 

 scribed offer relatively little 

 that is peculiar to them, there 

 appears at a greater distance 

 from the tropics a production 

 quite unique within its type, 

 the temperate rain -forest, 

 which sometimes is continuous 



with the tropical forest and connected with it by transitions, at other times 

 is geographically isolated. 



The temperate, like the tropical, rain-forest is essentially formed of 

 evergreen hygrophilous trees, for therein truly consists the most essential 

 characteristic of a rain-forest. In most cases, however, periodically foliaged 

 trees occur as subordinate components, yet they are no longer rain-green, 

 but are summer-green trees, such as, for instance, Fagus obliqua in South 

 Chili. 



Fig. 242. Subtropical rain-forest in Central Florida. 

 Sabal Palmetto. From a photograph. 



