42 HARPER: VEGETATION OF THE PINUS TAEDA BELT 
In the present paper the red hill belt lying just southeast of 
the fall-line sand-hills in the Carolinas is combined with the flatter 
and more sandy Pinus Taeda belt, being connected with it appar- 
ently by imperceptible gradations, and not differing much in 
vegetation. The total area involved is about 28,000 square miles. 
The most important literature on the region was summarized by 
the writer in 1907.* Since then there have been published several 
more government soil surveys, a report on the geology of the 
coastal plain of North Carolina,} Coker’s Plant Life of Hartsville, 
S. C.,f and Ashe’s monograph on loblolly or North Carolina pine.§ 
C. S. Chapman’s “A working plan for forest lands in Berkeley 
County, South Carolina,”|| which was cited in my 1907 paper, 
will be referred to more specifically below. 
Topography and hydrography. The altitude ranges from sea- 
level to about 300 feet. The topography is gently undulating in 
the red hills and nearly flat elsewhere, with few railroad cuts deep 
enough to obstruct the view of the traveler on a passenger train. 
There are bluffs near some of the rivers, but all the streams are 
bordered at least on one side by swamps, whose width is approxi- 
mately proportional to the size of the stream. The rivers which 
rise in the Piedmont region are muddy, but the smaller streams 
which are confined to the coastal plain are not, except in prolonged 
wet weather. In the flat areas are many very shallow depressions, 
which will be referred to again under the head of vegetation. The 
ground-water is nearly everywhere close enough to the surface to 
be reached by well-sweeps and suction pumps. 
Soils. The average soil might be described as a grayish sandy 
loam, varying toward red clay in the higher portions, and purer 
sand near some of the rivers. According to the government soil 
surveys hitherto published for this region (none for Virginia, 
about nine for North Carolina and eight for South Carolina), the 
eight commonest types of soil in the North Carolina portion are 
* Bull. Torrey Club 34: 3 51-353- 1907. 
TN. C. Geol. Surv., Vol. 3. 552 pp. “1012.” (Published about the middle 
of 1913.) 
ft See Torreya 13: 139-144. 1913. 
§ N. C, Geol. Surv. Bull. 24. 169 pp., 27 pl. rors. 
| U. S. Bur. Forestry Bull. 56. 62 Pp., 4 plates & map. “1905.” See Bull. 
Torrey Club 34: 352 (sth footnote), 360 (4th footnote), 1907. 
