Vol. 41 No. 4 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
ee 
APRIL, 1914 
The “ Pocosin” of Pike County, Alabama, and its bearing on certain 
problems of succession 
ROLAND M. HARPER 
(WITH FOUR TEXT FIGURES) 
In eastern North Carolina, where the geographical term 
ae . * . 
pocosin”’ is used more frequently than in all the rest of the world, 
it means a flat wet place with peaty soil, usually remote from large 
streams, with a scattered growth of trees, mostly Pinus serotina, 
and a dense shrubby undergrowth.* In South Carolina and 
Georgia this term is almost unknown,{f but it reappears in the 
Coastal plain of Alabama, with a very different meaning. 
In a chapter contributed by E. Q. Thornton to Prof. Tuomey’s 
second report on the geology of Alabama, published in 1858 (p. 
244), we find the following interesting bit of information: 
“East of this place [Troy] is a small scope of country of peculiar appearance, 
known as the Pocosson settlement. The vallies, which have the rank luxuriant 
8rowth of a swamp, are surrounded on three sides by a ridge of snow-white sand, 
which seems to have been heaped up by the tides on a sea-shore. The only occupant 
of the hills is a scrubby oak covered with long moss. The soil is exceedingly u 
Productive, and soon wears out by cultivation.” 
* See Bull. ‘Tecrey Club 34: 361-363. 1907; C. A. Davis, N. C. Geol. Surv. 
Econ, Paper 15: 149-150. 1910; L. W. Stephenson, N. C. Geol. Surv. Vol. 3: 280. 
pl. 24B, 1913. 
t Miss E. F. Andrews (see Torreya 13: 64-66. 1913) wrote me early in 1913 that 
she had heard the term applied to certain “large flowery swamps”’ in the vicinity of 
Albany, Georgia, where she used to live; and the government soil survey of Dougherty 
County, Georgia, published in October, 1913, indicates a “ Percosin si 
miles west of Albany, but says nothing about any application of the name to vegeta- 
tion. Stil] — recently (March, 1914) I have heard of an occurrence of the term 
in West Flori 
[The pes for March (41: 137-208. pl. 1-6) was issued 22 Ap ror4] 
209 
