A superficial study of the pine-barren vegetation of Mississippi 
ROLAND M. HARPER 
(WITH THREE TEXT-FIGURES) 
In Mississippi Pinus palustris is confined to the southern half 
of the state, and the region in which it is the dominant tree, 
constituting the pine-barrens, covers about 1 3,000 square miles, 
or less than one third of the state. The pine-barrens proper 
(in Mississippi but not in any of the states farther east) are con- 
fined to the area underlaid by a non-calcareous formation sup- 
posed to be of late Tertiary age, which has been called Grand 
Gulf in Mississippi and Alabama and Altamaha Grit in Georgia. 
The boundary between this and the limestone region which borders 
it on the north seems much less distinct in Mississippi than in 
Georgia,* but is approximately 100 miles from the coast. In 
western Mississippi this formation is overlaid by a brownish 
silty loam of supposed aeolian origin, known as the loess, which 
is many feet thick along the Mississippi River but thins out 
gradually eastward and disappears entirely in the neighborhood 
of the Pearl River. Where the loess forms the surface the long- 
leaf pine is absent and other pines scarce, and the forests are 
mainly of the ordinary southern hardwood type, much as in the 
northern parts of the state. 
Previous literature-—The following list is believed to contain 
all the more important papers bearing on the phytogeography 
of the Mississippi pine-barrens, except a few for the whole state 
Which were cited in my paper on northern Mississippi last year,f 
and a few primarily geological ones. The arrangement is chrono- 
logical. 
(Mrs.) Martha B. Flint. Notes from the Mississippi pine barrens. 
Bot. Gaz. 7: 43. Apr. 1882. 
~—— The exogenous flora of Lincoln Co., Mississippi, from October to 
__ May. Bot. Gaz. 7: 74-76, 79-81. June and July 1882. 
* See Bull. Torrey Club 32: 144. 1905. 
T Bull. Torrey Club 40: 377-399. pl. 27, 22. Au I19T3- 
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