556 HARPER: PINE-BARREN VEGETATION OF MISSISSIPPI 
flat for miles, forming the ‘‘ pine meadows” described by Hilgard* 
and others; but usually the country is a little undulating right 
down to the coast. 
As in the pine-barrens of Georgia and Alabama, the streams 
that rise within the region carry little sediment and do not fluctu- 
ate much. The Pearl and Pascagoula Rivers drain parts of the 
Eocene red hills to the northward and are therefore somewhat 
muddy. In the lower and flatter parts of the region the ground- 
water is of course always near the surface (for it can hardly sink 
below sea-level), and the soil is therefore always damp. The 
most typical or characteristic pine-barren plants are found in 
such situations. The existence of a large paper mill at Moss 
Point, at the mouth of the Escatawpa River, one of the typical 
coffee-colored pine-barren streams, is probably correlated with 
the freedom of the water from mineral substances in suspension 
or solution. 
Climate.—The following climatological data, extracted from 
the annual summary of the Mississippi section of the U.S. Weather 
Bureau for 1911, will give an idea of the salient features of the 
climate of this region. Eight stations have been selected, as 
follows: Waynesboro and Jackson, just north of the region, 
Brookhaven, about on its western edge, Natchez and Woodville, 
farther west, and Pearlington, Bay St. Louis and Biloxi, on the 
coast. The data given here are mean temperature for January 
and July, average annual rainfall, and proportion of the total 
rainfall in the four warmest months, June to September, and the 
six warmest months, May to October. The first two columns of 
figures are degrees Fahrenheit, the third inches, and the last two 
percentages. 
It may be observed at once that not only is the rainfall more 
copious toward the coast, but also a larger proportion of it comes 
in summer there, so that if absolute instead of relative figures for 
summer rainfall were given the contrast between the coast and 
the interior stations in this respect would be still greater. Less 
comprehensible, but perhaps more interesting, is the fact that 
* Geol. and Agric. Miss. 368-371. 1860. See also McGee, 12th Ann. Rep. 
U. S. Geol. Surv. 1: 368, 475. 1892; Mohr, U. S. Forestry Bull. 13: 60, 81. 1896; 
Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 6: 123-124. 1901; Harper, Torreya 6: 204-205. 1900. 
