Some coastal plain plants in the Piedmont region of Georgia 



Roland M. Harper 



In the indigenous flora of North America there are several 

 "hundred species, perhaps more than a thousand, which, whatever 

 their distribution may have been in prehistoric times, are now 

 Icnown only from the coastal plain. Up to a time within the mem- 

 ory of every living botanist the coastal plain was scarcely recog- 

 nized by phytogeographers (I have found very few distinct refer- 

 ences to it in botanical literature earlier than 1900), and the 

 fact that so many species are endemic to it was therefore only 

 dimly realized if at all. In the last two decades, since botan- 

 ists have begun to pay more attention to plant distribution, many 

 species formerly known only from the coastal plain have been found 

 in the older regions farther inland ; and this may have led some to 

 believe that all species now supposed to be confined to the coastal 



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plain will be found also outside of it when the country is more 

 thoroughly searched. But at the rate that such discoveries are 

 being made it would seem that the limit has almost been reached, 

 and that there are still hundreds of species which do not (and 

 probably never did) grow outside of the coastal plain. 



Those species which are common in the coastal plain and rare 

 elsewhere constitute an interesting though naturally not well-de- 

 fined class, and it is chiefly through a study of these that we may 

 hope to learn something of the origin and history of those of more 

 restricted distribution above mentioned. It is impossible to say 

 how many should be included in this class, since there is no sharp 

 distinction between them and those species which are equally 

 common in and out of the coastal plain on the one hand, and 

 those now supposed to be confined to the coastal plain, but here- 

 after to be found at isolated stations outside of it, on the othen* 



* For the names of a number of plants of pioneer tendencies which are about as 

 common in the highlands as in the coastal plain, see Bull. Torrey Club 27 : 3^8 (near 

 bottom). 1900; Torreyas: 56. 1905;8:4-6. 1908 ; Plant World 9 : 226. 1907. 

 Kearney, Plant World I : 33-35. 1897; Science II. I2 : 832-836 (in part). 1900. 



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