592 Harper : Coastal plain plants in Georgia 



ously known only from the coastal plain, and from Henderson 

 County in western North CaroHna.^ 



) 



With 



My. 



i 



caroUnensis, which grows with it, this was not known outside of 

 the glaciated region and coastal plain until I found it in north- 



eastern Alabama in 1906.! 



To trace the history of these species which have a wide distri- 

 bution in the coastal plain and are rare and local in the older 

 regions will be one of the most fascinating problems of the phyto- 

 geography of the future. At first thought it would seem easy 

 enough to dismiss the matter in a few w^ords by saying that these 

 organisms have pushed out in comparatively recent times (since 

 the glacial period, for instance) from the regions where they are 

 common to the scattered localities w^here they are rare. Up to 

 the beginning of the present century, when Dr, Cowles brought 

 the idea of succession of vegetation prominently before the botan- 

 ists of this country, such an explanation w^ould have seemed suffi- 

 cient. Mr. Kearney in his extremely valuable and interesting 

 paper in Science |: already mentioned, which was published just 

 before what might be called the dawn of a new era of botanical 

 investigation in America, gives scarcely a hint of succession from 

 pioneer to climax, though he does point out that most of the 

 species he discusses are xerophytes, growing in poor sandy soils. 

 Even as late as the spring of 1905, the writer, not having fully 

 grasped the idea of succession, made the suggestion, which now 

 seems absurd, that Finns pahistris might have been extending its 

 range in Middle Georgia within historic times. 



Rut according to the laws of succession as now understood, it 

 is as impossible for pioneer plants to encroach on territory occu- 

 pied by climax vegetation (except where the latter is weakened or 

 destroyed by some other cause) as it is for a savage to establish 

 himself unaided in a civilized country, or for an American farmer 



*See Lloyd & Underwood, Bull. Torrey Club 37 ; 157. 1900. 

 fSee Bull. Torrey Club 33 : 523. 1906. 



t Science IL 12: 830-842. 1900, The author calls this "A preliminary note, 

 but unfortunately never followed it up with anything more on the same subject. 

 gTorreya 5 : 57. 1905. 



M 



