^ 



Harper: Explorations in Georgia 1904 453 



There seemed to be none at all in the salt marshes, and on the 

 dunes only Oenothera humifitsa, a Cakile and a Gnaphalwin were 

 noticed in bloom. But in the '* hammocks '* (low sandy elevations 

 in the salt marshes, covered with evergreen trees and shrubs) 



Hi 



a Ju 

 McQ 



Opuntia vulgaris were in bloom 



between Savannah and Tybee, the only flowers visible from the 

 train were those of Scirpus Olneyi, a Hyinenocallis and an /m, and 

 these only at the upper end of the island (where I got off on the 

 way back and collected them). 



Most of the places of interest visited in 1904 would have little 

 significance for persons not familiar with coastal plain geography in 

 general and that of Georgia in particular, but there are at least two 

 localities w^hich deserve mention here. 



w 



In the southeastern part of Houston County, particularly for 

 two miles north of Grovania and about the same distance south of 

 Elko, much of the surface Is strewn with siliceous boulders, and 

 as the topography is at the same time quite rugged, such land is 

 ill adapted for agricultural purposes and still retains its primeval 

 forests. These forests are typically mesophytic, as is usually the 

 case in the upper fourth of the coastal plain, but the abundance of 

 rocks gives them a much more decided Middle Georgia aspect 

 than in most coastal plain forests. I passed through this rocky 

 region on the 15th and i6th of April, about the time flowers are 

 most numerous in such places, and was interested to see such 

 species as Botryehhim virginianum, Phegopteris hexagonoptera, 

 Stipa avenacea, Aleiica miitica^ Arisaeum triphyllinn, Liizida cain- 

 pestHs, ErytJironhun aniericanum, Vagnera racenwsa, Uviilaria per- 

 foliata, Salomonia biflora, Medeola virginiea, Trillium Hiigeri^ T. 

 stylosum, Jitglans nigra, Hicoria ovata, Qitercns rubra, Hepatica 

 triloba, Sangidnaria canadensis. Geranium maculatum^ Nyssa 

 sylvadca, Oxypolis rigidior, Asdepias variegata and Chrysogonum vir- 

 ginianuni, none of which range much farther south, while they are 



Middl 



But the coastal 



plain character of this region is unmistakably shown by the occur- 

 rence, in the same forests, of Pinus glabra, Tillandsia usneoides, 

 Uvidaria floridana, Snnlax pumila, Myrica carolijiensis, Magnolia 



