CHAPTER XLV 

 PLANTS FOR SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES 



The territory for which this list has been prepared comprises that 

 lying between the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Appalachian foot- 

 hills or Piedmont on the west, and extending from Washington, D. C, 

 to Savannah, Atlanta, and southern Alabama. This territory includes 

 the eastern half of Virginia and of North Carolina, nearly all of South 

 Carolina and of Georgia and all of Alabama lying south and east of 

 Birmingham (See Plate No. H). 



Owing to the influence of the mountains on the west and north, 

 and of the Atlantic Ocean with its Gulf Stream on the east, this 

 territory is especially favourable for the growing of plants which would 

 not succeed at the same latitude farther inland. This territory has a 

 high annual average humidity and a rainfall of 50 to 60 inches each 

 year. It has a low narrow range in temperature — about 30 degrees — 

 and a long growing season, extending from one hundred and eighty days 

 in the north to two hundred days in the south. All of these factors con- 

 tribute to the successful growth of many somewhat tender plants and 

 in some cases also force the growth of northern plants to a great size. 



The most that can be done under present conditions with a list of this 

 kind and until such time as further information is compiled, is to tabu- 

 late some of the more important types of plants which have been used 

 throughout this southern territory. It must be remembered that with 

 the much longer growing season and the higher average of rainfall 

 plants will grow much more vigorously and much larger than the 

 same plants will grow throughout the northern zones. Plants which 

 may be adapted to a certain use in the zones farther north may be en- 

 tirely inappropriate for a similar use in this southern territory. For 

 this reason intimate knowledge should be obtained concerning the 

 growing characteristics of any types that are to be introduced into the 

 southern conditions. 



Many of the plants adapted for use in the northern zones will readily 

 produce an abnormal growth in these southern zones as represented by 



318 



