HARPER: BOTANICAL CROSS-SECTION OF Mississippr 379 
C. E. Dunston (of the [U, S.] Forest Service). Preliminary examina- 
tion of the forest conditions of Mississippi. Mississippi State Geol. 
Surv. Bull.7. 76 pp. (Not dated, but apparently published two or 
three years ago). 
Some of these publications are more useful to botanists than 
their titles would seem to indicate. There are very few references 
to the area under consideration in purely botanical literature, 
doubtless chiefly because nearly all the plants growing there, as far 
as known, are widely distributed, as I have already pointed out in 
the case of northwestern Alabama and the Delaware peninsula,* 
and can be studied more conveniently elsewhere. 
Itinerary. On June 6, 1911, I crossed the eastern boundary 
of Mississippi at McCrary, in Lowndes County, and continued to 
Columbus, Artesia and West Point by the Mobile & Ohio R.R. 
In the next few days I traveled almost due westward from West 
Point, in about latitude 33° 30’, on the “Southern Railway in 
Mississippi” (formerly Georgia Pacific Ry.), stopping at Carroll- 
ton, Greenwood, Itta Bena, Stoneville and Greenville, and 
making short excursions on foot from each of these places. On 
the 1oth I crossed the Mississippi River at Greenville by going ten 
or twelve miles upstream to Luna Landing, Arkansas (the nearest 
railroad point on the other side), which gave me a view of the | 
banks of the river for that distance. On the 16th I re-entered 
Mississippi near Mineral Wells, in DeSoto County, traveled south- 
eastward on the Frisco System (formerly Kansas City, Memphis 
and Birmingham Ry.) to Tupelo, then southward on the Mobile 
& Ohio to West Point and Artesia, and back to Alabama the same 
Way as before. Over a year later, namely, on August 31, la 
I came into the state near Corinth, in Alcorn County, traveling 
_ Southward on the Mobile & Ohio R.R. to Tupelo, West Point, etc. 
The notes made on this last trip have been combined with those of 
1911 in making up the list of plants for one of the regions, as will 
be explained presently. 
Method of treatment. The various soil belts described by Dr. 
Hilgard are not as easily recognized now as they were when he 
knew them best, for the increase of population and cultivated 
fields generally tends to obliterate geographical distinctions. And 
* Torreya 7: 44-45. 1907; 9: 217. 1909- 
