HARPER: BOTANICAL CROSS-SECTION OF Mississippr 381 
miles of the bottoms of the latter, the vegetation visible from the 
train is mostly that of river-bottoms. And as the soil is so fertile 
that most of it is under cultivation by this time, there is not much 
natural vegetation left. Most of the shrubs and herbs seen were 
introduced species, and it is hardly worth while to enumerate 
them. The commonest trees seem to be Pinus Taeda, Salix 
nigra, Liquidambar, Taxodium distichum, Quercus Phellos and 
Ulmus alata, in the order named. 
Cretaceous prairie region. From McIntyre (three miles west 
of Columbus) to Artesia and West Point, thence westward about 
to the line between Clay and Webster Counties, the country is 
characterized by a newer Cretaceous formation, the Selma Chalk 
or Rotten Limestone, with little or no Lafayette loam over it. On 
the return trip I entered the same belt near the northeastern 
corner of Pontotoc County, and traversed it lengthwise from 
Tupelo to Artesia. This is the ‘northeastern prairie region’’ of 
Hilgard’s Mississippi reports, a direct continuation of the central 
prairie region or black belt of Alabama, which has been well 
described by Smith,* Mohr,t} and several less familiar writers. 
This prairie region is gently undulating or “‘rolling,’”’ with very 
few springs or small streams. Its soil, mostly a gray calcareous 
clay, was once considered the most fertile in the state, with the 
possible exception of that in the ‘‘delta’’ (described farther on), 
and consequently most of it has been long given over to agricul- 
ture. Analyses of this soil published by Dr. Hilgard show 0.99- 
1.37% of lime (CaO), 0.33-0.86% of potash (K,O), and 0.03-0.27% 
of “ phosphoric acid” (P.0;). With the possible exception of corn, 
cotton always has been the principal crop (about 20% of the total 
* Tenth Census 6: 55-58, 68, 128-140 (pages numbered correctly at bottom). 
1884; Geol. of Coastal Plain of Ala. 281-285, 350-352, 533-535> 538-539, 576-577> 
585, 605-608. 1894. , ee 
+ Plant Life of Alabama 97-106. 1901. (This however includes two adjoining 
(op. cit., 10-12), and Crider (U.S. G. S. Bull. 283: 17-19), and in the government soil 
in both states. 
