388 HarPER: BOTANICAL CROSS-SECTION OF MISSISSIPPI 
The pines are probably relatively more abundant now than they 
were originally, on account of their tendency to spread in old 
fields, so that the apparent proportion of evergreens among the 
woody plants (19 per cent) may be too large. But it is very 
evident that the soil of this region is better adapted to evergreens 
than is that of most of the other regions discussed in this paper. 
Ericaceae seem to be entirely absent, and native monocotyledons 
are not conspicuous. (There is no telling how many of the shrubs 
and herbs listed are really indigenous here, but probably not more 
than half.) Of the species enumerated, Taxodium and Brun- 
nichia are almost confined to the coastal plain, and Quercus 
Michauxti and Populus deltoides mainly so as far as the south- 
eastern states are concerned; but the other species are pretty 
widely distributed. 
Yellow loam region. Between Memphis and Holly Springs the 
topography is much the same as in the region just described, but 
the surface is covered with a few to several feet of loess, a buff- 
colored very fine-grained somewhat calcareous silt,* which makes 
the vegetation considerably different. This is the ‘yellow loam 
region”’ or ‘‘brown loam table-lands” of Hilgard, which has no 
counterpart anywhere to the eastward. Dr. Hilgard’s analyses 
show in this soil 0.24—0.25% of lime, 0.30-0.55% of potash, 0.07% 
of phosphoric acid, and 0.31-0.48% of magnesia. 
Almost every acre of it, except on the immediate banks of 
streams, has been cultivated at some time or other, and much of 
it is now badly gullied. No primeval forests were seen, and 
no shrubs or herbs other than weeds, but probably nearly all the 
trees listed below grew in the same region in prehistoric times, 
even if not in exactly the same places where they are now. The 
following list covers 44 miles, about 12 of which were in Tennessee, 
but so close to the Mississippi line as not to cause any appreciable 
error. 
TREES 
3 Liquidambar Styraciflua 
12 Salix nigra 2 Platanus occidentalis 
: ee falca 2 Gleditschia triacanthos 
saree 2 —- virginiana 
+ tte stellata 2 Quercus alba 
* For dexpiptions of this soil see the works of Hilgard and McGee mentioned 
near the beginning of this paper, also Hilgard, Am. Jour. Sci. gt: 319-321. 1866; 
T. O. Mabry, Jour. Geol. 6: 273-302. 1897. 
