HARPER: BOTANICAL CROSS-SECTION OF Misstssippr 393 
HERBS 
14 Anthemis oe 2 Carex Crus-corvi 
2 Ambrosia Se oe 
us 
4 Sorghum Wiiewe 2 Saururus c 
2 Monarda credo 
3 Dracopis amplexicaulis 
There are probably few places in temperate regions where one 
can see more species of trees in traveling a similar distance through 
an essentially homogeneous region. Six of those listed are oaks, 
and if I had been more familiar with the Mississippi valley repre- 
sentatives of that genus I might have identified still more. The 
only evergreen tree in the list is I/ex opaca,* and that is confined 
to the highest and driest spots, and constitutes considerably less 
than I per cent of the arboreal vegetation. As in other hardwood 
regions,} the woody plants greatly outnumber the conspicuous 
native herbs. The abundance of woody vines seems to be char- 
acteristic of alluvial habitats and some other rich soils, in various 
parts of the world.t The herbs listed are nearly all weeds. 
Taxodium distichum, the commonest tree, is not found on the 
banks of the navigable streams of the delta, for it apparently 
cannot stand more than ten or twelve feet of average seasonal 
fluctuation of water.§ It abounds along the smaller bayous or 
“lakes,” and in the interstream swamps described by Smith, 
Hilgard and others. At the time of my visit the branches of most 
of the cypress trees in this region and among the bluffs near 
Carrollton had many branches dead at the tips. The cause of this 
condition was not ascertained, but drainage operations may have 
had something to do with it. 
Populus heterophylla, which is said by Sargent|| to be especially 
abundant in this region, I saw only once, and that in the outskirts 
of the city of Greenwood, where it might not have been in- 
digenous. 
Besides the species to be noted presently as conspicuous by 
their absence all the way across the state, the following were not 
seen at all in the ‘‘delta”’: 
tree in New England and in 
* This seems to i the only angiosp iS 
several interior s 
t See Bull. Sain ed He Ae Igo. 
t See Torreya ro: 
§ See Science II. mee prio 28 No 1912. 
|| Silva N. A. 9: 164. 1896. " 
