NATURAL AREAS AND REGIONS 



349 



foot Lake on which state institutions 

 are maintained. On one of these tracts 

 (the Brushy Mountain in Morgan 

 County) the state coal mines are situ- 

 ated; on another tract (The Herbert 

 Domain, mostly in Bledsoe County) 

 is situated a branch of the State Train- 

 ing and Agricultural School for boys 

 (Colored Department). The State Pen- 

 itentiary and other state institutions 

 are maintained on the lesser tracts. 



Portions of two National Forests, the 

 Cherokee and the Unaka, are located in 

 the eastern part of Tennessee. (See 

 National Forests of the Eastern 

 District.) 



Along the channels of the Hatchie 

 River and the prongs of the Obion 

 River in West Tennessee there are still 

 standing a number of virgin cypress 

 trees. 



So far as ultimate state forests are 

 concerned the two tracts, Herbert 

 Domain and Brushy Mountain, would 

 form two excellent nuclei. The Brushy 

 Mountain tract in particular, has many 

 of the biggest and oldest poplars and 

 chestnuts yet remaining in the state. 



Near Chattanooga, Tennessee, is the 

 Chicamauga Park. Chattanooga is the 

 logical terminus from which to reach this 

 park. 



10. KENTUCKY 



BY A. R. MlDDLETON, W. R. JlLLSON, 



FRANK T. MCFARLAND AND W. A. 

 ANDERSON, JR. 



I. GENERAL ACCOUNT 

 /. Climate 



Kentucky extends 400 mi. in an east- 

 west direction, from the Cumberland 

 Mountains of its eastern border, to the 

 lowlands of the Mississippi River at the 

 west. Some differences in temperature 

 and rainfall are evident in different parts 

 of the state. The mean annual tempera- 

 ture is 56, slightly lower in the east, 

 higher in the west. The mean summer 

 temperature of the western section, 75 

 to 80, is 5 higher than that of the east- 

 ern plateau section. The temperature 

 range is about 140, from -28 to over 

 100. Rainfall is heaviest in the Cumber- 



land River basin (45 to 51 in.) and light- 

 est in the Licking River basin (37 to 48 

 in.). This is fairly evenly distributed 

 throughout the year; March and July 

 are months of heaviest precipitation; 

 September and October are the driest 

 months. The Bluegrass Region is more 

 subject to droughts than the other parts 

 of the state; here a minimum rainfall of 

 26.5 inches is recorded. 



#; Topography and biota (F. T. M. and 

 W. A. A., Jr.} 



Kentucky may be divided into five 

 well defined physiographic areas. 



1. That portion of the state lying east 

 of a line beginning at Portsmouth, Ohio, 

 and extending southwestwardly to about 

 Monticello, Ky., is very mountainous. 

 It is a part of the maturely dissected 

 Allegheny and Cumberland Plateaus. 

 The vegetation on the more mesophyfcic 

 slopes, is a characteristic beech-maple- 

 chestnut-hemlock formation (Fagus 

 grandifolia, Acer saccharum, Castanea 

 dentata, Tsuga canadensis). Among the 

 predominant trees of this mountainous 

 section are: beech, sugar maple, chest- 

 nut, hemlock, tulip tree (Liriodendron 

 tulipifera), bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia 

 macrophylla), cucumber tree (Magnolia 

 acuminata), umbrella tree (Magnolia 

 tripetala), is very mesophytic areas; red 

 oak (Quercus rubra), chestnut oak 

 (Quercus prinus), Spanish oak (Q. 

 falcata), white oak (Q. alba), shingle oak 

 (Q. imbricaria), walnut (Juglans nigra) 

 and sourwood (Oxydendron arboreum) 

 on slopes and shaly uplands; scrub pine 

 (Pinus virginiana), pitch pine (Pinus 

 rigida) and yellow pine (Pinus echinata) 

 on sandstone summits. Some of the 

 shrubs and herbaceous plants are: 

 Rhododendron maximum, mountain 

 laurel (Kalmia latifolia), oilnut (Pyru- 

 laria pubera), several species of blue- 

 berry (Vaccinium spp.) and huckleberry 

 (Gaylussacia spp.), and in the southern 

 part, muscadine grape (Vitis rotundi- 

 folia); bird-foot violet (Viola pedata), 

 Clintonia umbellata, climbing fern 

 (Lygodium palmatum), wintergreen 



