474 GENERAL MORPHOLOGY OF PLANTS 



645. Absence of forest encourages serious floods. The 



great floods of the Mississippi and its tributaries are due to the 

 rapidity with which heavy rainfall flows from the rolling prairies 

 of the West and from the deforested areas west of the Alleghany 

 system. The serious floods in recent years in some of the South 

 Atlantic States are in part due to the increasing area of deforesta- 



Fig. 470. 



Stone Mountain near Atlanta, Ga., the ax and fire having removed the forest, and the 

 heavy rains have removed the soil which once covered the larger part of this rocky nob. 

 From President's Message in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the Appalachian 

 region, 1902. 



tion in the Blue Ridge and southern Alleghany system. The 

 aggregate damage from floods along the southern Appalachian 

 streams in the year 1901-1902, reached the sum of $18,000,000. 

 A movement is on foot, and Congress has been urged, to establish 

 a southern Appalachian Forest Preserve, and it is to be hoped 

 that this will be accomplished (see Message cf President Roose- 

 velt to Congress concerning this, Washington, 1902). 



646. Regeneration of forests. If the forest is to be per- 

 petuated there must be regeneration, or in time all trees will die 

 and the forest thus become extinct. Natural regeneration takes 

 place in two ways: first, through the seed; and second, by the 

 growth of sprouts from the stump when the tree is cut, or from 

 the roots. These sprouts are called coppice. Trees which are 



