FORESTS OF THE PIEDMONT LOWLANDS. 183 



umbrella-tree and dogwood, which sometimes are sufficiently 

 numerous beneath the deep shade of the more t lofty trees to 

 form a thin underwood. As these soils, however, become at all 

 silty the sweet gum and black gum, overcup and swamp chestnut 

 oaks, and other trees which are more representative of the forests 

 along the larger streams gradually become conspicuous ; sup- 

 planting first the beech and red oak, then the white oak and 

 yellow poplar, and finally entirely taking their place. 



The body of the forest on the silty or mud alluvium of the 

 larger streams is generally formed of sweet gum and black gum, 

 bitternut, overcup oak and swamp chestnut oak, sycamore and 

 hackberry. Of these trees the black gum, bitternut and syca- 

 more are uniformly distributed throughout, although nowhere 

 abundant or forming a conspicuously large portion of ' the 

 growth ; they extend beyond the confines of the Piedmont 

 plateau and enter into the composition of the forest3 of the moun- 

 tain region. The elms, hackberry, and sweet gum, on the other 

 hand, become smaller in size and less frequent to the westward, 

 until on the table-land west of the Blue Ridge they become rare 

 trees, occurring only in the basin of the French Broad river and 

 along the larger streams to its southward. The overcup oak is 

 found westward but little beyond the limits of the loblolly pine in 

 Granville county, but in Anson county it makes a broad sweep to 

 the west, and extends up the valley of the Yadkin river, as far 

 as the eastern parts of Davie and the southern portions of Yadkin 

 counties ; while the swamp chestnut oak extends west to the Broad 

 river in Cleveland county and north to Granville and Davie. To the 

 eastward it is the red maple which is the characteristic maple, 

 while the sugar maple occurs with it in cooler places as the alti- 

 tude increases, extending down to about 500 feet above the sea 

 level. With these trees in the eastern border counties occurs the 

 loblolly pine; and very often as far to the west as Lincoln county 

 the water and willow oaks are found ; less frequently the Texas 

 red oak, and in a few places the big shagbark hickory. On the 

 extensive flats of the Neuse and its tributaries, and on other 

 streams in this portion of the State, though to a less extent, the 

 shagbark hickory becomes one of the most ('onspicuous and 



