When the southern limits of the Northeast Coastal Fringe, 

 of Appalachia, and of the Heartland or Great Lakes provinces 

 have been defined, we are left with a sickle-shaped territory 

 lying between these boundaries and the Atlantic on the east and 

 the Gulf an the south. From this territory two peninsulas extend 

 to the south — Florida to the east and the delta of the 

 Mississippi to the west — which are treated separately later on. 



To put this province in perspective, let us repeat that between 

 the Prairie Belt and the Temperate Closed-Canopy Woodland 

 or Forest Belt there lies the intermediate belt known as 



the Parklands. Such country is primarily clothed in grass and 

 trees, but the trees do not form a closed canopy. This province 

 is predominantly of this nature throughout, and lies between 

 the woodlands on the north and the prairies to the south. 

 However, there is in this huge province a considerable variety 

 of subsidiary types of vegetation. These are of two principal 

 kinds: First, there are the areas where the trees, in this case 

 almost exclusively pines, are so massed — often due to the 

 prevention of fire by man — that their interwoven heads do form 

 a closed canopy and exclude the grass. Second, there is the 

 extensive and generally near-coastal swamplands wherein 

 numerous broad-leafed deciduous trees are intermingled with the 

 conifers. These may also form closed canopies and sometimes 

 even of two layers, constituting veritable "jungles" in the wider 

 sense of that term. 



The province must also be divided into three major and 

 three minor subprovinces. The major ones are (1) the 

 Southeastern Coastal Plain, from the Tar to the Apalachicola 

 Rivers and south to the St. Marys— Suwannee River barrier 

 with its associated swamps; (2) the East Delta region from the 

 Apalachicola to the Mississippi; and (3) the West Delta region or 

 West Timberlands (confusingly called the East Timberlands in 

 Texas). The minor subprovinces are (a) the northern third 

 of the peninsula of Florida south of the St. Marys— Suwannee 

 swamp barrier to the "neck" of the peninsula, roughly a line 

 between Withlacoochee Bay and Daytona, which we include in 

 Chapter 14; (b) the Mississippi valley from the confluence 

 of the Ohio south to about Natchez; and (c) the delta itself — but 

 this is so different that we give it separate treatment. 



This province measures about 1200 miles around its curve 

 and is about 200 miles wide on an average, excluding the area 

 described above in (b). 



resorts of North Florida; Mobile in Alabama; and the Biloxi— 

 Gulfport complex in Mississippi. 



To learn that the greater part of this area, and of this whole 

 continent for that matter, is predominantly clothed in a blanket 

 of pines and other coniferous trees comes as a considerable 

 surprise to most of us. Because of intensive agriculture, the 

 ornamental planting of exotic trees and shrubs, and the extensive 

 clearing of land, we have the impression that this is a wide 

 green continent blooming with hardwoods and lush grasses. In 

 point of fact, other than some parts of Appalachia, a narrow 

 strip spanning the central plains north of the prairies, and some 

 patches in British Columbia and among the Pacific coastal 

 ranges, all our woodlands are composed of coniferous trees. 

 Apart from these, most of this continent is actually a very 

 dreary, brown, and seared land for six to nine months of each 

 year. It is flat and mostly uninteresting. 



The province under discussion is certainly flat, and quite a 

 large part of it is frankly uninteresting, being nothing but mile 

 after mile of pine trees of very modest proportions with at most 

 a little grass and a few scraggly bushes beneath. But it is never 

 leafless, brown, or apparently dead, as is most of the rest of the 

 continent either all year or for a substantial part of it. Pines are 

 conifers, and most conifers are evergreens; so also are the oaks 

 and several other non-coniferous plants of this southern region. 

 It is therefore always green, though of a rather somber tone. 



This sprawling province actually is a rather compact unit 

 apart from the Bottomlands of the Mississippi valley, and these 



form a sort of filigree pattern following closely the river, streams, 

 and other waterways, while typical parklands continue right 

 across them on the higher ground between. However, the latitu- 

 dinal and thus the seasonal temperature range within this prov- 

 ince is considerable, more especially between the northern end 

 in the vicinity of Cairo, Illinois, and the southern end in Florida. 

 There are sometimes frosts all over, but those in Illinois are more 

 frequent, profound, and lasting than the occasional light and 

 overnight freezes of southern Florida. From east to west this 

 land is astonishingly homogeneous; yet it has marked sub- 

 divisions, as defined in the legend accompanying the map. 



We now move through this province from northeast to south- 

 west, then due west, then up the Mississippi valley, then south- 

 west again to the West Timberlands, and finally northeast once 

 more around the Interior Highlands at the edge of the Prairies. 



CANEBRAKE TRAPEZE 



South of the Tar River, there stretches along the coast of North 

 Carolina a triangular area some tsvo hundred miles long by 

 about fifty wide that is very closely related to the Northeast 

 Coastal Fringe. This is marshland and is really a continuation of 

 similar country that lies between Albemarle Sound and the Tar 

 River estuary. Its coast between Cape Lookout and Cape Fear 

 is low and lined with dunes, and there is an almost continuous 

 island sandspit off and parallel to the beach Back from the 



122 



