146 " FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



tlie mouth of the Cape Fear river, where at least two species liiid 

 their northern limits. This enables the maritime forests to be 

 rong-hly separated into two divisions: one lying- to the north of 

 Cape Hatteras, which point may be considered to mark the divis- 

 ion between the two ; and the other to the south of this cape. In 

 the northern division, water oak and live oak, and red cedar form 

 nearly the entire arborescent growth ; while in the southern, with 

 these occur the laurel oak, mock-orange, and, but irregularly dis- 

 tri!>uted, the palmetto, devilwood, and magnolia. The i)almetto 

 is confined to Cape Hatteras and Smith's Island, the magnolia to 

 the coast region of Brunswick county. 



Where the soils are more moist, the growth is largely of water 

 oak and laurel oak, holly, smooth sweet bay, and mock-orange, 

 with occasional lins, or other kinds of oaks in addition to those 

 named above, which form a dense upper story ; beneath them are 

 small shade-bearing trees or shrubs. The forest floor is good 

 and the humus deep. Where the soils are drier, either from 

 greater coarseness of the sand or from being more elevated above 

 sea level, red cedar, live oak and prickly ash, enter more largely 

 into the composition of the forest, the trees being smaller in size 

 and with shorter boles. On the driest soils, the growth is 

 restricted to scattered groves of red cedar, half shrubby forms of 

 the live oak, thickets of plum and yaupon, and. other shrubs which 

 rapidly propagate by means of root-shoots and suckers. 



Probably not over one-half of the area is wooded ; the remaining 

 portion is naked, only a small part of it being under cultivation. 

 In places along the coastal islands, and this is particularly true to 

 the north of Cape Hatteras, there are great stretches destitute of 

 all tree growth, the soil being a coarse beach-sand, the surface of 

 which rises into parallel ridges which reach a height, in places, of 

 7»> or more feet above sea level; and this sand, being fixed by no 

 network of plant root-fibers, and containing no binding ingredient, 

 is constantly shifting under the impact of the winds. Some such 

 areas were originally forest-covered, but once cleared, and the 

 humus, which was slightly cohesive, destroyed, the constant move- 

 ment of the sand before the winds, which have piled it into shift- 

 ing dunes, has prevented a general growth of any kind from secur- 



