188 FORESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



leaf aiul scrub pine ; or sometimes red cedar replaces it, or there 

 are mixtures of these trees. The groves of pine or cedar are a 

 youRoi; growth which has spontaneously appeared in abandoned 

 fields. In the neighborhood of the towns the groves of pine are 

 of greater extent, and the younger groves which are appearing 

 are more compact, the older trees furnishing abundant seed ; the 

 broad-leaf wood is more restricted in extent and often largely 

 formed of coppice shoots, among which many seedling pines 

 appear when old pines are within seeding distance. 



The original forest lands may be separated into three parallel 

 belts, neglecting for the present the numerous local variations : 

 (1) a more eastern with soils from slates, sandstone and gneiss 

 and forests with a large proportion of pine, the eastern pine helt 

 of the Piedmont platea'u ; (2) a middle belt with deep loamy soils 

 mostly froni granitic rocks and supporting hardwood forests of 

 the first quality, with only small percentage of pine or none, the 

 hroad leaf forest helt of the Piedmont plateau : and (3) the exten- 

 sive areas of gneissic soils to the westward with smaller-sized 

 hardwoods and more pine, the western pinehelt of the Piedmont 

 plateau. 



THE EASTERN PINE BELT OF THE PIEDMONT PLATEAU. 



The forest belt lying to the eastward with the woods composed 

 of broad-leaf trees and pine can be separated into three divisions 

 which difter essentially in the proportion of pine in their compo- 

 sition and the ability of the soil to sustain a hardwood growth 

 of broad-leaf trees. There is : 



(n A more easterly division in extent nearly coinciding with 

 the geological ten-aine of gneisses and granites, the forests of 

 which are formed of both tlie loblolly and short-leaf pines 

 with medium-sized broad-leaf trees. This is described under the 

 name of \\\q. forests of the eastern granite areas. 



(2) A division abutting the above on the west, and nearly 

 including the Jura triassic red sandstone formation of the geolo- 

 gists, the original forests of which contain a large proportion of 

 short-leaf pine, with small-sized broad-leaf trees, and a large extent 



