40 



PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 



hazel, sumac (Rhus), and ash, all of which are widely diffused through- 

 out the temperate zones of eastern North America and in eastern Asia, 

 a small number extending westward to the Altai Mountains and Hima- 

 layan India. The number of arboreal and frutescent genera is still 

 further increased by those chiefly confined to the southeastern section 

 of our continent, such as Magnolia and Illicium of the magnolia 

 family; Persea and Benzoin of the laurel family; roses, honey locust, 

 storax bushes, catalpa trees, and devil wood or American olive, of 

 different families. 



On closer comparison of the flora of Alabama with that of eastern 

 Asia and principally of Japan, it is found that about 160 genera or 

 nearly 26 per cent of the genera indigenous in Alabama, belonging to 

 66 families, have their representatives in eastern Asia. Besides the 

 above common genera there occur others in those parts which in their 

 essential characters differ but slightly from the nearest allies found in 

 Alabama, forming with them such pairs as Glaucidium and Hydrastis, 

 Sphaerostemon and Schizandra, Stephanandra and Neviusia, Cory- 

 lopsis and Fothergilla, Paris and Modiola, Scilla and Quamasia, Rox- 

 burghia and Croomia, and some others. 



The number of types indigenous to Alabama which are identical 

 with species found in eastern Asia is small, amounting scarcely to 

 forty. Though this number by itself considered is insignificant, it 

 must be viewed together with the fact that every one of the genera 

 common to Alabama and eastern Asia is represented in the latter 

 region by one or several species closely allied to the forms found in 

 Alabama, so closely in not a few cases .as to be difficult to separate. 



The relation of these two floras is expressed in the following table: 



Genera common to tlie flora of eastern Asia and that of Alabama. 



i Including Polypodiaceae, Hymenophyllaceae, and Osmundaceae. 2 Here used in the broader sense. 



