HILL PRAIRIES AND PRAIRIE REGION. 99 



The ubiquitous bush clovers, Japanese clover, and tick-trefoils in a 

 large measure take possession of the drier and lighter soil in the post 

 oak woods. 



Where the limestone strata come near to the surface and the soil is 

 not of sufficient depth to support a heavier tree growth, the oaks and 

 hickories give way to copses of small trees and shrubs, among which 

 hawthorns of different species are most abundant. Characteristic 

 species are: 



Crataegus cocdnea (scarlet haw.) 1 Prunus umbellata (prairie plum) . 



Orataegus molle (black thorn) .* Bumelia lydoides (false southern buck- 



Crataegus crus-galli (cockspur thorn) - 1 thorn) . 



Crataegus flava (summer haw.) Rhamnus caroliniana (Carolina buck- 



Crataegus viridis (red haw.) thorn) . 



Pyrus angustifolia (southern crab apple). Ptelea trifoliata (trefoil hop tree). 1 



These coppices form isolated boskets in the open or skirt the post- 

 oak prairies, and when covered in the spring with the snowy white 

 flowers of hawthorns, plums, and crab apples or adorned in autumn 

 with their lurid red and flaming scarlet fruits, impart to the landscape 

 a peculiar charm, relieving the monotony of the interminable fields 

 of cotton. 



Hill prairies. On the hills bordering the plain northward and 

 southward and on the highest ridges within the plain, capped like the 

 hills with drifted siliceous deposits, the short-leaf pine mingles with 

 the hard-wood trees, while the longleaf pine makes its appearance on 

 the most abrupt of their summits. Where on these hills the drifted 

 soils have been removed by denudation, the rich black soil of the 

 prairies or calcareous marls prevails, covered either with the white 

 oaks and hickories, or with cedar hammocks. These So-called hill 

 prairies are mostly under cultivation, and the abandoned exhausted 

 fields have been taken possession of by shortleaf and loblolly pine. 

 East of the Alabama River, particularly on the divide between the 

 waters of the Tallapoosa and those of the tributaries of the Chattahoo- 

 chee, Choctawhatchee, and Conecuh rivers, the plain becomes broken 

 into low hills, and the drifted deposits mingle largely with the soils 

 of the rotten limestone. On these hills the timber growth, through 

 the frequent interspersion of the shortleaf pine, assumes the same 

 mixed character which prevails in the adjoining upper division of the 

 Maritime pine belt. 



In the ravines and the narrow valleys the Southern spruce pine 

 {Pinus glabrd) with magnolias and cucumber trees is of frequent 

 occurrence. 



MESOPHILE FORESTS. 



Prairie region. The term " prairie region," applied to this plain, 

 refers less to the timberless tracts which originally formed a small 

 fraction of its area than to the black, calcareous, highly fertile soil of 



1 Rarely found north of the Central Pine belt. 



