AGRICULTURE OF CENTRAL PRAIRIE REGION. 105 



Of other herbaceous plants belonging to the same campestrian asso- 

 ciation and confined to the Louisianian area are to be mentioned 

 Polygala boykinii and Xylopleurum speciosum, conspicuous on account 

 of their large flowers of bright rose color, common on the prairies of 

 central Texas, southern Arkansas, and northwestern Louisiana and 

 appearing to be indigenous in Alabama, and Gaillardia pulchella, 

 Rucfoeckia amplexicaulis, and Monarda citriodora, of the same distri- 

 bution but less frequent here, and perhaps adventive by the seed hav- 

 ing come with the seed oats frequently brought from central Texas. 



Sand hills near Montgomery. A peculiar association of xerophile 

 herbs, remarkable for the occurrence of types not observed elsewhere 

 in the State, is found on the hills with a loamy, sandy soil, rising 

 above the cypress swamps on the eastern banks of the Alabama River 

 near the city of Montgomery. At the base of the hills occur: 

 Carduus elliottii. Isopappus divaricatus. 



Cnicus benedictus (naturalized from Tragia urticaefolia. 



Europe) . 



The sides of the hills are covered with xerophile grasses: 

 Aristida dichotoma. Panicam cognatum. 



Eragrostis capillaris. Panicum flexile. 



Eragrostis refracta. 



The grass is studded with: 



Aster undulatus. Allionia Tiirsuta. 



Aster patens. /Silene ovata. 



Kuhnia eupatorioides. 



The northern Kuhnia is extremely rare in the State. Allionia 

 hirsuta is at home in the prairies of the West from Minnesota to 

 Texas. Silene ovata is found in the exposed ravines of these hills. 

 It is also found in the Cumberland highlands of Tennessee, and is dis- 

 tributed somewhat widely in the mountains of the Carolinas and 

 Georgia. 



CULTUKAL PLANT FORMATIONS. 



This region constitutes the great agricultural region of the State, 

 celebrated for its large production of cotton. With the decline in the 

 price of this staple crop during late years greater attention has been 

 given to the growing of breadstuffs and forage crops. Broad fields 

 of Indian corn and oats are seen on every hand; and since an increased 

 interest is taken in the raising of stock, the old fields exhausted by 

 the continuous practice of the one-crop system are either being con- 

 verted into wide pastures of Bermuda grass ( Capriola dactylon) or, to 

 hasten their recuperation, are planted in white melilot (Melilotus alba), 

 known in these parts as Bokhara clover, which, like red clover, as an 

 ameliorating forage crop for hay and for pasture, has proved of the 

 greatest benefit on the exhausted calcareous prairie lands. In the 

 beginning of the new era in the agriculture of the South, Sorghum 

 halepense was extensively raised as a perennial hay crop. After it was 



