FORESTS OF MOIST AND SWAMPY PINE BARRENS. 125 



sede it on ground slightly above the ordinary water level. Black gum, 

 water oak, water hickory, green ash, more rarely Southern red oak, 

 elm, black cottonwood, and overcup oak of rather stunted growth 

 form the high forest overshadowing the smaller trees, of which the 

 most conspicuous are planer tree, red maple, hornbeam, Crataegus 

 viridw, C. elliptica, and the apple haw ( Crataegus aestivalis).. This 

 haw was observed on the flooded banks of Davids Lake, a large inlet 

 of Mobile River, with a slender stem fully 30 feet high. It unfolds 

 its flowers during the first days of spring (early in February) and ripens 

 its highly palatable, fine-flavored fruit in the beginning of April. Sty- 

 raxamericana, Osmanthusamericanus, llexdecidua, llexlongipes, parsley 

 haw ( Crataegm apiifolia) form the shrubby undergrowth. The hand- 

 some silverbells, the dahoon holly, and the swamp dogwood occupy 

 the drier outskirts of these swamps. In their interior the blue palmetto 

 reaches its perfection, the trunk rising from 2 to 3 feet above the 

 ground, the fan-shaped leaves with their stalks 8 to 10 feet long. 

 Black willow and cottonwood cover the recent alluvium. But a small 

 number of paludial plants are found in the depths of these swamps, viz: 

 Onoclea sensibilis. 1 Peltandra virginica. 1 



Osmunda regalis. 1 Hymenocallis occidentalis. 1 



Woodwardia virginica. l 



In the openings the shallow pools are filled with 



Carex stipata maxima. Homalocenchrus virginicm. 1 



Carex vulpinoidea. 1 Polygonum portoricense. 



Homalocenchrus oryzoides. 1 Saururus cernuus (lizard's tail). 1 



Add to these, where the shade is deep, Azolla caroliniana and a fine 

 Riccia in circular tufts which float on the surface. On the ground 

 above the overflow are found 



Cyperus dissitiflorus, Sabbatia calycina, 1 



Panicum gymnocarpum, Bidens involucrata, 1 



Gyrostachys odorata, 1 Erianthus sirictus, 

 Hypericum nudiflorum, 



the last on the exposed borders of the pools. 



Paludial and mesophile forests of the pine barrens. Descending 

 from the rolling hills to the flats of the coast plain the pine-barren 

 streams overflow their low banks of shifting sands and gravel. In 

 general the tree covering remains unaltered. When the soil is more 

 deeply submerged, the pond cypress and white cedar prevail over the 

 white bay, magnolias, etc., and where the water is more shallow and 

 the ground less oozy Osmanthus americanus, Myrica inodora, and Ilex 

 caroliniana are more frequent than among the hills. The miry spaces 

 between the roots of the trees, which in these wooded shallow swamps 

 run partially above the ground, are filled with peat mosses and the 

 moss-like tufts of Mayaca aiMetii and studded with coarse ferns 

 Osmunda cinnamomea, 0. regalis, Woodwardia angustifolia, and W. 



1 Found also in the Carolinian area. 



