NATIVE VEGETATION AS AN INDEX OF SOILS. 823 



this crop, are, on tbe Warrior table land, indicated by the mixed growth 

 of pines (Pin-us taeda, P. eckinata) and deciduous trees. Judging by 

 the success achieved with leaf tobacco of highest grade on soils of the 

 same character in the lower part of the South Atlantic States, from 

 North Carolina to middle Florida, it can reasonably be supposed that 

 this profitable crop can be, not less successfully, raised in southern 

 Alabama. 



In the same floral region, and also in the eastern extension of the 

 Prairie belt, post oak, associated with black oak (Quercus tinctoria), 

 southern red oak (Q. texana), and mockernut and pignut hickory, with 

 a slight sprinkling of short-leaf pine, forms open forests, with tall 

 rosinweeds, sunflowers, and phloxes in the openings, indicating a warm, 

 loamy, generous soil, which is of a deep chocolate to a deep reddish color, 

 resting upon ledges of the "rotten limestone." On the hills with this 

 soil covering the peach produces its choicest kinds of fruit from the 

 earlier part of June to August, and the Concord grape yields its black- 

 purple clusters in perfection. The dense forests of cow oak (Quercus 

 w^/<mm), Texas white oak (Q. brevilobata (Torr.) Sargent, Q. durandii 

 Buckley), nutmeg, scaly-bark, and bitternut hickories, frequently 

 invested with the drapery of the Spanish moss, and in low damp situa- 

 tions more deficient in drainage, the switch cane (Arundinaria tecta), 

 forming impenetrable thickets, are the sure indications of a deep black 

 calcareous soil, rich in humus, such as is characteristic of the Western 

 prairies, noted for greatest fertility. In the eastern Gulf States this 

 soil is also noted for its rich yield of forage crops of the pea family 

 (Leguminosae), of which the white melilot (Melilotus alba) has proved 

 the most profitable and of greatest value as an ameliorating crop. 



The so-called bald prairies, originally bare of tree growth, present 

 a varied herbaceous vegetation of a xerophile character, including vari- 

 ous grasses, the Compositae already mentioned, golden-flowered St. 

 Johnsworts, Umbelliferae (Polytaenia nuttallii), white and purple 

 flowered prairie clovers (Kuhnistera Candida, K. f/attingeri), pink- 

 flowered evening primrose (Xylopleurumspeciosum), etc. This vegetation 

 denotes a shallow and drier prairie soil, which, though easily worn out, 

 is adapted to all kinds of root crops and forage plants. 



On the Metamorphic hills of the Mountain region the extensive oak 

 forests (white oak, Southern red oak, black oak (Quercus velutina)), point 

 to a deep fertile soil, the result of the decomposition of the basic horn- 

 blendic rocks and schists. In years past these lands were to a large 

 extent devoted to the production of small grains, chiefly wheat, but 

 owing to the pressure of competition with the wheat fields of the vir- 

 gin prairie soils of the far Northwest, these lands are at present, in the 

 South, almost entirely given over to the cultivation of cotton and of 

 indian corn. The peanut is said to thrive especially well on the lands 

 of the above character. Sorghum is largely raised throughout this 

 Metamorphic area to supply fully the need of sirup. Its region can be 



