16 TIMBER OF THE EDWARDS PL A TEAT OF TEXAS. 



DISTRIBUTION AM> CHARACTER OF THE FOREST STAND. 



It is not to he inferred from what has been said about the timber 

 vegetation of this region that the Kdwards Plateau U covered with 

 eontiiuious forest, even in its rougher parts. On tin 4 contrary, the 

 timber is very mueh interrupted by open, grassy uplands. The pres, 

 ent trend, however, is toward a continuous timber covering, and this 

 fact has siguiticaiice for the future water supply. Recalling the three 

 simple topographic elements comprised in the structure of the region. 

 viz. remnants of the plateau summit (or Imttes and divides), moun- 

 tains, and canyons, we have the basis for classifying the vegetation 

 which forms a covering. ThU we may now consider more in detail. 



T1MKKK OF TllK ( A\Yo\- \\l> STRKAM\\ \Y>. 



The tongues of luxuriant forest growth which follow the t ream- 

 ways into the central limestone region are largely extensions of the 

 forests of the Atlantic Plain. In deep, well-watered and sheltered 

 canyons this timber attains large dimensions, and is a thick-canopied, 

 shady forest, under whose protection many shade-loving shrubs and 

 herbaceous plants from the moistcr Kastern States have established 

 themselves. Thus is constituted a floral community altogether unlike 

 that characteristic of the country roundabout: so that, in a floral /one 

 quite new and strange, one coming from the Atlantic States meet-- in 

 these canyons so many old friends of his native woodlands that he might 

 easilv fancy himself at home. In such places cypress has attained a 

 diameter of .') feet and over, and sometimes a corresponding height. 

 The American elm. the sycamore, the pecan, the overcup <ak. the 

 basket oak. the cotton wood, sometimes the Texas red oak. and the 

 hackherry become here large tree-. Of smaller growth are black 

 cherry, box elder, walnut, soapherrx . and many other*. Beneath 

 these flourish dogwood, spieewood. buckthorn, smoke lu>h (AV///.V 

 cotinoid&i), hollies, and black haw. In the rich, leaf-covered humus 

 the Canadian columbine grows under the ledges, and long fronds of 

 fern overhang the streamlet's' edge. This timber on wider bottom- 

 land, however, is not so luxuriant nor so like typical Atlantic forest 

 as in narrow sheltered canyon^. 



THE Mil I. ANP Hl.UFF T1MHF.R. 



/'.This constitutes by far the larger part of the tim- 

 berland of the region. It abounds on the area of greatest erosion or 

 dissection of the plateau. This is the type of forest occurring, for 

 example, on the breaks of the Colorado, along the e>carpment front 

 from Austin westward, and on the Guadalupe. the Pedernales. and the 

 Frio. It extends northward also upon the breaks of the Grand Prairie 

 and the jagged hills of the granite country. The stand of timber 



