10. SOUTHERN RED HILLS. OD 



and Nanafalia limestone. (The Blue Spring in Barbour 

 County is probably the largest one in the region.) The 

 ground-water fluctuates less here than in most of the re- 

 gions previously described, partly because this is nearer 

 the coast, and partly also on account of a more evenly 

 distributed seasonal rainfall. 



Climate. — Two of the weather stations mentioned in 

 the appendix are located in this region, namely, Push- 

 mataha, among the mountains of Choctaw County, and 

 Thomasville, in Clarke County. The average tempera- 

 ture and length of the growing season seem to differ lit- 

 tle from those of the three or four regions last de- 

 scribed. At Thomasville the summers are a little wetter 

 than at any station previously mentioned, and if any 

 data were available for the eastern half of the region 

 they would probably show a still greater tendency in 

 that direction. 



Forest types. — The "mountains" and most of the other 

 ridges are or have been covered with splendid long-leaf 

 pine forests, interspersed with several upland oaks. But 

 in Pike and Barbour Counties (as well as in the corre- 

 sponding parts of Southwest Georgia) there is a belt ten 

 or fifteen miles wide where this pine is rare or absent, 

 for no apparent reason.* Little or none of it is visible 

 from the railroads in Clarke and Wilcox Counties, but 

 that is partly due to the fact that the railroads there run 

 for considerable distances through valleys, while the 

 pine is chiefly confined to hifls. In the more hilly por- 

 tions the ravines and bluff's are covered with beech, white 

 oak, cucumber trees, short-leaf pines, etc. Some out- 

 crops of Midway limestone, particularly in the northern 

 part of Butler County, are said to have once supported a 

 fine growth of cedar. The "pocosin"t in Pike County, 



*Sugar-cane, which is cultivated in nearly every region where 

 long-leaf pine grows, seems to be equally scarce in the same 

 belt. 



fPocosin, like hammock, is a phytogeographical term used only 

 in the coastal plain. It is most prevalent in eastern North Caro- 

 lina, where it means a level area with wet sour sandy soil, sparse- 

 ly wooded with pine or cypress, with a dense undergrowth of 

 shrubs and vines, mostly evergreen (something like fig. 52 of this 

 report). Just how the term came to be applied to such a different 

 type of vegetation in Alabama is a mystery. 



