118 ECONOMIC BOTANY OF ALABAMA. 



According to the above figures about 35% of the spe- 

 cies and 84% of the individual trees in the original for- 

 ests were evergreen. The oaks, although of more than 

 a dozen species, make up even less of the total forests 

 than they do in the lime-sink region, and other deciduous 

 trees are equally scarce. The difference between the 

 summer and winter aspects of the forests is therefore 

 not very striking. 



One noteworthy tree which in Alabama is confined to 

 this region is the juniper, ClHnnaccijpuris. It grows 

 near the coast as far north as New Hampshire, but there 

 are some large gaps in its range, especially in Georgia. 

 Wherever it is found it seems to indicate exceptionally 

 pure water. Some of Mobile's water-supply comes from 

 swamps in which this tree grows (as is true also of 

 Brooklyn, N. Y.). Gordon ia Lasiauthns, a bay-like tree 

 so rare in Alabama that the natives do not seem to have 

 any name for it, also appears for the first time in this 

 list. It is more common in Georgia and North Carolina. 



Population, etc. — Excluding Mobile County, which 

 contains a city built up largely by foreign trade and 

 therefore to a large extent independent of the natural 

 resources of the surrounding country, this region had in 

 1910 only about 15 inhabitants to the square mile, two- 

 thirds of them white. This was an increase of about 

 45% in ten years. For the last 25 years or so the in- 

 crease of population in this region and in the correspond- 

 ing parts of Georgia, Florida and Mississippi has been al- 

 most without precedent in the eastern United States. 

 Some of the counties have just about doubled in popula- 

 tion. This rapid increase has boosted the price of land 

 inordinately, and today the average price of the once de- 

 spised poor sandy pine land in this and the adjoining 

 lime-sink region is actually higher than that of some in 

 the black belt, once regarded as the most desirable farm 

 land in the whole state. As yet probably not more than 

 25% of the area is under cultivation, but the pine forests 

 have been cut over again and again, so that the present 

 stand of timber must be considerably less than half of 

 what it was originally. 



