Subdivisions of the North American Forest. 139 
We may, however, divide the North American forest, according 
to its botanical features, into two great forest regions, namely, 
the Atlantic, which is in the main characterized by broad-leaved 
trees, and the Pacific, which is made up almost wholly of conif- 
erous species. (See plate 8.) 
In the Atlantic forest we can again discern several floral sub- 
divisions, each of which shows special characteristics. The 
southernmost coast and keys of Florida, although several decrees 
north of the geographic limit of the tropics, present a truly trop- 
ical forest, rich in species of the West Indian flora, which here 
finds its most northern extension. There is no good reason for 
calling this outpost sem-tropical, as is done on Sargent’s map. 
With the mahogany, the mastic, the royal palm, the mangrove, 
the sea grape and some sixty more West Indian species repre- 
sented, it is tropical in all but it geographic position. That the 
northern flora joins the tropic forest here, and thus brings to- 
gether on this insignificant spot some hundred species, nearly 
one-quarter of all the species found in the Atlantic forest, does 
not detract from its tropical character. 
On the other hand, the forest north of this region may be 
ealled subtropical, for here the live and water oak, the magnolia, 
the bay tree and holly and many other broad-leaved trees are 
mixed with the sabal and dwarf palmetto. As they retain their 
green foliage throughout the winter, this region is truly semi-_ 
tropical in character, and under the influence of the Gulf stream, 
extends in a narrow belt some 20 or 25 miles in width along 
the coast as far north as North Carolina. 
While this evergreen, broad-leaved forest is more or less con- 
fined to the rich hummocks and moister situations, the poor 
sandy soils of this as well as of the more northern region are 
occupied by pines; and as those, especially the long-leaf pine, are 
celebrated all over the world and give the great mercantile sig- 
nificance to these forests, this region may well be called the 
ereat southern pine belt. North of the evergreen subtropic 
forest stretches the vast deciduous-leaved forest of the Atlantic, 
nowhere equaled in the temperate regions of the world in extent 
and perfection of form, and hardly in the number of species. 
This designation applies to the entire area up to the northern 
forest belt, for the region segregated on the census map as the 
northern pine belt is still in the main the dominion of the 
deciduous-leaved forest. On certain areas pines and spruces 
