107 



vated <>n the north side; typical coastal plain features, with no 



sign of any limestone. It is quite possible that there is limestone 

 near enough to the surface there to iniluence the tree growth 

 (for T. distichum seems to be rather fond of limestone, bo to 

 speak), but how the geologists could have detected it is a puz- 

 zle. 



The particular cypress slough shown on the soil map was 

 not identified, and may have been partly destroyed by drain- 

 age and cultivation since the field work was done, about 1927; 

 but Taxodium distichum was scattered over the bottoms in suit- 

 able places, and usually associated (as it often is) with Nyssa 

 uniflora, which I likewise had not seen in that county before, 

 not having been far enough away from the railroads. 4 



The first Alabama locality mentioned is in the Tennessee 

 Valley region, and the Franklin County one is on a stream 

 draining into the Tennessee River, though it is on coastal plain 

 deposits. A cypress swamp in the Appalachian Valley (which 

 extends without interruption from New York to Alabama) now 

 remains to be described. 



The present paved highway from Birmingham to Tusca- 

 loosa, about half way between those cities, at the boundary be- 

 tween Jefferson and Tuscaloosa Counties, crosses Cooley Creek, 

 a small tributary of the Cahaba River. The locality is in that 

 part of the Appalachian Valley known locally as Jones Valley, 

 a few miles from the place where the Paleozoic rocks of the 

 valley dip out of sight beneath the coastal plain deposits. The 

 various formations crop out in narrow belts trending north- 

 east-southwest, and the creek cuts across them approximately 

 at right angles. The road at that point runs parallel to the ge- 

 ological belts, through a level calcareous valley, skirting the 

 southeastern base of a chert ridge, with several springs issuing 

 from it, especially about a quarter of a mile southwest of the 

 creek in Tuscaloosa County. These springs give rise to small 

 streams running southeast across the gently sloping valley 

 floor, and soon joining the creek, in a swampy area probably 

 inundated by the creek in rainy weather. It needs no chemical 

 analysis to show that the spring water is calcareous, for that is 

 sufficiently indicated by the presence of water-cress and peri- 

 winkle shells. 



1 See Geol. Surv. Ala., Monog. 9: 282-284. 1928. 



