69 



folia, and other woody plants, with scattered herbaceous spe- 

 cies, including a considerable number of remarkable endemics, 

 among which may be mentioned Allium oxyphilum, Paronychia 

 argyrocoma, Eriogonum Alleni, Clematis albicoma, Arabis sero- 

 tina, Trifolium virginicum, Oenothera argillicola, Pseudotaenidia 

 montana, Phlox Buckleyi, and Senecio antennariifolius. Other 

 plants found on the shale barrens, but not endemic there, in- 

 clude Woodsia scopulina, Cheilanthes lanosa, Selaginella rupe- 

 stris, Polygonum tenue, Anychia canadensis, Silene Pennsylvan- 

 ia, Sedum nevii, Astragalus distortus, Opuntia vulgaris, Viola 

 pedata lineariloba, Asclepias tuberosa, Convolvulus stans, Pent- 

 stemon canescens, and Houstonia tenuifolia. 



Plant Migrations 



West Virginia has been constantly above water since the 

 close of the Permian and parts of the state from the Pennsyl- 

 vanian or even earlier periods. Hence the present flora is the 

 result of plant migrations that have been going on for an enor- 

 mously long period of time. The Pennsylvanian and Permian 

 floras were extraordinarily rich in species of Pteridophytes and 

 Pteridosperms (11). At the close of the Permian, the Appala- 

 chian Revolution (16), culminating in the elevation of the Ap- 

 palachian Mountains, produced conditions extremely unfavor- 

 able to the ancient marsh-loving flora and resulted in the ex- 

 tinction of innumerable types. During the long ages of Triassic 

 and Jurassic times, the region was again base-leveled and the 

 Coastal Plain, as known today, entirely submerged. Into this 

 peneplained region came the advance hosts of the newly evolved 

 angiosperms, representatives of prevailingly tropical groups, 

 ranging far to the north as a response to the mild climate of the 

 time. Then, at the close of the Mesozoic or early in the Ceno- 

 zoic, the peneplained Appalachian region was again uplifted, 

 resulting in "its inevitable conversion from a low Cretaceous 

 plain with retarded drainage into a vast mesophytic area" (1), 

 into which, Fernald believes, the abundant mesophytic flora of 

 northern Asia, Europe and North America (then connected by 

 land-bridges) was enabled to migrate, forcing the members of 

 the old tropical and sub-tropical groups to abandon their haunts 

 in the Appalachian upland "and to move out to the newly avail- 

 able xerophytic and hydrophytic habitats of the rising Coastal 



