Two Undescribed Types of Rock Outcrop Vegetation 

 in Georgia 



Roland M. Hakpkr 



For over fifty years marble has been quarried in a narrow 

 belt extending with a few ramifications and interruptions from 

 a point about fift\' miles north of Atlanta northward into North 

 Carolina, in a region difficult to classify geographically, which 

 may be regarded as partly in the Blue Ridge and partly in 

 the Piedmont region. This belt is many miles from any other 

 calcareous rock, and is bordered on both sides by gneisses, 

 schists, etc., characteristic of the Appalachian region.^ It was 

 therefore naturally to be expected that on and around the 

 marble outcrops there would be some plants not found else- 

 where in that part of the state; but in spite of the accessibility 

 of the marble area since the building of a railroad near it about 

 forty years ago, apparently no botanist had taken the trouble 

 to investigate it until the time here mentioned. 



In October, 1928, on returning from a trip to the mountains 

 farther north, I stopped for part of a day at Tate, in Pickens 

 County, the nearest railroad station to the principal quarries. 



1 could spare only one afternoon for the investigation, it was 



2 P.M. when I got off the train, and I had to walk about two 

 miles east, to Marble Hill, to find a suitable outcrop, and wade 

 a creek to get to it. My notes therefore are not very full, 

 but they will serve to attract attention to this vegetation, and 

 perhaps lead to some interesting discoveries later. 



The marble is partly in the bottom of a narrow valley 

 (that of Long Swamp Creek, and its eastern fork), and partly 

 on the adjacent slopes. That in the bottom of the valley is 

 covered with rich red residual soil, which may have had some 

 interesting plants on it originally, but is now mostly cleared 

 and cultivated, as well as excavated in several places to get 

 at the marble beneath. The adjacent bluffs have been quarried 

 extensively too, but I managed to find a few places where 



^ For a recent geological description of the most important marble area see 

 W. S. Bayley, Geology of the Tate Quadrangle, Georgia. Geol. Surv. Ga., 

 Bull. 43. ix + 170 pp., 22 plates, 2 folded maps. 1928. It is also described in 

 less detail by S. W. McCallie (the present state geologist) in the first bulletin 

 of the same office, published in 1894 and revised in 1907. 



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