218 



these two ranges of mountains. Each consists for the most part 

 of a single prominent ridge trending approximately northeast 

 and southwest, and they are also alike in being formed of sand- 

 stone rocks (presumably pre-Cambrian in age, for they contain 

 no fossils), and having long-leaf pine more abundant than any 

 other kind of tree on their slopes. The Pine Mountains, how- 

 ever, are about i,ooo feet lower than the Blue Ridge and half 

 a degree farther south (being the southernmost mountains in the 

 eastern United States). 



Some of the most interesting finds in the way of coastal plain 

 plants in both states were made in wet ravines on the mountain 

 slopes. These ravines all contain small clear streams, beginning 

 gradually near their heads and varying in length with the wet- 

 ness of the season, and of course descending rapidly in the usual 

 manner of mountain rivulets. The bottoms and sides of the 

 ravines are strewn with loose subangular rocks of various sizes, 



* 



. mJ 



m- 



.c«^ 





": ^ 



*!^ ;W$ 



m^^ 







--. -. 







^'''''':-r- .. 



'"V'T^^-.--)*-'.- 





:. ^^m^^^^l 



■ ;' ■_ : ..;;-_ :■ • 









Fig. I. Finns palustris on rocky slope of a ravine on a spur of the Blue Ridge 

 northwest of Pyriton, Alabama. June 7, 1910. 



but there are very few cliffs or waterfalls, at least in the smaller 

 ones, their slopes being comparatively uniform. This is prob- 



