42 



Although no genuine pine-barrens (by pine-barrens being 

 understood those parts of the coastal plain in which pines of the 

 section Euaustralcs [/. e., P. paliistris or P. Elliottit\ predominate 

 over all other trees, and grow so far apart as not to give an 

 appreciable amount of shade) were seen between Hamlet and 

 Pembroke, * the rugged topography and mesophytic forests 

 which are so characteristic of some of the upper parts of the 

 coastal plain in Georgia were likewise wanting. This cannot be 

 fully explained, however, until the details of coastal plain geology 

 in the Carolinas are better known than at present. At some 

 points between Pembroke and Laurinburg, nevertheless, the 

 topography and flora showed striking resemblances to various 

 parts of the upper third of the coastal plain of Georgia, but with- 

 out having traced the same "plant-formations" through South 

 Carolina I could not correlate them more minutely. 



No rocks of any kind were seen in the whole 32 miles, and no 

 ponds or other evidences of limestone, with a single apparent 

 exception noted below. The whole country as far as I went 

 seemed to be covered with sand, presumably of the Columbia 

 formation, and as a natural consequence none of the streams seen 

 were at all muddy. As in New England and the Georgia pine- 

 barrens alike, the smaller streams were quite clear and the larger 

 ones stained brownish with vegetable matter. The mantle of 

 superficial sand varies somewhat in thickness. A little northeast 

 of Hamlet, railroad cuts ten feet deep do not reach the bottom 

 of it, but toward the coast it thins out considerably, and is then 

 easily distinguished from the older formations underlying it. 



Much of the country traversed that day, outside of the sand- 

 hills and swamps, is now under cultivation, and most of the rest 

 has been lumbered over. Three pines, pahistris, scrotina and 

 Tacda, were frequent the whole distance, the last-mentioned the 

 most abundant at present, though it may not have been so before 

 the lumbermen began operations. Taxodiuvi imbricariwn was 

 also frequent, always in non-alluvial swamps, with a little more 



* At the present writing I have no information as to just how far inland the pine- 

 barrens extend in North Carolina, but this could doubtless be supplied by any 

 botanist who has crossed the whole coastal plain of that state. 



