200 



ficial layer of Columbia sand, which in most of the little valleys 

 in the pine-barrens of Georgia holds water like a sponge, allow- 

 ing the development of a rich and characteristic bog flora. A 

 mile or two west of Hattiesburg I noticed a good many speci- 

 mens of Pm7(s Elliottii, both young and old. This is a little out 

 of the range usually given for this tree, and probably near its 

 northwestern limit. 



The appearance of Hattiesburg itself would to a careful ob- 

 server indicate the close analogy between this part of Mississippi 

 and the Altamaha Grit or wire-grass region of Georgia. Like 

 many of the newer cities in " Wire -grass Georgia," Hattiesburg 

 (which is larger than any of them) owes its existence and rapid 

 growth primarily to Piiiiis pa/ustris, but is no longer dependent 

 on this diminishing source of wealth. Its neat and prosperous 

 appearance is well matched by most of the cities in the corre- 

 sponding part of Georgia, but not altogether by those in the 

 Lower Oligocene pine-barrens a little farther inland. 



Going from Hattiesburg to New Orleans on the morning of 

 the 28th, I passed through a country resembling Southeast Georgia 

 even more closely than that seen the day before. The topography 

 which came into view at daybreak, about thirty miles southwest 

 of Hattiesburg, seemed almost a perfect match for that which 

 I consider typical of the Altamaha Grit region.* Branch-swamps 

 are well developed, and contain apparently about the same kind 

 of vegetation as is found in similar situations in Georgia, though 

 perhaps not quite so many species, on account of the greater 

 distance from the centers of distribution of pine-barren plants. 

 The prevailing trees in the branch-swamps seemed to be Phms 

 Elliottii, Nyssabi/lora, Liriodcndron Tidipifo'a diXid Magnolia glaiica. 



The rolling topography continued without much variation the 

 rest of the way across Mississippi, but immediately on crossing 

 the Pearl River into Louisiana the aspect of the country changed 

 considerably. All the way between the two channels of this river, 

 a distance of five or six miles, there seemed to be nothing but 



* The topography and other geographical features of a region midway between 

 Hattiesburg and New Orleans are described by Smith and Carter in the soil survey of 

 the McNeill area, Mississippi ( Field Operations of the U. S. Bureau of Soils for 1903). 



