1539, 540] THE " WHITE LIME COUNTRY". 259 



sandy ridges), while Oak?, and prominently among these ti/e Post, 

 Red (•' Black' 1 ) and Black Spanish (" Red") and Black Jack Oak, 

 form the timbers of the yellow loam uplands, mixed, most usually, 

 with some Hickory, wherever the limy strata are not very near to 

 the surface. Where these are so near as to influence the soil 

 directly, we have either black (or sometimes "bald"-) prairie Pfcil&J 

 or their intermixture with the loam soil — " Mahogany soils" — or, 

 at times, a very stiff, pale greenish yellow clay soil, constituting 

 the "Beeswax Hammocks," which are timbered exclusively with 

 middle sized Black Jack — representing, apparently, the "JJog- 

 wallow" soils of the Central Prairie Region (17-16).* 



&3J. As for the black prairie soil, it rarely occurs in tracts of 

 -any great extent within the two counties before us, north of Old, 

 Town Creek ; except in some bottoms, where the Rotteu Limestone 

 is only a few feet underground. Otherwise, it usually appears ia 

 patches of a few acres on the hillsides (as also does the " Bald- 

 prairie soil"), the tops or plateaux being occupied by yellow loam, 

 and the soils of the minor valleys and hollows formed by a mixture 

 of the two. 



Hence, wherever the surface is somewhat undulating, a very great variety of 

 soils is often produced within very narrow limits. The Honey Locust, Wild Plum 

 and Crab Apple, generally mark the spots where, in the uplands, the soil is either 

 of the black or bald prairie character; while in the bottoms, in addition to these, 

 the Sycamore, Mulberry, Black Walnut, Ash and " Poplar," and here and there a 

 Cottonwood, are seen ; the Chesnut White, or Basket Oak, is also common. The 

 great abundance of Red Bud and Pawpaw in the bottoms, and the beautiful, tall 

 green columns formed by the American Ivy,* not only on living trees, but no* 

 less on the blackened stumps in the fields, which elsewhere mar the landscape, 

 also strike the traveler when approaching this region from the Pine Hills of the 

 Hatchie or Tuscumbia. Next to this, he will become acquainted with the fact 

 that springs are almost entirely wanting in this region, and that therefore the 

 creeks are without flowing water during the greater portion of the year (unless 

 heading beyond, in the Pine Hills); and that commonly, either -isterns, or deep 

 bored wells with limy water, supply the place of the natural sources (125, 157). 



540. At Farmington, and north and north-west of the saint;, we 

 have an almost level tract of very fertile lands, whose soil is of the 

 yellow loam character, easily tilled, and timbered chiefly with large, 

 stout Post Oaks, whose trunks, as on the prairies, almost invaria- 

 bly curve to one side; with it occur similarly stout and well- 

 conditioned Black and Sianish ('•Red'') Oaks. * The soil is deep, 

 and would no doubt be greatly benefitted by the clay m rls (Til.- • 

 141) which in this region, are generally twenty to twenty-five feet 

 underground in the uplands, but may probably be had access to 



*It is a great pity that this beautiful creeper {Arnpelopsis heeler acea), from a 

 very superficial resemblance to the Poison Ivy {Rhus toxicodendron), should be so 

 little appreciated (not to say shunned) as an ornamental vine in its native land. 

 In Europe it is highly esteemed, and almost throughout Germany the railroad 

 depots hive been b.:iutirieJ by arbors and trellises c >vered with this plant. It 

 can never be mistaken for the Pobon Oik or Ivy, when it is simply recollected 

 that the latter always his only three leaves or leaflets on each leaf-stalk, while 

 the Virginia Creeper, which is perfectly innocuous, has five of these. 



