‚446 Part IV, Chapter 2. 
briny sea. Near Lake Pontchartrain in Mississippi salt marshes are common. 
Where sand and shingle are raised above continuous overflow occur evergreen 
shrubs preferring a saline soil: /va frutescens, Baccharis halimifolia and an- 
gustifolia, Chenopodium Berlandieri, Lycium carolinianum, Batıs maritima, 
Salicornia with Fimbristylis spadicea form a dense close cover and near the 
Mississippi mouth with the addition of Spartina patens and siriecta. The black 
mangrove Avicennia nitida with its well known pneumathodes grows abundantly 
on some islands in the muck marshes. 
The shallow inlets of the sea in Alabama with their floor of deep sandy 
mud are covered exclusively by Funcus Roemerianus (see ante p. 428). This 
rush forms the great bulk of the vegetation of the saline marshes associated 
with Zimöristylis, Spartina polystachya, Cladium effusum etc. In higher situa- 
tions the rushes and grasses disappear and more or less open associations of 
low perennials and herbaceous plants grow in the damp ground which is covered 
by a salty efflorescence. 
The low Texas coast throughout most of its extent is shielded from the 
Gulf by a series of sand islands which front a series of lagoons and salt 
marshes tenanted by such salt grasses as Spartina jJunciformis, which according 
to J. G. SMITH forms fully ninety percent of the vegetation of the marsh 
koperher with 5. patens, S. cynosuroides, Sporobolus, Distichlis and Monanthochloe 
/ittoralis which forms the seaward edge of the marsh. 
2. Forest Formations. 
Low Flat Pine Barren Formation. These formations occupy the second 
terrace of the lowlands of the coast rising to a height of from 10—30 feet 
above the low flood plains and river bottoms and consisting of sandy loams. 
Open forests of Pinus palustris sparsely intermixed with Pinus caribaea 
(= P. heterophylla = P. cubensis) and P. Taeda covered this plain. . palustris 
when removed was succeeded by 2. caribaeca which occupies the clearings. 
The ground is covered by a dense sod of low perennial monocotyledonous 
plants which upon decomposing yield a rather peaty soil in a semiboggy con- 
dition in rainy weather. Here grow Sphagnum imbricatum, S. compactum, able 
to resist occasional droughts. The plants typic of this association are Rhyncho- 
spora plumosa, pusilla, cymosa, Kobresia odorata, Funcus Elliottii and margi- 
natus, Andropogon Mohrii, Paspalum praecox, Rottboellia corrugata (= Mani- 
suris rugosa). 
The spring plants are Bartonia verna, Houstonia patens, Chaptalia semifloseularis, Pinguicula 
lutea, P. pumila, Lupinus villosa, Helianthemum carolinianum, Drosera capillaris, D, brevifolia, 
D. Traeyi, Euphorbia inundata, Polygala lutea, P. polygama, Calopogon multiflorum During 
e summer the flowers of the following plants are seen: Linum floridanum, Polygala "Chapmani, 
P. Hookeri, TE: glaberrimus, Habenaria nivea, Ludwigia hirtella, L. linearis, Eryngium Aus 
folium, E. synchaetum, Sabbatia gentianoides, Gerardia paupercula, Ascyrum stans, A. erux-Andreae 
In ante appear, Helianthus heterophyllus, Solidago stricta, Baldwinia uniflora, Eupatorium 
leptophyllum, E. pubescens (= E. rotundifolium var. ovatum), Trilisa odoratissima. Ok 
erotalophoroides, Lycopodium carolinianum are typic plants of the coast plain. 
