VOLUME LXIII 



NUMBER 5 





THE 



Botanical Gazette 



MAY igr-j 



A STUDY IN PHYSIOGRAPHIC ECOLOGY IN NORTHERN 



FLORIDA 



CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE HULL BOTANICAL LABORATORY 229 



Laura Gano 



tf 



(with ten figures) 



Introduction 



Ecological investigations of the coastal plain of southeastern 

 United States, with few exceptions, have not been undertaken from 

 the standpoint of the relation of physiography to the successional 

 history of the plant associations, nor has the classification of this 

 region been satisfactorily established in comparison with other 

 forest formations of the United States. Schimper (ii) mapped 

 this portion of the coastal plain (with the exception of southern 

 Florida) as temperate rain forest. Sargent (io) classified it as 

 the southern maritime pine belt. The first classification is ob- 

 viously inconsistent, and the second is open to question if by pine 

 forest is meant a climax formation. 



Except for Harshberger's detailed treatment of the coastal 

 plain in his Phytogeographic survey of North America, studies of this 

 particular region have been scattered, and usually of exceptional 

 localities. On the Gulf Coast, Hilgard in soil surveys in Mississippi 

 and Louisiana paid special attention to plants as soil indicators, 

 outlining associations on this basis. Studies of island plant life 

 in the Mississippi River sound and delta were made by Lloyd 

 and Tracy (8); while Mohr in his Plant life of Alabama grouped 



337 



