ALTAMAHA GRIT REGION OF GEORGIA 



105 



epiphytes and parasites. The herbs are probably all perennial. 

 Broad thin leaves and other " mesophytic " adaptations are of 

 course the rule here. 1 



The flowering season seems to reach its height in spring, as in 

 mesophytic forests nearly everywhere, and there are few flowers 

 on the bluff s after the middle of the year. (See diagram.) The 

 average flowering period is 40 days. The proportions of the 

 various colors of flowers are much the same as in the hammocks . 



Jan. Feb. Mar. April May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 



Fig. 16 



Phrenological diagram for 60 plants of river-bluffs, including 14 trees and 

 22 shrubs. 



There are 12 anemophilous species, 13 white-flowered, 9 cream, 

 7 purple, 4 greenish, 4 red (some of these with yellow limb to the 

 corolla), and a few yellow, pink, blue, and brown. The four red 

 flowers all happen to have tubes about two inches long, and per- 

 haps they are all pollinated by the same insect, or by humming- 

 birds. 



Fleshy fruits (in 22 species) greatly outnumber all other modes 

 of dissemination. Nine or ten species have seeds transported 

 by the wind, and five or six have adhesive fruits. 



A systematic list would show 69 species in 61 genera and 44 

 families, which is very near the corresponding figures for the 

 hammocks. The four largest families in the list, Leguminosse, 

 Cupuliferae, Gramineae, and Polypodiaceae, have four represen- 

 tatives each. The two largest families in the whole Altamaha 

 Grit region (and probably in the whole coastal plain as well), 

 Cyperaceae and Compositae, are each represented on the bluffs 

 by a single species. The Orchidaceae seem to be entirely absent, 

 which is rather surprising. The proportion of monocotyledons 



'For references to anatomical studies of Lonicera, Batodendron, Liquid- 

 ambar, Podophyllum, Myrica cerijera, and Dendropogon see the catalogue 

 of species. 



