120 HARPER 



many writers in the north ; all of which goes to show that the pine- 

 barrens represent a pioneer type. There is one slight exception to 

 this. Pinus Elliottii sometimes takes possession of land from which 

 Pinus palustris has been removed, and this has led some writers 

 on forestry to believe that the latter species was becoming extinct 

 and the former taking its place. Even the natives commonly 

 believe that the long-leaf pine does not reproduce itself after 

 lumbering, but metamorphoses into the other species (the " slash 

 pine"). But in reality the succession of P. Elliottii after P. 

 palustris is the exception rather than the rule, at least in the 

 Altamaha Grit region, and has doubtless been exaggerated. In 

 their natural condition the habitats of these two pines are en- 

 tirely distinct, and if the whole region could be let alone for 

 fifty or a hundred years the equilibrium would doubtless be in 

 large measure restored. 



All things considered, however, there is probably at the pre- 

 sent writing no part of the world more favorably situated for 

 phytogeographical study than the Altamaha Grit region, with 

 its great accessibility, 1 salubrious climate, and freedom from 

 many of the evils of modern civilization which characterize the 

 more densely populated parts of the country. But with the pop- 

 ulation increasing 5% a year (which means doubling in 15 years) 

 there is danger that some types of vegetation will disappear 

 entirely before they can be sufficiently studied. At present the 

 damage has been chiefly confined to the dry pine-barrens, but 

 there is no telling when the rocks, swamps, and sand-hills will 

 begin to be sacrificed to commercialism. 



1 Railroad mileage seems to be increasing faster there than anywhere 

 else in the Eastern United States, and the destructive effects of civiliza- 

 tion are hardly keeping pace with it. 



