timber, and often left smaller or deformed specimens of 

 highly desirable species such as cypress, white cedar, and 

 tulip-poplar remaining in the forest stands. This practice, 

 known as high-grading, eventually reduced the dominance of 

 baldcypress and Atlantic white cedar in the swamp forest 

 stands, while at the same time increasing the dominance of 

 swamp blackgum, red maple, and other less valuable timber 

 species. 



The natural area contains a fairly sizable population 

 of tall pawpaw ( Asimina triloba) , a tall shrub which usually 

 is found on rich alluvium on second-bottoms and slopes along 

 brownwater rivers and streams. Pawpaw also occurs in mesic 

 hardwood stands in the coastal plain but almost always on 

 mineral soils. In the natural area the species occurs on 

 shallow peats which have underlying mineral horizons. Paw- 

 paw is not known to occur on peat soils anywhere else in 

 North Carolina. Its occurrence in the natural area would 

 not be predicted based on its known habitat associations. 



The presence of tulip-poplar on peat soils is not 

 generally well-known although it is mentioned in the 

 literature . It is not known to be a dominant canopy tree 

 in coastal plain wetlands. It usually occurs on moist 

 mineral soils , particularly on sandy loams which are 

 well-drained. Concerning its occurrence in the Pamli- 

 marle Peninsula, Ashe (1894) writes: 



"Much of the swamp in Washington and 

 Tyrrell Counties is thinly timbered 

 with the savanna (pond) pine. There 

 is a great deal of soft maple and 

 yellow poplar scattered throughout 

 the swamp . . . Lumbering has been 

 one of the leading industries of 

 these counties for a great many 

 years , the numerous canals and 

 streams which penetrate the region 

 affording great facilities for removing 

 timber." 



Ashe (op cit) mentions tulip-poplar in descriptions of swamp 

 forests in other coastal plain counties and notes its occur- 

 rence along with bald-cypress and swamp blackgum. 



The presence of old-growth tulip-poplar along with bald- 

 cypress, swamp blackgum, and Atlantic white cedar within the 

 natural area probably represents an aggregation of spe- 

 cies which, at least until modern times, was fairly typical 



48 



