DECIDUOUS AND EVERGREEN FORESTS. 47 
frequent inhabitants of the forest-clad swamps of the alluvial district 
in its lower part. 
Deciduous forests of xerophile trees and shrubs prevail on the dry 
mountain spurs, the table-lands, and the lower hills, the following 
forming the bulk of the arboreal vegetation: 
Quercus prinos (mountain oak). Hicoria villosa (pale-leaf hickory). 
Quercus velutina (black oak). Castanea dentata (chestnut). 
Quercus marilandica (black jack). Ulmus australis (Southern rock elm). 
Quercus coccinea (scarlet oak). Acer leucoderme (white-bark maple). 
Hicoria glabra (pignut). Acer saccharum and variety barbatum 
Hicoria alba (mockernut). (bard maple). 
Hicoria carolinae-septentrionalis (Southern Acer floridanum (Florida maple). 
shellbark hickory). Oxydendrum arboreum (sourwood) 
All of these, except Acer leucoderme, A. saccharum barbatum, and 
A. floridanum, belong also to the Northern forests. On the arid 
ridges with a poor siliceous soil Southern pines mingle freely with 
the hardwoods. 
Evergreen forests. —The evergreen arboreal vegetation forms a most 
prominent feature of the flora of the State. The 31 species found in 
Alabama are nearly all distributed throughout the warmer temperate 
and subtropical regions of eastern North America. In the xerophile 
forests of the dry uplands the cone-bearing evergreens, embracing 
six species of pines, one type of the cypress tribe, and the red cedar, 
hold an important place in the tree-covering of the State, particularly 
the pines. These cover extensive areas, the long-leaf pine extending 
almost exclusively and with scarcely any interruption over many 
hundreds of square miles, while short-leaf and loblolly pine form a 
large element in the forest growth of the northern half of the State. 
Broad-leaved evergreen trees and shrubs in great variety of species 
prevail in the mesophile semiswampy forests of the subtropical zone. 
In these forests the magnolia, single or in groups, finds its home with 
the white bay of the same genus, red bay, dahoon holly, yaupon, 
wax myrtles, ti-ti, American olive or devilwood, leatherwood, and 
large oaks with persistent leaves (live oak, etc.) or retaining their 
foliage during the greater part of the winter (laurel oak and water 
oak). A host of evergreen shrubs—the sweet illicium of the mag- 
nolia family, azaleas and andromedas of the heather family, holly, and 
others—form the dense undergrowth. Of conifers, the loblolly pine, 
with the Southern spruce pine and Cuban pine and, mostly in 
swampy localities, the white cedar, tower above the broad-leaved 
forms. The strange-looking Spanish dagger (Yucca alotfolia), an 
arborescent lily, with its trunk covered with rigid sharp-pointed 
leaves and, in the beginning of the summer season, crowned with 
ample panicles of snowy white flowers, forms a characteristic feature 
of the arboreal vegetation of the sands in the coastplain. 
