HERBACEOUS FLORA OF FORESTS AND FIELDS. 638 
pubescent beneath, the berries in compact rather oval clusters, pur- 
plish black without bloom, juicy, and sweet, ripening in the latter 
part of September. Robinia hispida and Rosa humilis are common 
on these rocks. Amorpha virgata and Viburnum acerifolium prefer 
slight declivities with a dry but somewhat less rocky soil. Among 
the other xerophile rupestrian associations, on the summit of Che- 
hawhaw Mountain rock-tripe, a large lichen (Umbilicaria), covers 
with its black thalloid frond the bare crags, and forms a striking 
feature; it has also been observed to cover the rocks on the crest of 
Lookout Mountain (De Kalb County, 1,800 to 2,000 feet altitude), 
and is characteristic of the southeastern Alleghany ranges north to 
Pennsylvania. Of the few ferns frequenting these arid heights, 
Cheilanthes tomentosa is the most common. The long stipes of the 
fronds lie deeply buried among the smaller fragments of the rocks, 
where the fibrous roots, protected from the sun, find the needed 
supply of moisture. Dryopteris marg/nalis is rarely found in the 
sheltered rocky clefts. The coarse Andropogoneae, already named, 
under the scanty shade of mountain oaks, chestnuts, and pignut hick- 
ory, completely hide the ground with their luxuriant growth. The 
fine tufts of Stenvphyllus capillaris, with Talinwn teretifolium, cover 
the flat expanses of the rocks, bare of any other vegetation. S//ene 
stellata and nychia dichotoma prefer the shaded rocky shelves. Ste7- 
roncma tonsun, through the abundance of its bright golden flowers, 
is the most conspicuous among the herbs. This ornament of the cliffs, 
extending northward to the mountains of Kentucky, has also been 
observed on the open hills of the Delta divide (Clay County, altitude 
1,600 feet). Lacinaria graminéfolia, in dense tufts formed by its 
confluent tuberous root-stocks, covers the sunny rocks throughout this 
subdivision, while the following, more or less common throughout the 
southern extent of the Appalachian chain, are frequently met with in 
open rocky woodlands: 
Campanula divaricata. Solidago erecta. 
Dasystoma flava. Brachychaeta sphacelata. 
Solidago bicolor. Gerardia tenuifolia asperula. 
Wherever the ridges spread out into wider expansions forming 
broad uplands, now denuded of their original forest growth and mostly 
subjected to cultivation, a xerophile campestrian flora has taken pos- 
session, with Compositae as its prominent feature. Such plains extend 
through the metamorphic region of South Carolina and Georgia to 
its southern limit in Alabama, with an elevation of from 1,600 feet 
(Clay County, about Delta) and 1,200 feet (Cleburne County, Chula- 
finnee) down to 860 feet in Lee County (Auburn). The borders of 
fields and woods, meadows and pastures, appear to be emphatically 
