72 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
wider and the valleys are flanked by ridges of a gentler slope and are 
covered with deeper and richer soil. In these secluded valleys of the 
table-land, particularly where they begin to slope almost impercep- 
tibly toward their southern and southwestern borders, the arboreal 
erowth is of great luxuriance and variety. Besides many of the trees 
of the uplands, the following are found: 
Quercus michauaxti. (cow oak) . Magnolia umbrella (umbrella tree). 
Fugus americana (beech). Magnolia acuminata (common cucumber 
Ulmus americana (elm) . tree). 
Juglans cinerea (butternut) (rare). Magnolia macrophylia (large-leaf mag- 
Tilia americana (basswood) . nolia. 
Tilia heterophylla (basswood) . 
These deciduous-leaved magnolias in these sheltered valleys arrive 
at their best development, the last having been observed with a trunk 
fully 20 inches in diameter. In such a valley on the northern border 
of Winston County, near a branch of the east fork of the Sipsey River, 
the yellow-flowered magnolia (Magnolia acuminata cordata), first 
described as a distinct species’ by Michaux the elder, was discovered 
by the writer in 1882. Since the original discovery of this rare and 
beautiful tree by this great investigator of the trees of eastern North 
America, on the banks of the upper waters of the Savannah River, the 
range of its distribution had remained obscure. It can now be said, 
however, to extend from upper South Carolina and the upper moun- 
tain region of Georgia to northwestern Alabama. Here this tree 
has been observed as large as a full-grown common cucumber tree, 
of which species Professor Sargent regards it as a variety. When 
unfolding under full exposure to the sun, the flowers are from a dingy 
canary to a golden yellow color, but are of a greenish tint when 
opening under the shade of the dense foliage. In the shape and 
size of the mature leaves the yellow-flowered variety can scarcely be 
distinguished from the typical form; it is only in the foliage of the 
young vigorous shoots that the heart-shaped form of the leaves is 
observed. 
Entering near the same valley the cliff-bound channel of the Sipsey 
fork, one finds to his surprise the rocky defile shaded by groves of 
stately hemlock (Zsuga canadensis). This inhabitant of the coniferous 
forests of northern regions extends southward along the highest sum- 
mits of the Appalachian ranges to Georgia and northwestern Ala- 
bama, where it follows this mountain torrent for a distance of about 10 
miles, nearly to the falls of Clear Creek, in Winston County, there 
reaching its southern limit. In this valley the hemlock is accompanied 
by the sweet or cherry birch, Betula lenta, at home in the same 
northern life zone. 
Xerophile and mesophile herbaceous plant associations. —Belonging to 
1M. cordata Michaux, Flora, Vol. 1, p. 328 (1803). 
