MESOPHILE ARBOREAL AND HERBACEOUS FLORA. 85 
where the sandstones overlie the calcareous rocks on the flanks of the 
higher mountains. This highly ornamental tree, one of the rarest of 
the Atlantic forests, is confined in the State to the mountains of 
Madison County, where it attains a height of from 30 to 50 feet, with 
a diameter of from 8 to 12 inches. The American smoke tree was 
first discovered by Nuttall on the limestone cliffs bordering Grand 
River, near the northeastern limit of Indian Territory. It was subse- 
quently found in Alabama by Buckley, and has also been detected as 
far west as the Medina Valley, in western Texas. Having disap- 
peared from the locality where it was first discovered, and subsequent 
to its discovery in Alabama not having been seen by any botanist, 
the tree remained in obscurity for the next forty years, until it was 
again brought to light by the writer in 1881. Later it was found by 
Mr. Bush’ in southwestern Missouri, and since then Professor Tre- 
lease has found it in several localities in the Ozark Hills of the same 
region. Being in the Tennessee Valley exposed to a temperature 
falling not rarely nearly to zero, this tree will prove hardy in almost 
every locality where the cultivation of its European relative is possi- 
ble. In its native location it is readily reproduced by sprouts from the 
stump, almost all of the vigorous coppice growths which it forms—for 
instance, the one observed on the Gurley place (near Gurley)—being of 
this origin. Red plum (Prunus americana), red buckeye (Aesculus 
pavia), aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), redbud (Cercis canadensis), 
with seedlings of the red cedar, form the bulk of the undergrowth of 
the high forests, and coral-berry and shrubby St. John’s wort (/Zyper/- 
cum prolificum) the bushy covering of the ground. 
Mesophile herbaceous plant associations.—The herbaceous flora on 
these forest-clad heights is represented chiefly by mesophile plant 
associations, which seek the shelter of the forest, or its borders and 
more or less shady openings. Besides the species common through- 
out the mountain region, a number of others are here found which are 
widely distributed to the northern limit of the Carolinian area, but 
occur rarely if at all in other regions of the State. Examples are: 
Disporum lanuginosum. Thalictrum dicicum. 
Uvularia puberula. Dentaria laciniata. 
Uvularia grandiflora. Pimpinella integerrima. 
Caulophyllum thalictroides.* Washingtonia claytoni. 
anemone virginiana, 
On the densely shaded bluffs of the Tennessee River at Sheffield 
landing a few mesophile species have been observed which deserve to 
be mentioned. Of woody plants the Northern yellow wood (Cladrastes 
tinctoria), a representative type of the lower southwestern Alleghenian 
ranges, frequent from Kentucky southward, reaches here its extreme 
1W. F. Bush, Trees and Shrubs of Missouri, St. Louis. 
2 Blue cohosh. 
