102 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
Cedar hammocks.—On the highest swells of the plain where the 
strata of the rotten limestone are overlaid by lighter loams poorer in 
humus, deep, and of perfect drainage, forests prevail of a mixed-tree 
growth, consisting of the following: 
Fraxinus americana (white ash). Ulmus americana (white elm). 
Quercus laurifolia (laurel oak). Acer saccharum barbatum (small-leaf sugar 
Celtis mississippiensis (hackberry) . maple). 
Quercus texana (Southern red oak) . Juniperus virginiana (red cedar) . 
Originally the red cedar formed about 30 per cent of the timber 
growth. The ground beneath is densely shaded by the following: 
Asimina triloba (pawpaw). Zanthoxylum  clava-herculis (Southern 
Ilex decidua (deciduous holly). prickly ash). 
Adelia ligustrina (Southern privet) . 
The red cedar of these forests is of most vigorous growth, the 
smooth trunk free of limb for a height of from 30 to 50 feet and from 
16 to 20 inches and over in diameter, and less affected by decay than 
in the northern part of the State. These cedar hammocks once 
formed detached tracts extending over many square miles. At 
present only a few remnants of them are left, and these are doomed 
to speedy destruction by the drafts made upon their valuable timber 
and through the injuries constantly inflicted upon the young growth 
by live stock. . 
MESOPHILE HERBACEOUS PLANT ASSOCIATIONS, 
In the shade of these forests, as observed on the banks of Big Prairie 
Creek, the herbaceous plant associations are poorly represented by 
mesophile species more or less common throughout the Carolinian 
area. Some of the species are: 
Adicea urticaefolia. Vincetoxicum laeve. 
Impatiens biflora. Trepocarpus aethusae. 
Thaspium aureum. Dioclea multiflora. 
Vincetoxicum (Gonolobus) hirsutum. 
The Zrepocarpus is frequent in eastern Texas, but has heretofore 
been known in the eastern Gulf States only as a fugitive on ballast in 
several localities. The Dioclea has been known from a few localities 
in Georgia, and especially along the Luxapallila River, near Columbus, 
Miss., and is abundant in the bottoms of the Mississippi and Yazoo 
deltas. 
Canebrakes.—The most prominent feature in the vegetation of this 
region consists of the extensive tracts of cane, arborescent grasses of 
the bamboo tribe, which prevail throughout the depression of the plain. 
The large cane (Arundinaria macrosperma) inhabits the alluvial bot- 
toms more or less submerged for the greater part of the year, and the 
small or switch cane (A. tecta) prevails in the open as well as in the 
