110 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
in the times of the heaviest freshets, is covered with a valuable hard- 
wood timber growth of cow oak, Spanish oak, Texas or Southern 
red oak, white ash, honey locust, and mockernut hickory, destined to 
furnish large supplies for the future. On the almost perpetually 
submerged banks of both of these rivers a fine timber growth of bald 
cypress frequently forms brakes of considerable extent, occasionally 
accompanied by the tupelo gum. 
It can be safely asserted that fully one-half of the area of this region 
is under cover of the long-leaf pine, and that in their timber wealth 
these forests surpass by far the pine forests of the lower division of 
the Maritime Pine belt. From estimates made in various districts it 
appears that fully 6,000 feet of merchantable timber can be with safety 
assumed as the average yield per acre. 
Mesophile herbaceous plant associations.—The following herbaceous 
plants, extending hither from the mountain region, find here their 
southern limits: 
Calycocarpum lyoni. Frasera, carolinensis. 
Cebatha carolina. Physalis ciliosa. 
Cypripedium hirsutum. Physalis virgiman. 
Arisaema dracontium. 
Vineetoxicum baldwinii, one of the rarest of Southern plants, else- 
where known only from a few localities in middle Georgia and Texas, 
and Thalictum debile are thus far known in Alabama only in this 
region. 
Cultural plant formations.—In its cultural plant formations this region 
differs but slightly from the next region. ‘The rich hill prairies, cal- 
careous uplands, formerly bearing a mixed growth of pines and decidu- 
ous trees, as well as the bottom lands, are for the most part devoted to 
the cultivation of cotton. Larger or smaller patches of tropical sugar 
cane are cultivated on almost every farm. Corn, oats, and sweet 
potatoes and other root crops are raised to supply the home demand. 
Less attention is paid to the raising of forage crops, the cattle being 
left to shift for themselves throughout the year among the hills. In 
the northern part the peach is raised in perfection, ripening its fruit 
from the middle of May to August. Grapes can be harvested in July 
and August, and strawberries are marketed in the first weeks of April. 
The fig also bears abundantly. 
LOWER DIVISION OF THE COAST PINE BELT, OR LOWER REGION OF LONG-LEAF PINE. 
Physiographical features and climate. 
As the Tertiary strata disappear under the heavy beds of sands and 
gravels of more recent formations, the topography of the country 
becomes more uniform, the broad ridges spread out into slightly 
undulating table-lands, which become somewhat broken in their descent 
to the drainage channels. The rolling pine uplands rise gradually to 
