GRASSES OF ROLLING PINE UPLANDS. 113 
and Pensacola for the chief points of export, and they are also the 
source of the resinous products which find their market at Mobile. 
The depletion of their timber wealth with no heed given to their 
maintenance, and their destruction by the barbarous methods prac- 
ticed in the extraction of their resinous product, together with the 
ravages of the fires which one season after another destroy the seedlings 
and the youngest timber, and with the injuries inflicted by herds of 
domestic animals which roam through these forests, not only are 
exhausting their present resources, but will inevitably and within a 
comparatively short time result in their extermination, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that in no other region within the wide range of distribu- 
tion of the long-leat pine are the conditions more favorable for the 
spontaneous reproduction of this most valuable timber tree. 
Xerophile herbaceous plant associations.—Thanks to the abundant 
and evenly distributed rainfall, the floor of these open pine forests is 
covered with a carpet of grasses and other herbs, mostly perennials, 
which, under the mild climate of this zone, retains its verdure for the 
greatest part of the year. The grasses vastly predominate in the 
number of individuals, and in the diversity of forms they are scarcely 
exceeded by the species of the pea and composite families. The great 
bulk of the grasses consists of types of a Southern distribution, the 
majority being confined to the Louisianian area. But a small number 
reach the Carolinian area, and those only along the seacoast. The 
following are noteworthy species: 
Andropogon tener. Gymnopogon brevifolius. 
Paspalum setaceum. Chrysopogon nutans linnaeanus, 
Paspalum floridanum. Chrysopogon elliottii. 
Paspalum ciliatifolium. Paspalum plicatulum. 
Panicum filiforme.* Paspalum bifidum (P. racemulosum Nutt). 
Panicum lanuginosum.! Paspalum dasyphyllum. : 
Panicum paucifiorum.) Paspalum difforme. 
Panicum sphaerocarpon.} Anthenantia villosa. 
Panicum pubescens. Panicum angustifolium. 
Panicum angustifolium. Panicum neuranthum. 
Aristida purpurascens. Panicum arenicola. 
Andropogon argyraeus. Panicum nashianum. 
Danthonia sericea. Aristida simplicifolia. 
Gymnopogon ambiguus. Aristida stricta. 
Of the above species Gymnopogon brevifolius is a typical species of 
the Louisianian area, characteristic of dry pine barrens from North 
Carolina to eastern Texas, and Panicum neuranthum extends to the 
West Indies. Aristida stricta, or wire-grass, is extremely abundant 
in the coast region of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and the coun- 
ties of Alabama east of the Perdido River, along the Florida State 
line, known as the ‘‘wire-grass counties,” where on the loose white 
Ozark sand it almost alone forms the grassy covering. 
1 Carolinian area and northward. 
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