HAMMOCK LANDS OF COAST PLAIN. 121 
The species of Ascyrum and Hypericum constitute a characteristic 
open formation of low shrubs or suffrutescent perennials in the depres- 
sions surrounding shallow ponds, most striking during the latter part 
of the summer while covered with their golden-yellow flowers. Among 
the earliest appears Hypericum myrtifolium, followed by H. opacum, 
and last by 7. aspalathoides, the most abundant, forming large patches. 
All are frequent from South Carolina to Mississippi. During the 
autumn Compositae with their bright yellow flowers prevail—for 
example: 
Helianthus heterophyllus. Coreopsis angustifolia. 
Chondrophora (Bigelovia) nudata.} Bidens coronata leptophylla. 
Solidago stricta. Baldwinia uniflora. 
Solidago angustifolia. 
With these come azure-flowered lobelias, such as Z. puberula, com- 
mon from the coast of southern New Jersey to Louisiana and in the 
southern Alleghanies, and Z. brevifolia, ranging from western Florida 
to Louisiana, and Ruellia noctiflora, rare on the coast of the Missis- 
sipp1 Sound and sparsely scattered through the corresponding region 
from Louisiana to Georgia and Florida, all more or less frequent in 
the first pine barrens from North Carolina to Florida and the eastern 
Gulf States—besides the following: 
Eupatorium leptophyllum. Lacinaria graminifolia pilosa.* 
Eupatorium capillifolium. Carphephorus pseudo-liatris. 
Eupatorium linearifolium. Trilisa odoratissima.? 
Eupatorium mohrii. Baldwinia uniflora. 
Eupatorium semiserratum.! Gerardia skinneriana. 
Eupatorium pubescens. Gerardia paupercula. 
Eupatorium verbenaefolium.' Gerardia aphylla. 
Of ferns and their allies Botrychiwm obliquum is not rare on exposed 
grassy knolls and banks, while Ophioglossum crotalophoroides with 
Lycopodium carolinianum, preferring moister situations, are truly 
typical plants of the coast plain. 
Hammock lands.—More or less extensive tracts of a black soil, gen- 
erally well drained, rich in the decayed remains of former vegetations, 
occur on this second terrace as it skirts the lower river swamps or the 
low swamps of the tide-water regions. Constantly acted upon by the 
multitudinous forms of lower animal and plant life—rainworms, snails, 
centipedes, and a host of bacteria and saprophytic fungi—this soil has 
become converted into a highly fertile mold, which supports the same 
luxuriant and diversified vegetation of trees and shrubs, chiefly broad- 
leaved evergreens, which characterizes the mesophile forests of the 
Louisianian area generally, to which is added here the live oak, Quercus 
virginiana, the most attractive and grandest feature in the flora of the 
coast plain. This oak is a tree of the seacoast. It approaches, in a 
high state of development, the Carolinian area near the northern limit 
1 Found also in Carolinian area. ? The vanilla plant, or deer tongue. 
