122 PLANT LIFE OF ALABAMA. 
of eastern North Carolina and extends westward along the Gulf coast 
to central Texas and northern Mexico. In the Gulf States the live 
oak is rarely found above the thirty-first parallel of latitude. Of the 
magnificent groves which once lined the shores of the Gulf and its 
numerous inlets, but few remain. From its native hammocks this tree 
was transplanted to adorn and shade the abodes of the earliest settlers. 
Trees planted about seventy-five years ago, now frequently met with in 
the suburbs of Mobile and at the older country seats, are from 2 to 8 
feet in diameter and from 60 to 70 feet in height, their sturdy trunks 
sending out massive horizontal limbs at a distance of from 10 to some- 
times 15 feet above the ground, their shade frequently covering an 
area nearly 100 feet in diameter. 
In these hammocks the magnolia attains its highest development, in 
diameter rivaling the Cuban and loblolly pines, with which it is often 
associated, and accompanied by the laurel oak, water oak, and beech, 
all draped with the wreaths of Spanish moss. 
Of small trees and shrubs occurring here may be enumerated: 
Osmanthus americanus (American olive, Pyrus angustifolia (Southern crab apple). 
devil wood). Crataegus apiifolia (haw) .1 
Ilex vomitoria (yaupon) .1 Crataegus viridis (haw) .? 
Ilex opaca (common holly).} Chionanthus virginica (Northern fringe 
Myrica cerifera (wax myrtle) .1 tree) .! 
Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Southern Vaccinium arborewm (farkleberry) .1 
prickly ash). Ilex caroliniana (holly). 
Prunus umbellata (prairie plum). Ilex coriacea (holly). 
The evergreen American olive, rarely seen among the pine hills, 
occurs here frequently. The last two hollies are shrubs which, 
together with the others mentioned, form a dense undergrowth. 
Where the hammocks merge into the alluvial lands, the soil becom- 
ing of a semi-swampy condition, the silver-bell tree (lohrodendron 
(Halesia) dipterum) is found, most frequently with swamp dogwood 
(Cornus stricta), interspersed with titi (Cliftonia monophylla), leather- 
wood (Cyrilla racemiflora), holly (lex cassine) and blue palmetto 
(Sabal adansonit), evergreen fetterbushes (Pieris nitida, Leucothie 
axtllaris) forming the brushy soilcover. In the liana formation, Vetds 
cinerea wostly takes the place of the summer grape, and Sagaretia 
michauati, which in the open and in dry soil is a straggling shrub 
6 to 8 feet high, and is not rare on the coast from South Carolina to 
Florida and Mississippi, in these woods assumes the habit of a robust 
climber, ascending trees of great height. The stout root climbers 
Decumaria barbara and the Virginia creeper are common. The 
American wistaria (Arauhnia frutescens), with its compound racemes 
of sky-blue flowers, adorns the lower borders of the hammocks, which 
are further enlivened by the flame-colored flowers of the woodbine 
(Lonicera sempervirens), and, very early in the spring, by the golden 
1¥ound also in the Carolinian area. 
