Areal Botany or Regional Distribution 

 of Plants* 



Engaged with laurel, oak, and fir, 



'Midst fern and sedge, the viler or the rare, 



In dismal swamps, 'neath cypress grand and fair. 



Where snakes and tangles bring despair; 



On lofty crags, in clouded sphere. 



Where eagles built their artless lair. 



And, whistling, swing in upper air; 



Onward, though of waning strength aware. 



Seeking truth, with firm resolve 1 dare 



To plead my right to reason, doubt, or err. 



GENEEAL ASPECT OP THE FLORA. 



The boundaries of Tennessee are embraced within the great 

 Atlantic forest region. The whole of this territory was in its 

 virgin state, an immense expanse of varied woodlands, being in the 

 lowlands of dense and massive growth, filled with pathless Jungles 

 of cane and shrub, or, away from the water courses, on the uplands, 

 reduced to open and airy groves (with great diversity of tinlbers), 

 the barrens. Here a dense swaxd covers the ground and herbaceous 

 growth prevails. Mountain forests are always of greater uniform- 

 ity in distribution of timbers. 



Nearly one-third of the entire area is now reduced to fields 

 or occupied by buildings or roads. Canebrakes have well-nigh 

 disappeared, and the forest is in all accessible regions depleted of 

 valuable timber. 



Immigration of foreign and retirement of native species con- 

 tinually modify the aboriginal flora and tend to weaken character- 

 istics due to presence of peculiar plant forms, or collocation of 

 species, by the intricacies of mutual predilection and adaptation to 

 surroundings. 



Such areas, which differ amOng themselves conspicuously in 

 such properties, admit of the establishment of" natural floral ax- 

 rondissements. 



Differences of elevation, diversity in elementary constitution 



I have retained in this chapter the old nomenclature of Drs. Gray 

 and Chapman, for the benefit of those using their manuals. 



