• TEN^ESMBE FlORA. 23 



great ornaments of your native land. I cannot dwell longer on. 

 this point ; euffice it to say that the above are only a few of the most 

 obvious spring flowers, and that every succeeding season has its 

 own peculiar growth. The hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), fragrant 

 sumac {Rhus aromatica) , Carolina buckthorn (Frangula Gmro- 

 liniana), Forestiera ligustrina, delightfully fragrant when flower- 

 ing in July, the Callicarpa, with clusters of rosy flowers and violet 

 berries, and several kinds of hawthorn, are the characteristic shrubs 

 of these barrens. Hackberry, honey locust, winged elm, post oak 

 p,nd shingle oak intermingle in limited numbers with the cedar. 



Tlie siliceous and argillaceous soils which surround the Silurian 

 formation correspond to the cheri;y strata of the subcarboniferous 

 and the blue or black shales of the Devonian formation. The for- 

 mer is commonly called " gravelly hills," and supports a meager 

 and monotonous vegetjition. Black-jack oak, Spanish oak, red oak, 

 and black oak are prevailing, especially the former two. Post oak 

 and white oak attain only medium size. Chestnut, sourwood, mock- 

 er-nut and pignut hickory are the principal trees. The shrubbery is 

 represented by the farkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum), deerberry 

 {Vaccinium stamineum) , black huckleberry {Gaylussacia resi- 

 nosd), Kalmias, purple azalea, chinquapin chestnut (Castanea 

 pumila), New Jersey tea {Ceanothus Americanus) and an im- 

 mense amount of dwarf sumac (Rhus copalUna), Lespedezas and 

 Desmodimus, and later Jn the season several species of Coreopsis 

 and Solidago. The common brake (Pteris aquilina) and the 

 beech fern (Phegopteris hexagonoptera) grow aboundantly. The 

 sandy, loamy, or argillaceous soils of the shale contain some valu- 

 able farming lands, but a good deal of it is either too light or too 

 wet. The underlying slate seems to form impermeable strata, and 

 in winter and spring large tracts of land are covered with shallow 

 ponds, which disappear only from evaporation in the summer and 

 autumn. These strata underlie the Oak Barrens (Tullahoma), 

 The vegetation is diversified and very interesting. The forest con- 

 tains a good selection "of hardwoods, and the trees attain a very 

 good size. -Watei' oak, willow oak,. and white oak grow very large;, 

 sweet gum and black gum, in abundance; poplars and beeches, not 

 as many as in the calcareous soils; cedars, only solitary and rare;. 

 pines and firs, none at all. There are neither pines nor firs the 

 whole length of distance from Pulaski to Blizabethtown, near 

 Louisville, Ky., nor are any found for a great distance east or west 



