86 Native Forest Resources of the United States. 



fifty feet high. The greater number of these are hard-woods, and 

 the conifers are chiefly of the pine, cedar, and spruce families. 

 As shade-trees, the elm and the sugar maple there perhaps attain 

 their finest development. 



Tlie Middle States. 



306. In the Middle States, from one hundred to one hundred and 

 five species occur, of 'which sixty-five to sixty-seven grow fifty feet 

 or more in height. These states were once heavily wooded — the 

 conifers in greater or less abundance being mingled among the de- 

 ciduous kinds. Some of the oaks, the chestnut, beech, and some 

 kinds of the ash, and the white-pine, there grow to great perfection 

 in their favorite localities. 



Southern States. • 



307. From Virginia to Florida, about one hundred and thirty 

 species occur, of which about seventy-five grow to fifty feet or more, 

 and perhaps a dozen to one hundred feet. The coast of this region 

 produces the bald cypress, and towards the south the live-oak, the 

 palmetto and other kinds. 



308. A broad belt of long-leaved pine (Pinits australis) extends 

 further inland, in irregular form, around through the middle of the 

 Gulf States to beyond the Mississippi river. Still further inland, 

 and at higher level, the oaks and other hard-woods become more 

 common, and on the mountains the northern conifers are found. 

 The pine forests of this region generally present an open appearance, 

 probably from their being overrun by frequent fires. 



309. The coast region and the swamps bear a tree-growth that is 

 dense and tangled, and although there may be timber of large size, 

 it is difiicult of access, as the swamps never freeze so as to facilitate 

 lumbering as in the Northern States. In these swamps there is often 

 a deep deposit of vegetable soil, and in some places buried cedar may 

 be found still in excellent preservation. 



310. At a short distance west of Trinity river, in Texas, the for- 

 ests begin to disappear, and there are immense regions in that state, 

 extending from the Gulf to the northern and western borders, that 

 are wholly destitute of trees. 



Tlie Western States. 



311. West of the AUeghenies, we find a country originally cov- 



