.148 FOEESTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



confined to the lowlands. .The broad-leaf trees are chiefly water 

 oak, willow oak, Spanish oak, swamp chestnut oak, overcnp and 

 post oaks, and such smaller species of oak as upland willow oak 

 and the black-jack oak, which, though very abundant, are at 

 present economically of little value; sweet gum, water gum and 

 tupelo, elms, red maple, hackberry, hickories (chiefly the white, 

 shagbark, and bitternut), and dogwood. 



The larger broad-leaf trees, with the cypress and cedars, are con- 

 fined to the lowlands and better class of soils, pines superseding 

 them on the drier or impoverished soil of the uplands. 



DISTINCTIVE GROWTH. 



The difference between these forests and those of the maritime 

 division are marked : The latter are composed mostly of broad- 

 leaf evergreen species; the former are composed largely of pines 

 and broad-leaf deciduous trees. A few trees are common to both 

 forests. Thus the water oak is a conspicuous tree in both ; but 

 the red cedar is infrequent or altogether wanting over the larger 

 part of the area of the pine belt. The smooth sweet bay of the 

 maritime belt is represented in the pine belt by the closely 

 related sweet bay. (See p. 26.) 



PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PINE BELT. 



The surface of this part of the coastal plain region is gently 

 rolling, there being, particularly to the eastward, areas of large 

 extent almost level, but along the western border, especially in 

 Harnett, Moore and Richmond counties, it is hilly and broken. 

 The area is nearly as great as that of the coastal plain forest 

 region, and the altitude above the sea level is about' the same as 

 was given for that, being from 10 or 15 feet along the eastern bor- 

 der to 150, and even 300 feet, in Moore county, along the west- 

 ern border. 



To the eastward, in the neighborhood of the coast, where the 

 drainage is insufficient to remove the rainfall, there are extensive 

 areas of lowlands or swamp, mostly forest-covered ; while west- 

 ward, where the fall permits more thorough drainage, the swamps 

 are restricted to narrow borders contiguous to the streams. The 



