II 



less muddy soil, rich in humus, with a pervious subsoil and some 

 surface drainage. In the lower areas slowly moving surface 

 water is generally present in pockets and runs between the 

 tussocks. The non-alluvial or flatwoods bay is a formation that 

 occupies an intermediate position between the flatwoods and 

 the savanna. There is no drainage and the distinction is one of 

 water content of the soil. The surface of the ground is almost 

 saturated in rainy seasons, and damp in dry seasons, and the 

 vegetation is quite different from either the savanna or the flat- 

 woods. This is the formation that is called a "pocosin" in eastern 

 North Carolina, although the term is used sometimes, it appears, 

 to include the alluvial bay (see Harper, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 

 Vol. 34, page 361). The deeper swamp is like the alluvial bay 

 except that the surface is under water for a good part of the 

 year. The bays are not subject to inundation and scouring from 

 stream freshets as the deeper swamps are, and in the effect on 

 vegetation this is perhaps the most significant difference between 

 them. 



6th — Streams and Ponds. 



Here the vegetation is aquatic and is either free floating or 

 attached to the muddy or sandy bottom. 



It will be best to take up the plant covering of each of these 

 types in turn. 



VEGETATION. 



The Sand Hills. 



The covering of these hills is a thin open forest of two stories — 

 the upper one of long-leaf pine (Pinus palustris) towering high 

 above the scrubby growth below. In the original condition the 

 pines were moderately close, but not enough so as to cast a dense 

 shade. These magnificent trees extend their spreading crowns at 

 an altitude of 75 to 100 feet and seem more sure of themselves and 

 more in character here than in any other place. And in reality it 

 is only in these barren hills that the long-leaf pine is holding its 

 own against the constant encroachment of the old-field pine that 

 now seriously threatens its supremacy in all other parts of the 

 coastal plain. For many years all the destructive powers of man 

 have been waged against this most admirable natural product of 

 the Southern States, until now there is scarcely anywhere to be 

 found an undisturbed fragment of the original sand hill forest. 

 The pines have been boxed and burned and cut for sawing until 

 they are now only thinly scattered over the hills. But fortun- 



