OF ARKANSAS. 327 



tridentata, Engl. By the form of its leaves and the small size of the tree, 

 this variety would appear as a true species, were it not that westward and 

 in coming to the sandstone it is seen passing by and by into its normal 

 form. The trees become larger, and the three-pointed leaves remain still 

 upon the lowest branches of the tree, while higher up, the other leaves are 

 cut into from four to six long narrow divisions. On the Hickory barrens 

 the trees are generally of a small size, and the forests without underwood, 

 — a phenomenon which may be caused either by the hardness of the rock, 

 which cannot be easily penetrated by the roots, or by fire, which ought to 

 be active on such a rocky light soil. 



Between these low cherty ridges the flats or bottoms along the creeks 

 are mostly half prairies, covered with Shrubs, Greenbriers, Indian Currant 

 (in abundance), two species of Sumach, the Kinnikinnik, and the Sassafras. 

 The soil is black, deep, somewhat cold, and clayey (a character showing 

 the nature of its formation by water), and apparently less fertile than the 

 soil of the slopes. It produces, on an average, forty to fifty bushels of 

 corn, and is too compact, too strong for wheat. As these half prairies form 

 the banks of streams, of which the beds are generally deeply cut, it would 

 be easy to drain them, and thus they would be better for agricultural pur- 

 poses than the upper Mulatto land, because they are formed of the same 

 rocks, have the same elements, and have also a far greater nutritive 

 power. 



Between Salem and Benetz Bayou the Subcarboniferous Sandstone crops 

 out and constitutes some hills. Its vegetation shows a difference first in 

 the size of the trees, which become larger and of a more healthy growth. 

 With the Mockernut, the Black Jack and the Post Oak in the most bar- 

 ren places this sandstone has the Chincapin or Dwarf Chestnut, which 

 sometimes descends the declivities to the base of the hills ; upon the 

 gentle slopes the Black, the Bed, the Scarlet, the White and the Spanish 

 Oak (this last becoming of great size), and the Black Gum which does 

 not like the limestone. The underwood is pretty thick in places, formed 

 of Sumach, Hazel, and especially of the Fackleberry, also a species charac- 

 teristic of the sandstone. Where the underwood is wanting, three or four 

 species of Bush Clover, a beautiful Blue Gentian (Gentiana puberula), three 

 species of Gerardia, some Asters, especially Diplopappus Unariifolius, and 

 the Dittany, all, except the last, showy and richly-colored flowers, clothe 

 the rocky ground. 



Though this sandstone is more favorable for the vegetation of trees than 

 the cherty limestone, the agricultural value of the soil derived from it i^ 

 far from being as great. The decomposed parts of the rocks, though pul- 

 verized and mixed with the decayed remains of plants, preserve their 

 nature of sand. Sand being too permeable to water and too dry, the 

 decayed plants scarcely arrive at a point of fermentation necessary to trans- 



