22 



SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 



iiiciit of the Interior. The lenoth of time required for 

 eno'raving' these detailed forest maps makes it impossible 

 to issue them as a part of the present report, but copies 

 of them in manuscript form are meaiiwhih^ avaihible for 

 examination at the Department of Agriculture and the 

 Geological Surve3\ The distribution of these forests and 

 the approximate relative proportion of the forest-covered 

 and the cleared lands are indicated by the oeneralized map 

 (PI. XII). The scattered cleared fields on the mountain 

 slopes are so small that it is impossible to indicate them 

 on a map of this scale, and hence onl}^ the larger clearings, 

 mainly those along the valleys, are shown. 



Considering the forests of the region as a whole, there 

 is a striking uniformity about their general features, espe- 

 cially in the valle3^s and along the lower slopes, and yet 

 everywhere there is varietj^ This fact is well illustrated 

 by the list (on p. 93) of 137 species of ti-ees and a still longer 

 list of shrubs growing in this mountain region. 



The forests on the southeasterly slopes are usually less 

 striking, both in size of trees and density of growth, than 

 those on the northwest, and they are usuall}' more damaged 

 b}^ forest tires, because the slopes are steeper and are kept 

 Variations in drier by their more direct exposure to the sun. The 



forests on south- • i i • 



ernaud northern neighboring lorests on the northern and western slopes 



slopes. 1.1 , P . , . . . 



and in the westerly facing coves exhibit a greater variety 

 of vegetation, a denser growth, and finer specimens of 

 individual trees, because they have not only greater mois- 

 ture, but greater depth and fertilitj" of soil. Both are pro- 

 tected by the humus which covers the surface and which 

 contributes directly to the luxuriance of this growth. It 

 is in such situations that we find the best examples of the 

 superb hard-wood forests which abound in this region — the 

 finest on the continent. (See PI. XIII.) 

 xo7ests'^*d?l to greatest variations in these mountain forests 



elevation. ^^.g observed in connection with the differences in eleva- 

 tion. Thus along the southern foothills of the Appala- 

 chians in Georgia one finds occasionalh' scattered colonies 

 of the loblolly and long-leaf pines, trees which are charac^ 

 teristic of the South Atlantic and Gulf coast region, inter- 

 mingling with the tj'pical hard-wood forests of the Pied- 

 mont Plateau and of the lower mountain slopes. (See PI. 

 XIV.) At the eastern foot of the Blue Ridge, in North 

 Carolina, the typical flora of the Piedmont Plateau abounds, 

 and follows up the river gorges into the mountain val- 

 le^'^s, where it associates with more characteristicallj^ Ap- 



