THE LONG-LEAF PINE REGION. 
69 
except an occasional motte of live-oak, and in the silt prairies a few 
long leaf pines. 
In fertility the soils vary greatly, the black prairie being quite fer- 
tile; the others are less so, but none are very extensively cultivated. 
The whole region is thinly settled. 
The soils are derived from the clays and other sediments of the Port 
Hudson group, which also yield the soils of the alluvial region of the 
rivers above mentioned. 
The silt prairies are usually ill-drained and little cultivated. 
A strip of this kind of laud lies between the Arkansas and White 
Rivers, in the State of Arkansas. 
b. Savannas and prairies of Florida. — These are treeless regions, low- 
lying and nearly level. The prairies are clothed with a carpet of grass 
and make the best pasture lands ; the savannas are usually covered 
during a great part of the year with water, and present the appearance 
of grassy lakes. The Florida everglades consist of a labyrinth of 
marshes and savannas, intersected by extensive lagoons and lakes. 
Xone of these are of importance in cotton cultivation, except that 
upon some of the prairies the sea-island or long staple cotton is produced 
to a limited extent. 
c. The gypsum lawls and staked plain of Texas and the Indian Xation. — 
The gypsum lands are slightly rolling, with red loam soils, and are 
almost destitute of timber. The plain is interspersed with hills in which 
heavy beds of red clay and gypsum appear. 
The llano estacado and table lands of Texas are in all probability of 
Cretaceous age, since the Hot ten limestone with its characteristic fossils 
appears in the deep canons of the south. This plain is very nearly level, 
devoid of trees, and almost of water and grass, with some prominent 
sand hills or dunes along the north of the region, and also on the east 
of the Pecos "River. 
in addition to the above, the western portion of the red loam region of 
Arkansas, Indian Territory, and Texas, which rests upon the Carboni- 
ferous formation, assumes the characters of a prairie. See further under 
"Red loam region (G)." 
3. THE LONG-LEAF PINE REGION. 
This division occupies a belt of width varying from 75 to 150 miles, 
and extending from eastern Texas to Virginia aloug the Gulf and 
Atlantic coasts. 
Its two most prominent subdivisions are based upon the proportions 
existing between the long-leaf pine and the upland oaks among the J im 
ber trees. These subdivisions are — 
a. The long-leaf pine hills and flats; 
b. The oak and hickory uplands with long-leaf pine; 
c. The hammocks of Florida, shell prairies, lime hills, and red lime 
lands of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. 
