Carolinian Area or Flora
“A line drawn from the northwestern corner of the State to the lower part of Lee County, crossing the Coosa Valley near Childersburg, makes the limit of the highlands having an average elevation of 800 feet above sea level (E. A. Smith). This line coincides approximately with the isothermal line of 60 deg F., and may be regarded as the boundary in Alabama of the Upper and Lower Austral zones, therefore of the Carolinian and Austroriparian or Louisianian areas. It winds its way from northwest to southeast and southward to the “fall line.”‘ Accepting this zonal line, a botanical limit is gained, northward of which is found a flora different in character from that to the southward, generally described as the flora of the great Central Mississippi Valley, and distinguished by the feeble representation, if not total absence, of the subtropical element and the exclusive prevalence of deciduous forests. Various shrubs and trees coincide in their limits of northern and southern distribution closely with this boundary line, and serve as unerring guides in pointing out its course. Such truly zonal plants are:
Pinus virginiana (scrub [Virginia] pine), Prunus americana (American plum), Quercus acuminata [Q. muehlenbergii] (yellow bark chestnut oak) [Chinquapin oak], Azalea [Rhododendron] arborescens (sweet-scented azalea), Stuartia pentagyna [Stewartia malecodendron] (fringed stuartia) [silky camellia], Quercus prinus [Quercus montana] (mountain [chestnut] oak). Butneria fertilis (mountain spicewood or smooth Calycanthus) [Calycanthus floridus (Sweetshrub)], Quercus coccinea (scarlet oak), Quercus rubra (red oak), Rhus aromatica (aromatic sumac), Acer leucoderme (white-bark sugar maple) [chalk maple], Adelia [Forestiera] ligustrina (southern [glade] privet).
These all find in Alabama their southern limit on this line. Although the vegetation of the Carolinian area presents in its broad features great uniformity, particularly in its tree growth, there exist in its range of nine degrees of latitude differences in the latitudinal distribution of heat, which necessarily affect the distribution of plants within its limits and present insurmountable obstacles to the extension of a number of species northward. Due to this temperature element, there is a most pronounced limit beyond which the successful cultivation of the cotton crop can not be pushed, and which also presents a barrier to several trees and a number of other plants of Southern distribution that are only rarely met farther north, as for example, the willow oak (Quercus phellos), loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) and cane (Arundinaria macrosperma [gigantea]). This line, roughly extending from the Atlantic Coast at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay westward to southwestern Missouri and northern Arkansas, was located by Gray along latitude 30 deg 36′, and by him was regarded as the line of separation between the two principal floral divisions of eastern North America, namely, the flora of the northern United States and Canada and the flora of the Southern States. In Alabama it is only this lower belt of the Carolinian area, embracing the mountain region and the lower hills with which we are concerned.”
From the Plant Life of Alabama by Charles Mohr (1901) pp 57-58
Interior Plateau
“Prominent travelers like DeToqueville and landscape architects, like Jens Jensen, have pronounced the Tennessee Valley one of the most picturesque and charming regions of the world.”
From A History of Alabama and Her People by Albert Burton Moore, p. 2
Context note: This early description of North Alabama and the Interior Plateau includes historical language from a historic source. I have updated some of the language to ensure it does not offend present-day readers and residents of North Alabama. The language is irrelevant to the underlying ecological descriptions and natural history, which is the main focus of this piece. The text is difficult to read in places, so I am reproducing it to the best of my ability. I have added punctuation and paragraph indents to aid in readability.
This fascinating piece includes early descriptions of the area from a settler who arrived in Madison County, Alabama, with his family about 1810.
“I was born in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, in the year 1801, two miles from Lexington. My father was a native of Virginia and a soldier in the War of Independence. He entered the army in his 17th year and was first under fire at the Battle of Furimoth(?) [sic]. This battle was fought on one of the hottest days on record, and my father said that after the battle, many of the British were found dead on the field without any wound. He came to South Carolina in Light Horse, Harry Lee’s command, and participated in the many battles and skirmishes ending in the occupation, and in the close of the war had risen to the rank of Lieutenant of a cavalry company. He was in the disastrous charge at Bridge, where owing to misdirection of orders, the advance was not supported and out of twenty, only five made good their retreat, all the others being killed or captured. Twenty years afterwards, he and my father met at a horse race in Lexington and renewed their acquaintance under more favorable auspices. Coming southward at the close of the revolution, my father settled at Lexington, then near the Chickasaw frontier, where he married a Miss Jennings, a member of a prominent Georgian family, and as there was continual ill feeling between the Cherokees and whites, a scouting company was ordered, which my father commanded for over ten years.
The Georgians had suffered severely from [Native American] hostilities, and for many years through this tribe bore ostensibly peaceful relations toward the federal government, yet there was a constant…[unreadable] warfare waged between them and the white pioneers. The [Native Americans] stealing and occasionally massacring, and the whites retaliating with tenfold severity. Occasionally horses would be stolen, a house burned and its occupants murdered and taken captive, then would follow a sudden raid into the [Native American] country, captive frequently being rescued, towns burned and [Native Americans] indiscriminately slaughtered.
My first recollections are of a double log house near a pine forest, a large cleared field adjoining [and] cultivated by [African American] slaves. In summer a table of pine slabs was set in the yard between the dwelling house and cabin; around this near sunset gathered my six older brothers and my older sister, tall lithe and graceful as a fawn, while my mother with her kind, loving face sat at the head of the table with my three-year-old sister at her knees and my baby brother in her arms. My father who then was approaching middle age was frequently absent or was detained by business until we small children had retired to repose. The [Native Americans] by this time had been gradually forced back towards the mountains, and Lexington was no longer on the frontier. Yet there were scores of old soldiers of the revolution and veterans of the [Native American] wars in the country. And on the long winter evenings, they gather around each others’ hearths and fight their old battles again. Many were the marvelous tales of peril and adventure and of hardship that we listened to with greedy ears and glowing faces.
Our country was a veritable land of plenty; the woods were full of game and the rivers of fish, and cattle and sheep and swine fairly swarmed in the woods. We very seldom had wheat and bread, but we had Indian corn in greatest abundance from where food of endless variety was prepared. I didn’t think any cotton was raised, but we had linsey and jeans and every family had its flax wheel and a little patch of flax, and then we had plenty of buckskin – the never failing resource of the backwoods man. But this country was growing too thickly settled for the typical pioneer, and my father belonged to that class, so in the year 1806 with his wife and his nine children and about a dozen [African Americans], he loaded up his wagons and pack horses [and] he set his face westward.
My father and his two oldest sons rode in front, followed by our two wagons with their [African American] drivers; then came my mother and the two younger children on pack horses, followed by [African American] women and children and some on foot and some horseback, while two of my brothers, sixteen and eighteen years of age with a trusty [African American] servant brought up the rear.
We traveled for about 15 miles per day over roads not well opened and frequently had to cut timber out of the road to fill up excavations. And camping by the side of swollen streams to await patiently for them to subside. We occasionally passed through or near [Native American] villages and my father being well up in the Cherokee tongue was hospitably welcomed and entertained. After we got out of Oglethorpe County, we saw no more white people until we came to what is now Murfreesboro [TN] on [the] Duck River, where we found a few white settlers [and] a grist mill in course of erection. We had left Georgia about the first of March and it was now near the first of April. My father had for many years desired to go to the great bend of the Tennessee, so tarrying on [the] Duck River just long enough to lay on a month’s supply of bread and salt, he turned southward and traveled steadily for about a week.
And one fine spring evening, we came to [the] Elk River. The stream was clear and the adjoining land fertile, and near at hand was a bold clear stream pouring its swift waters into the main stream. We skirted along this stream for near two miles northward, when we came to a low limestone ridge from which the stream rose in the form of a fine, bold spray gushing from the face of the rock. Here we rested for the night; our tents were erected near the spring and when I arose [the] next morning a little after sunrise, the [African Americans] were dressing a fine venison my father had shot, and a large rattlesnake was suspended from the limb of a spreading beech tree near the camp. The day was devoted to an exploration of the country and everyone pronounced it a goodly land, and on the third morning the sound of the maul and ax, the crash of the falling timber arose the echoes[?] over the walls of a log cabin began to arise the ridge pole and pieces were put on board river from the heart of white oak covered it, from small logs split in the middle floored it. A chimney was built of split sticks and the white family moved in.
The [African Americans] at first slept under the trees, the weather very warm and pleasant. Night was hideous with the wailing of whipperwills, hooting of owls and screaming of wildcats and howling of wolves. In the morning day was heralded by the song of mocking birds and thrush, the cawing of crows and the gobbling of wild turkeys in the tall tree tops, all nature was animated and the forests and streams seemed dense and populated by beast and bird, flesh and fowl, everything except man. Our family was alone and for months we had no visitors. This region did not appear to have been intruded on even by the [Native Americans]. The [Native Americans] had no traces of settlement in the neighborhood. We had dropped into the midst of an immense hunting ground with no one to molest or make afraid. We lived from the forest and with an occasional pilgrimage to Murfreesboro the year was passed by our family in a state of complete isolation from the world. A large corn patch had been cleared up, and corn was planted in holes with a hoe among the stumps and roots, and bread was raised in more than sufficient quantity for the coming season. The Indian corn on these fresh virgin lands grew to a height of twelve or thirteen feet, and produced two or three dozen ears per stalk.
We were a mile from Elk River and the little creek on whose banks we settled still bears the name bestowed upon it by my father. We had been located here for a year and were in the midst of plenty. We had no sickness. During the year we had made enough corn for bread. We had made two hominy mortars by burning holes in the ends of two large hickory blocks and we worked the pestles with sweeps and in this way obtained very good bread. The wood furnished an endless variety of treats(?), and when winter came we started a sugar camp in the hills where the sugar maple stood thickest and made a considerable quantity of sugar and molasses. We had to bring salt from Nashville. And at the close of the year, a road was blazed out all the way, and as there was no other wide blazed road, no frontiersman could mistake the way. This was an agreeable experience after the solitude of the preceding year, and among the number were some of our own relatives who followed our footsteps from Georgia who received a warm welcome. But in a year or two, old hunters began to tell of a country still further south down toward the great Tennessee River. They reported this country to be of unexampled fertility, well watered by many streams flowing south, clear and sparkling as the Elk River itself, and one or two adventurous hunters reported that they followed these streams southward until they had all merged into the one strong, clear and rapid little river that they called Flint, and when they came to the junction of the two larger streams they found a well derived(?) path leading from it through thickets and canebreaks toward the mountains that could be seen in the distance. As night approached, they had reached the foot of the mountain and encamped near a spring. Next morning they ascended the mountain which was covered in leaf timber and from a cliff looked down on a vast swampy sequin(?) with water gleaming in the distance. They tread southward ascending as they went until just before reaching the mountain summit they came to a spring in a dark mountain gorge with waters of icy coldness, and skirting the mountain top they followed a sinuous mountain ridge covered with a heavy growth of cedar that shut from their view the surrounding country as they descended. Presently the cedar gave place to a magnificent oak and poplar growth and they knew they were at the mountain’s base, yet they found swamps and marshes on either side, and on the north side was a long dark ravine at the foot of almost perpendicular cliff and presently a round knoll covered with oak and cedar and rising some thirty or forty feet above the general level and skirting round its western side they stood on a perpendicular cliff of limestone from the foot of which issued a large stream of water that spread over the swampy country below.
Soon there was considerable inquiry concerning the new and wonderful region to which our hunters had penetrated, and my father began to talk of moving further south. We had been living on Elk River now for three or four years, and the settlements were gradually extending southward over from the new land just purchased from the [Native Americans] in Mississippi territory. My father and his boys and [African Americans] had cleared and cultivated some twenty acres mostly in corn and pumpkins, though we had a little flax patch and my mother had a flax wheel or two which was generally kept in motion. By this time a mill fall was built on Elk near the mouth of the little creek on which my father settled. At the time of which I speak, the creek was carried in a race to the highbank of the creek, and its waters projected against and over a hot wheel. The building was a mere shed to protect the works and grist from the weather. The works were crude in character, and the stones had been quarried from the adjacent mountains on highlands, but still crude though it was in character, yet it supplied the neighborhood.
Occasionally were seen the pack of horses of settlers from beyond the line in Mississippi Territory, and they attracted so much attention from our little community as a traveler from the Antipodes would now command. These tall, stalwart men in buckskin clothing were enthusiastic in the praise of the new country beyond the state line, and while a large number of settlers were pouring into the Elk River country, a considerable number of old pioneers were going further south. One reason for immigration was that Tennessee was a state and was extending its “larate” [sic] over its new settlements when in 1806-7 the [Native Americans] relinquished the vast triangle to the United States the base of which extended from the highlands and headwaters of Elk to the mouth of Elk River and whose apex was 100 miles southward on Chickasaw Island in [the] Tennessee River. There was a heavy migration southward and a little tavern began to spring up at Winchester. Many of the pioneers had spent the larger portion of their lives on the frontiers of civilization, and laws and regulations of settled communities was somewhat irksome. While they were naturally peaceable and orderly, yet habit had made them fond of old pioneer law that usually had been potent for the preservation of order in their communities, and when law was extended over them, generally declined appointments involving administration of the laws and held themselves aloof from the courts. Then by traveling a dozen milesm they could pass beyond the jurisdiction of state authority, [and] it did not take long for many of them to cross over the state line.
By this time a road had been blazed out from the old town of Winchester through the heavy forests to the state line near New Market, and this formed part of the great highway westward through Alabama and Mississippi to Natchez – the then capital of Mississippi territory. The reasons that somewhat retarded emigration induced my father to emigrate further south. The Chickasaws had generally been very friendly to the settlers but the settlers hated the Cherokees and their hatred was fully reciprocated. About this time the air was full of rumors of a general [Native American] war, and my father who had fought the Cherokees for some twelve or fifteen years felt the old war fire reviving and came down to Alabama in order to be in view of the battle, should hostilities actually commence. So in the Spring of the year 1820(?), he sold his improvement on Elk river and came southward down the newly cut road until he struck Flint River at old Brownsboro where there was a considerable colony of old friends who had preceded him, and who at that time formed the extreme southern settlement in the county east of the mountains. At this time a considerable village was forming at Huntsville’s Big Spring known as the town of Twickingham, and my father settled on a high hill north of Brownsboro. A horse path leading from Brownsboro to Huntsville had been made on the south boundary of the section lines from Flint River to Huntsville. The lands had been surveyed the year before and the settlers could follow the newly blazed section to the mountain from which to Huntsville a road was blazed out nearby on the line of the present Belle Fort road, but many years passed before a wagon road was opened.
All the people who lived on Flint drove wagons to town [and] went up the river to the old Winchester road, crossing the river to the factory then known as Woods Mill. On the west side of the river they skirted round the mountain through the open woods through the Mastin farm and round by the Green Bottom Inn just opened by John Connolly, a famous sportsman and prominent man in his day. Horton’s mill above the three forks and Brown’s mill half a mile west of old Brownsboro had not been built and our grinding was done at Huntsville at a mill put up west of town by John and William Bedlum. I being one of the younger boys officiated as a mill boy at first accompanied by an older brother or a[n African American] man or boy, but as I grew older I frequently made the trip alone. Men now living in this country can have but little conception of the richness and beauty of the region between Brownsboro and Huntsville. With the exception of the mountain spur now known as Cedar Ridge and then covered with a thick grove of stately cedars, it was one continued grove of magnificent poplar interspersed in the lowland with oak, walnut and hickory. It was a case of the survival of the fittest for there was little or no undergrowth and the forest titans had reserved so much space for light and ventilation, they were not frustrated by storms. Wagons could be easily driven anywhere over the woods, and in riding through the beautiful open forest, a door on the sun could be seen for a quarter of a mile away through the forest avenues. Roads then were not so necessary as at present when the undergrowth prevents driving and frequently riding through the forests.
The mountain was rather difficult especially on the eastern side. The path wound among low jagged cliffs of limestone and it took experienced steering at some points to prevent our meal bags from coming in rude contact with the sharp rocks looming up on each side of the trail. At this time little impression had been made on the unbroken forest east of the mountain, there was a house on the Nichols spring near cedar ridge and some two or three along the base of Monte Sano near the cool sparkling springs on the south side of the Moore plantation. From Huntsville to the Mountaintop was one unbroken forest with small clearings made south of the road one by Moses Vincount at Underwoods and another near the old Calhoun quarters. There was a few struggling log cabins on the path from Steels corner out as far as the Fleming place, and several new houses among the trees from Holmes street down Green street towards the pike from Steels Corner the road wound round a large pond where the water stayed all summer and which was full of green briars, old stumps and logs to where the ground began to rise into a considerable knoll where the courthouse stands. Here stood at that time a little frame building used as a courthouse and another north of it for a jail which in a year or two were replaced by brick buildings which were a source of wonder to the young natives. In the crowd was generally some older person who could put up rocks for unfortunate boys who were dragged off by the rocks or saplings or needles and thread also were forthcoming for repairs in case of damage.
We generally started at sunrise or before and reached our destination in two or three hours and as we tarried until all had obtained their grist, we reached home near night fall; thus we managed to spend the greater part of the day in town, and no exposition of the present civilized period ever delighted our souls as did the wonders of the now and growing little city. We wandered round the spring cliff and waded in the wide and sluggish waters in the swamp below. Somebody had started a tanyard just below the spring at the foot of the hill and making of leather was a new revelation to us. Then came the brickyard and bricklaying and the carpenters and masons at work, and there was also a cotton gin run by Dr. Moore and a distillary above the mill run by James Clemons; as evening approached we set out in time to reach home before night fall and turning around the cedar ridge and circling round the point we would frequently hear the scream of the catamounts that infested rough and honey combed rocks covering the upper ridge and listened to many blood curdling stories of adventurous hunters, who had encountered wild beast in their wild and difficult lairs up in the black cedar groves.”
From The History of Madison County, Alabama by Thomas Jones Taylor, pp. 116-126
“Everybody lived in log houses of various grades from the humble cabin daubed with clay to the hewed log house with plank door, shingle roof, the rocks chinked and finished off or pointed with lime. Lumber was all sawn at saw mills by hand, and it was a serious task to saw out the planks for a first class dwelling. For the accommodations of my father’s large family, he built a square log house about 20 feet square with a side room. The floors were made of white ash plank sawn at saw pits by hand and covered with chestnut shingles and stood without being re-covered for near 50 years. The kitchen and smoke house and [African American] cabins were rude log cabins daubed with clay and several of them with dirt floors.
East of the house [in Brownsboro, AL] was a sluice or lagoon with many springs running with it and some boiling up from its bottom. The water in this lagoon was clear and cold with tuberoses growing in the streams and along its borders. It was always swarming with fish and a haul or two with a seine generally supplied both white and black with an awful supply of fine fish. From this sluice to the river was a body of rich bottomland covered with tall grown trees over topping the heavy cane break that covered the entire surface. The road from Huntsville skirted the hills and crossed the river half a mile above old Brownsboro and a thick grove of peach extended down the river on its eastern side. Small game was abundant and occassionally bears and wolves were slain in the river bottoms and catamounts and panthers in the mountains. … So every spring there was a new ground of several acres to be grubbed and the brush and logs piled and on the cane break part was planted and cultivated with hoe alone. … The soil was wonderfully fertile, the seasons regular and a failure in crops was unknown. Our hogs and cattle kept fat all the year round in the cane breaks, and a little corn fed to the hogs in the fall made plenty of fine pork for the whole year.” pp. 127-128
CLEARING THE LAND
“When our forefathers came to this county it was covered everywhere with a magnificent forest. The trees were generally of the largest of their species; the poplar or lime tree were exceptionally numerous and large and were found in perfection on the best soil. To remove the primitive forests or deaden them was a task of no little magnitude. To cut down and remove the trees from the land was impossible, and they were girdled round their trunks. The best time to effectively perform this task was in August and September, as when girdled at this period their vitality was effectually destroyed, the leaves fell off and were not renewed, and if fenced before spring, the crops were planted. But the first year it was not expected that they would produce a good crop as the trees stood so thick that they took a great deal of the tillable land, and their roots made thorough culture impossible. Besides, when spring opened, the undergrowth shot up in the rich soil, and the sprouts were removed with the old fashioned grubbing hoe or mattock that differed from it in having a blade for chopping on [the] upper end of the implement. Plowing among the roots was very unpleasant and slow business and the word “grub” was a synonym for the hardest of all kinds of manual labor. As a general rule, for the first 2 or 3 years the farms had to be grubbed over acre by acre, by which time the sprouts and the roots near the surface were gotten rid of and the plowing was less difficult. But about the second year, the small branches of the girdled trees began to fall, covering during the winter the surface with their debris, which had to be gathered and burnt in the spring before planting commenced.
Then the less durable timber began to decay and prostrated by the winter gales and had to be cut off, piled and burned before plowing could be done. At first this task was not so great as the smaller trees and limbs from larger ones could be easily handled, but when in course of time, the big hickory and oak and poplar soon began to tumble, the matter grew serious and involved a month or six weeks arduous labor. On large plantations where there was an adequate force of stout men and stouter oxen, the work was done by the hands on the plantation, but in a region of small farms, a cooperative system was introduced, and what was termed “log rolling” became the order of the day. In the first place, the owner of the field cut notches on the large logs at intervals of about ten feet and started a fire on each notch, and when the fire had well enough caught, he laid a large dry limb across the notch, which caught and burned until it fell in half on each side of the log. Morning and evening the logs were mounded(?) up, the burned and divided fragments were piled up and placed in the increasing gap made by the fire, and as the fire gnawed deeper, filling it up with combustible material until it cut the log in two, which was sometimes done as smoothly as if with a saw. Generally, the hickory, once fairly ignited, burned up root and branch, but the oak and poplar burned into cuts sometimes ten or a dozen to a tree. Generally, in favorable weather it took about a week to burn off the logs and just before log rolling day, the farmer went over the ground with his axe and cut off logs the fire had missed. As a rule, each farmer had one or two log rollings in spring, but he expected the help of all his neighbors and had to help them, so he calculated to spend 3 or 4 weeks in the business. There was generally an understanding on what day each man was to have his logrolling to prevent confusion in the work, and there was frequently a working force of forty or fifty stalwart men on the ground. They would go to the large trees and turn the second cut from the root at right angles and cut two or three others and roll them alongside as a base to the log heap and prying up the others, they would insert their long, strong dogwood hand spikes until they rested on as many as the length allowed, and then with a man at each end of every stick, the word would be given, the log would rise, and they would walk to the longheap with it. The men next [to] the long heap would place the ends of the stick upon it [and] go over to the other side, and the united strength of the whole party would elevate the hand sticks and slice the log to its place. Thus the work would go on in a marvelously short space of time; the heap would be completed by piling on the heavier part of the tree top. The portions the owner could handle were not touched as the object was to pile up the logs he could not lift, and they generally had no time to lose, except an hour at noon they generally worked until sundown or till the logs were all rolled, and the host expected them to remain until after supper even when there was no frolic or dance to detain them. …
The loads these men carried on their hand spikes was astonishing; sometimes the logs would be so large that a man could not see across it, and to a bystander on either side, it looked as if the huge log was crawling off with a single row of men walking on one side. Like all other feats of strength, there was a peculiar sleight in grasping the stick in carrying the body and in walking with the huge load, and the phrase to “tote fair” originated in the necessity of an equal division of the handspike under the log as between men of nearly equal strength two or three inches in the divide of the handspike made a huge difference in weight, each had to carry and where a strong man matched with a weaker one, the strong man’s end of the stick was shortened in due proportion. In a space of 2 or 3 weeks, the logs in the fields for miles around would be piled in vast heaps and set on fire, and at night, the whole neighborhood would be illuminated. …
Then [in April] there was another danger to meet, the sap part of the decayed trees got dry and burned like timber. Sometimes the wind would rise and sparks from the log heaps would catch and set the dead forest on fire, and the farmers would have to fight for their fences amid the fire and smoke and blazing branches from the falling trees; sometimes 30 or 40 acres would be on fire, and the whole neighborhood would come to the rescue. A blazing branch or a burning trunk would fall on the fence; the men would hasten to the point of danger and scatter the fence rails to the right and left out of reach of the flames. Then would come the cry “the fence is on fire” from some watchful sentinel, then a rush to the place and tearing down the fence and removing the rails, and so it would be kept up until the fire died out for want of fuel. The heavy forests on the mountains and near the fields would drop a heavy covering of leaves in the fall and winter, and they becoming dry in the spring accidentally would be set on fire. The fire would probably start on the mountains; night after night the fire would appear longer and wider, the wind would rise and it would get among the canebreaks, and the popping of the cane would sound like the skirmish line of opposing armies. The farmers would be set up in arms against it. They would clear land(?) lines round their fences and set them on fire in long continuous lines on the side next to the forest; soon the slower line of flames would be met by the faster, the flame would shoot up for a moment and then die out along the whole line, and the farmers with a sigh of relief would go to their homes to snatch a few hours of repose to fit them for the arduous labors of the approaching day. …
It generally was 7 or 8 years before the land was cleared generally of timber. The oak and poplar trees generally lingered longest and were sometimes destroyed by fire as they stood. While the falling and removal of the forest involved a vast amount of labor and no little injury annually to the growing crops, yet it is maintained that the mass of rubbish falling from the trees contributed materially to keeping up the land. The value of timber destroyed by fire in clearing our land is immense, and if on the land today would be quadruple in value of the lands at the highest figure they ever reached, and it is unfortunate for the country that the poorer shoals had not been left in timber as the value of the lands could be greatly enhanced thereby. Timber at that time was of little or no value and as far as could be foreseen, the supply seemed inexhaustible. Our county has reached its crowning point of agricultural prosperity about the year 1850 when pretty well all the available lands on the old farms had been cleared up and put into cultivation, and at that period very little cleared land was lying idle.
But in the nearer portions of the county, especially on Flint and Paint Rock, the river lands once considered of very little value have been cleared since the war and is the main reliance of those parts of the county for corn and grain. While the disappearance of the timber from the fields has rendered them more liable to the washing of the heavy rains, and they have greatly depreciated in producing fewer(?), the county is undeniably healthier. There is less deposit of vegetation matter in the sloughs for creation of miasma, and many noxious lands and bayous have filled up and are in cultivation. There is less obstruction of the creeks and rivers, and the drainage of the country is materially improved. But with the diminution of the forest area, the seasons have become more uncertain, the rainfall decreased and droughts more frequent. Many fine springs which 40 or 50 years ago furnished water the year round have either totally disappeared or run for part of the season only. Nearly all of our lands that are worth cultivating have cleared and a considerable area of the older lands turned out as worthless. While as a rule we have sufficiency of timber for fuel, yet good timber for fencing and bailing is growing scarce. The worn out lands in the country ought to be planted in good timber plants and taken care of until the saplings could take care of themselves. A country shorn of its timber is likely to become a desert, and there is no greater benefit we could confer on coming generations than the inauguration of timber culture. The timber on land is its most valuable production, and its destruction ought to be stopped, and its area extended. The western prairies when 30 years ago a stick of timber could not be seen for miles now have extended areas of young forests planted by the present generation that will soon be sufficient for ordinary purposes, and it is our task not to remedy the evils of a timber famine when it is upon us but to prevent it by taking measures to preserve the present supply as well as to utilize our worn out fields by making them the source of future supplies.”
From The History of Madison County, Alabama by Thomas Jones Taylor, pp. 66-70
“After some years of prosperity, his [William Watkins] imagination was inflamed by accounts of the great fertility of Maury county, Tennessee; and he moved to that county, and, at length, when his relatives began to settle in North Alabama, he moved to Madison county, about 1819; a poorer man than when he left Georgia. He had been worsted in his encounter with the tall, thickly heavy timber of Tennessee. The farmers had not learned to girdle the timber, let it die, cut down the cane, and then at some dry time, set fire to it, and when everything is as hot as an oven, the burning is complete. Such a conflagration where thousands of canes heated by the fire are exploding every minute, resembles a battle of musketry. The settlers didn’t know, or had not time to wait for this process. William Watkins encountered the forest in the “green tree,” and not in the “dry,” and was badly defeated.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 236
LAWRENCE COUNTY & MOULTON VALLEY
“Alabama, dusky maiden – lovely Pocahontas among her sister states – stepping out from the dawn, now beckoned evermore the weary emigrant to her “Happy Valley,” where the silver Tennessee trailed its sparkling waters past wooded islands, and laughing shoals, ever crowned by the great forest monarchs!”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 7
“The country of the Cherokees was described by the early historians as the most beautiful and romantic in the world; as abounding in delicious springs, fertile valleys, lovely rivers and lofty mountains; the woods full of game and the rivers of fish. But none of these early writers had ever seen the country about the Muscle Shoals, which was last settled and most highly valued by those [Native Americans]. The buffaloes roamed over the plains in countless numbers. As late as 1826, at the licks in this county, their paths, knee deep, radiated in every direction. In 1780, the small colony which made a crop of corn that year at Nashville, Tenn., had to leave three men to prevent the buffaloes from destroying the crop, whilst the rest returned to East Tennessee for their families. –(Guild’s “Old Times in Tennessee.)” Deer, wild turkeys and the smaller game continued abundant, even after the whites took possession of the country. As many as sixty deer were counted in a single herd. The Tennessee River and its effluents swarmed with fish, for there never was anywhere a better inland feeding ground for them than the Muscle Shoals. Its shallow waters stretch for fifteen miles along the channel, and spread out two or three miles wide, and produce a thick growth of aquatic plants (called moss), which come to the surface and sport the tips of their leaves on the swift, sparkling current. These plants, roots and leaves are freely eaten by fish, and wild fowls also. Of these last, swans [sic], wild geese and ducks (which annually visited their feeding ground in old times) the number was fabulous. Added to this, the bottom of the river was strewn with mussels and periwinkles, which are not only highly relished by the fish and fowl, but by the [Native Americans], who had them a sure provision against starvation in times of scarcity. I could well imagine that the last prayer of the Cherokee to the Great Spirit, when he was leaving this scene of beauty and abundance, would be that he might, when he opened his eyes in the next world, be permitted to see such another hunters’ paradise as this.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 34
“The Shoals are described as being at that time [1780] dreadful to behold. The river was swollen beyond its wont, the swift current running out in every direction from piles of driftwood which were heaped high upon the points of the islands. This deflection of the stream made a terrible roaring, which might be heard for many miles. At some places the boats dragged the bottom, while at others they were warped and tossed about on the waves as though in a rough sea.”
From The Early History of Middle Tennessee by Edward Albright, p. 64
“The inhabitants of our county are so familiar with it that they seem not to be aware that the county affords some of the finest scenery east of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Jefferson said there were men living within a half dozen miles of it who had never seen the Natural Bridge in Virginia. So it is here. The Tennessee River, in many parts of its course, presents scenes of uncommon beauty. Here is a river, tumbling with a dull roar, which can be heard for miles, over ledge after ledge of rocks, extending from bank to bank. Here are large islands, and sometimes an archipelago of small ones, with the branches of the trees trailing in the current. Here are rugged shores, deep shady nooks, cool springs, lofty precipices and ancient legends – all furnishing material for the pencil of the painter and the pen of the poet. Again, on the bluff side of the Little Mountain, all along, are scenes of great interest.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 38
“To enable the reader to understand the many local allusions I shall have to make in the course of these articles it will be necessary to speak of the physical features of this county. On the north, it is bounded by the Tennessee River, in that part of its course which includes all the Elk-River Shoals and nearly all of the Muscle Shoals. The
southern boundary rests on the northern rim (which is the highest part) of a chain of mountains, which runs across the state, from east to west. Our people have been in the habit of calling these the Warrior Mountains; but the state geologist, in his report of 1879, calls them the Sand Mountains, because they are so called farther-east; and we consider it best to adopt this designation. In this rim, which is several miles wide, the streams which, respectively, run south to the Gulf of Mexico, and north to the Tennessee River, take their rise; sometimes interlocking and forming narrow valleys or covers, of romantic beauty, in the bosom of towering mountains. These were settled as early as the two great valleys, by men who had been accustomed in the States from
which they emigrated to ice-cold springs, and rugged scenery. They are, generally, lonely and sequesterd..
The soil of the county when first settled by the whites, was warm, mellow and productive. Its foundation is the St. Louis or coral limestone, which was once the bed of a sea, and the rock is full of fossil shells, which indicate the fact clearly. This rock passes under the Little Mountain and forms the floor of both the Tennessee and Moulton valleys (Geo. Report 1879). The first-mentioned valley [Tennessee] was easily reduced to cultivation, for timber was thinly scattered over the surface, and was low and gnarled, owing to the annual fires kindled by the Indians to consume the tall grass.
In comparing the old soil, which we are now working, with the new, the great difference is, that we have lost, by fifty-seven years’ cultivation, one-half of the humus (or vegetable matter), one-half the potash, and wonderful to tell, 4/5s of the phosphoric acid (bone)!
The foundation of the Moulton Valley is the same as that of the Tennessee Valley. But there is this difference in the soil, that there is a large proportion of fine creek land in the Moulton Valley. Town and Big-Nance creeks and Flint river rise in this valley, and their head branches spreading wide furrows to the riches alluvion. The drawback to its maximum production has always been a lack of natural drainage. Individual efforts have done something to cause the surface water to pass off, but not enough.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, pp. 38-39
“It was well their [doctors] numbers were large, for thousands of acres of timber were killed by belting, and the trees were left to rot where they stood, and fall, limb by limb, to the ground, tainting the atmosphere with deadly
miasma. The consequence was, malarial epidemics, which carried off great numbers of the people.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 43
“Their home, sixty years ago, was on a lofty hill overlooking the Tennessee river, opposite Watkins’ Island, called “Tick Island” on the map. From its summit could be seen some for the finest scenery on the Muscle Shoals, and on its western slope a spring of pure, cool water, embowered by beech trees, bubbled up from the pebbles.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 254
TIMBER WEALTH
“More than one-half of Northern Alabama may still be classed as timber lands. In many sections of it there are unbroken forests of heavy timber of many square miles in extent that are as yet untouched by the woodman’s ax. These forests comprise, as has been stated, over 125 species of arborescent growth, and include in their heavy timber almost every kind of tree of any economical value. The prevailing timber, however, of most of these forests is yellow pine, though some of them are of the hardwoods, or of oak, hickory, gum, beech and cedar, with, in some localities, a considerable sprinkling of ash, poplar, cypress and walnut. The prevailing timber, however, of any one locality is closely dependent on the nature of the soil or the geological strata from which the soil is derived. So true is this, that the timber belts of the State closely correspond to the outcroppings of certain geological formations, and hence the different geological formations can frequently be recognized and mapped off, approximately, by their peculiar growth. In a general way, the prevailing timber is of hard woods over a calcareous or limey soil, and of the soft woods over a silicious or sandy soil. The prevailing timber, therefore, over the sandy plateaus is yellow pine, and in the limestone valleys, oak, hickory, etc.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated, p. 34
MADISON COUNTY
“Madison county, Alabama, is at the head of the famed Tennessee valley, and has an area of 872 square miles, with a frontage on the Tennessee river of thirty miles. The salubriousness of its climate, fertility of soil, abundance and purity of water, agricultural resources, beautiful, grand and picturesque scenery, educational advantages, cultured and refined society, and noted healthfulness, give it such substantial charms as to make it one of the most desirable sections for residence in the South. Madison is the banner county of the cereal belt. It leads all others in wealth and the production of cotton. The soils of the county vary, but generally are of the red clay subsoil. Its shape is almost square. The county is remarkably well watered, there being twelve creeks and rivers running through it from the north to south. These are Barren Fork. Indian, Prices’ Fork, Beaver Dam, Frier’s Fork, Mountain Fork, Hurricane, Aldridge, Limestone and Huntsville Spring creeks, and Flint and Paint Rock rivers. In the mountainous portion of the county, eastward, and on the Whitesburg pike to the Tennessee river south of Huntsville, are found farms which are devoted to raising-clover, small grain and stock with great success. This county occupies medium ground between the tropical and temperate producing regions, with many characteristics peculiar to both. Its soil yields cotton, but is most naturally adapted to the raising of grasses, grain, corn and stock..
The immense water power of this county, its abounding timber, and its splendid climate are attracting repeated accessions of population. Its various advantages are unequaled. No causes for local disease exist, and the elements of wealth are in close proximity. The timber is chiefly post, black, white, Spanish oaks, and beech, poplar and sugar maple. A world of the finest cedar is in the adjoining county of Jackson, through which the Memphis & Charleston Railroad runs. Labor is abundant and cheap. Lands are cheaper than anywhere in the South, considering their intrinsic value, though they are gradually increasing in value.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated, pp. 59-60
LIMESTONE COUNTY
The southern portion of the county exceeds in fertility that of the northern. The southern has a more uniform surface and is capitally adapted to the growth of all the cereals. The lands in this section are almost entirely cleared and are in a fine state of cultivation. The bottom lands which skirt the numerous streams are exceedingly fertile.
In many parts of the county are forests of timber in which are found hickory, poplar, chestnut, red and white oak, beech, maple, red and white gum, ash, walnut and cherry.
Along the southern border of the county runs the Tennessee river, several of the large tributaries of which penetrate the territory of Limestone. Elk river flows through the northwest, and at certain seasons is navigable for light crafts. This stream will be of vast local advantage when the obstructions are removed from the Tennessee. Big Poplar, Round Island, Swan, Piney, Limestone, and Beaver Dam creeks streak the county in every section with waters of perpetual flow. These are reinforced by many large springs in the mountain and hill regions. Mineral springs also exist and are said to be equal to any in the State. The streams abound in remarkably fine fish, vast quantities of which are caught every year.
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated, pp. 71
LAUDERDALE COUNTY
“..It has a diversity of soil, as is abundantly indicated in the variety of crops grown. In the northern portion of the county the surface is somewhat more uneven than is that in the southern end. The prevailing soil in the northern portion is of a grayish hue, but yields quite readily. In the south the lands are reddish in character. This is due to the presence of iron. These lands are quite fertile, and though some of them have been in cultivation seventy-five years, they are still productive without the aid of fertilizers.
The country is abundantly suPplied with perpetual streams of water. Shoal, Cypress, Blue Water, Bluff and Second creeks flow through the county from the north.
Striking the southwestern boundary of the county is the Elk river. Besides these there are many bold mountain springs, containing both limestone and freestone water. There are springs in several parts of the county that have medicinal properties, the most noted of these being Bailey’s Springs, but a short distance from the town of Florence: though Taylor’s Springs have a local reputation. In every part of the county are to be found local industries, such as gins, and grist, and saw mills.
There are forests of valuable timber in every part of Lauderdale County. These comprise several varieties of oak, poplar, chestnut, beech, hickory, walnut, cherry, and short leaf pine. The forests, in many places, are heavily wooded with these valuable timbers. Facilities for transportation of products to market are already good, but are destined to be greatly increased at no remote period.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated, pp. 90-91
THE LOAMS OF THE VALLEYS
“These soils vary in color from a deep red to almost a deep black. They arc commonly of a clayey nature and form some of the best farming lands in the State.
They are noted for their fertility and durability, and are susceptible of the greatest improvement. They contain within themselves all the ingredients that are necessary for plant food, and hence, if properly cared for, can be made to last or be kept rich, for an indefinite length of time, without the addition of a single handful of extraneous manure of any kind. They, however, as a general thing, have been badly abused, some of them for as long as seventy-five years, and still, though they have never received any outside help, are comparatively fertile wherever they lie so as not to be easily washed away. Unlike the silicious soils of the highlands and table-lands, they are very retentive of all organic matter, and manures placed on them show their effects for years. They are well suited for a great variety of crops, though they have ever been cultivated in cotton and corn.”
From Northern Alabama Historical and Biographical Illustrated, p. 11
REGION OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER VALLEY.
Physiographical Features and Climate
“West of the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, which form the northeastern continuation of the tablelands south of the basin of the Tennessee River, this valley is marked as an area of erosion, in which the waters have cut their channel altogether in the subcarnoniferous limestone, the surface rock. The most distinctive feature of the vegetation of the Tennessee Valley consists in deciduous forests, generally of a mesophile composition, with decidedly northern types prevailing, and containing species in common with the Carolinian area in the Ohio Valley which are not found in any other part of Alabama. For example, of trees and shrubs there occur here:
Aesculus octandra [Aesculus flava] ([common] buckeye), Staphylea trifolia (bladderwort [American bladdernut]), Aesculus glabra ([Ohio] buckeye), Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos [orbiculatus] (coral-berry), Acer saccharum (sugar maple), Cladraslis tinctoria [lutea] (yellowwood)
Pines are almost totally absent in this valley, and it is only at its western limit, and chiefly south of the Tennessee River, in Colbert and Franklin counties, where deposits of sandy loams and gravels overlie the subcarboniferous strata, that the character of the forest flora changes by the appearance of the short-leaf pine among the hardwood trees. The climate of the valley is somewhat extreme.
VEGETATION OF THE TABLE-LANDS AND HIGHER RIDGES.
Xerophile forests (cedar glades). — The limestone strata of the foothills which form the lower terraces of the higher ridges, undermined and dislocated by the action of water, are almost bare of soil. On these rugged grounds the red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) predominates, but a few other trees gain a foothold. Among them is the blue ash (Fraxiniis quadrangulata), a fine timber tree of the Alleghenian area, which reaches its southern limit here, where it is of stunted growth, being rarely more than a tree of medium size. A peculiar varietal form of the white ash (Fraxinus americana curtissii) is not infrequently found with the last. It is readily distinguished by its low habit of growth, almost always beginning to branch below a height of 8 to 12 feet, the spreading branches .somewhat drooping, the foliage pale, and the fruit smaller. In this locality the seeds have the embryo well developed. This tree has also been found by Curtiss in the calcareous hills of Eufaula, on the eastern border of the State, and is apparently not rare in the cedar brakes of central and southeastern Tennessee.
On the rugged foothills and mountain slopes, and particularly on the broad, barren limestone flats in the eastern part of the valley north and east of the Tennessee River the red cedar [Juniperus virginiana] forms extensive woods, of pure growth, interrupted only by bare openings where the rocky ground scarcely affords a foothold to shrub or herb. The trees in the cedar glades or cedar brakes are closely set and attain a height of from 50 to 75 feet, the trunk from 15 to rarely 24 inches in diameter breast-high, frequently deeply ridged toward the base, knotty, and with the crown from 30 to 50 feet or more above the ground. Under these severe soil conditions the growth of the trees is exceedingly slow, particularly during the later stages of life. By counting the annual rings trees of the dimensions mentioned were found to be from 140 to 175 years old. Large supplies of the valuable timber of the cedar, used for piling and for telegraph and telephone poles, are drawn every year from the cedar glades. On the gentler slopes with a deeper soil covering, and in the narrow valleys with a damp and rich soil, red cedar occurs scattered among the hard woods and here reaches its greatest perfection. The trunk is smooth from the base and free from knots and limbs for the greater part of its height; the wood is straight-grained, soft, and easily worked, and possesses all the qualities for which it is so eagerly sought in the manufacture of pencil casings and the best qualities of hollow ware. Not long since this tree was abundant in the narrow valleys and rich coves south of the Tennessee River, but these resources are now becoming rapidly exhausted.
On the sunny exposures, in the openings and borders of the forest which covers the calcareous hills, where the soil is deeper, a variety of xerophile trees of small size and of shrubs of the lower belt of the Carolinian area are found mingled with the red cedar. Examples are:
Rhamnus caroliniana [Frangula caroliniana] (Carolina buckthorn), Crataegus coccinea (red hawt[horn]), Bumelia [Sideroxylon] lycoides (bumelia) [buckthorn bully]. Cornus asperifolia (rough-leaf dogwood), Bumelia [Sideroxylon] lanuginosa (shittimwood) [gum bumelia], Viburnum prunifolium [probably referring to Viburnum rufidulum] (black haw), Ostrya virginiana (hop hornbeam).
Xerophile herbaceous plant associations. — The herbaceous associations are naturally, in the main, of xerophile character. On the exposed rocky flats tiny cruciferous winter annuals fill every crevice. Leavenivorthia aurea [possibly L. alabamica], L. uniflora and L. torulosa [necklace gladecress] the first harbingers of spring, are followed by Draba caroliniana [Tomostima reptans] [Carolina draba] and D. brachycarpa [Abdra brachycarpa] [shortpod draba]. With the advent of warmer weather all herbaceous vegetation withers on these arid cedar glades, which then continue to present the aspect of absolute barrens.
On the rocky banks and shelves of the sunny hillsides a varied array of characteristic herbs makes its flowery display. In the height of springtime, as observed on the southern slopes of Monte Sano (near Huntsville) and on the northern declivity of the Warrior table-land near Moulton, the following prefer the slightly sheltered rocky shelves:
Allionia nyctaginea [Mirabilis nyctaginea] [heart-leaf four o’clock], Lithospermum canescens [Hoary puccoon], Ranunculus fascicularis [early buttercup], Lithospermum tuberosum [southern stoneseed], Arabis laevigata [Borodinia laevigata] [common smooth rockcress], Salvia urticifolia [nettle-leaf sage], Claytonia virginica [Virginia spring beauty], Scutellaria campestris[?] [Skullcap sp], Arenaria serpyllifolia [exotic: large thyme leaves sandwort], Polymnia canadensis radiata [leafcup], Opuntia rafinesquii [likely O. humifusa] [Eastern prickly pear], Bellis integrifolia [Astranthium integrifolium] [eastern western-daisy], Geranium maculatum [wild geranium].
Sedum pulchellum [widow’s cross] and Phacelia purshii [Miami mist] adorn the interstices of the rocky fragments, and Arenaria patula [Sabulina patula] [lime-barren sandwort] the bare rocks. During the first summer months the golden flowers of Hypericum aureum [Hypericum frondosum] [cedarglade St. John’s wort] and Hypericum sphaerocarpon [barren St. John’s wort] adorn the hills, giving way in the latter part of the season to blue and purple asters — Aster [Symphyotrichum] oblongifolius [shale barren aster], A. laevis latifolius [Symphyotrichum laeve] [smooth blue aster], A. [Symphyotrichum] cordifolius [blue wood aster] and others of the more commonly diffused species — and to the bright flowers of goldenrods, such as Solidago amplexicaulis [likely Solidago auriculata] [eared goldenrod]and Brachychaeta [Solidago] sphacelata [limestone goldenrod] (B. cordata Torr. & Gr.), which are confined to the lower southern Appalachian ranges.
West of the spurs of the Cumberland highlands isolated knolls rise above the wide river plain with its seemingly interminable fields of cotton, corn, and small grain. These hillocks, of a siliceous limestone which has resisted erosion, support with their scanty covering of soil a stunted growth of chinquapin oak (Quercus acuminata) [Q. muhlenbergii], wild plum (Prunus americana), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), hop hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), and shrubs common on dry calcareous soil, and are frequently destitute of large trees. The plants which find a refuge in these localities form an interesting combination of xerophile, campestrian, and sylvan associations. Under the shades of the denser clumps of the low trees have been noted:
Poa spp., Dentaria laciniata [Cardamine concatenata] [cutleaf toothwort], Leptorchis liliifolia [Liparis liliifolia] [large twayblade], Meibomia pauciflora [Hylodesmum pauciflorum] [few-flowered tick trefoil], Cypripedium parviflorum [small yellow lady’s slipper], Mertensia virginica [Virginia bluebells], Delphinium tricorne [dwarf larkspur].
In exposed places the following species of the open plain have established themselves:
Arenaria [Sabulina] patula [lime barren sandwort], Euphorbia obtusata (rare) [woodland spurge], Isanthus brachiatus [Trichostema coeruleum] [glade bluecurls], Kuhnistera gattingeri [Dalea gattingeri] [Gattinger’s prairie clover], Anemone caroliniana [Carolina anemone], Grindelia lanceolata [narrowleaf gumweed], Hypericum prolificum (frequent) [shrubby St. John’s wort], Amphiachyris dracunculoides [prairie broomweed].
The Kuhnistera [Dalea] [prairie clover] is rendered attractive by its numerous spikes of rose-purple flowers. The last two are remarkable outposts, if not waifs, from the plains west of the Mississippi River.”
Mesophile forests. — North of the Tennessee River the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains, capped with the sandstones and conglomerates of the Coal Measures, rise to an elevation of from 1200 to 1500 feet above sea level. Their summits spreading into table-lands of comparatively limited extent support a more varied and heavier tree growth than the table-lands of the Warrior Basin, differing chiefly by the total absence of pines and the appearance of species common also to the forests of the Ohio Valley, and as yet not observod in other parts of the State. Oaks form the predominating forest growth of these highlands – white oak [Quercus alba], mountain oak [Quercus montana] [chestnut oak], and fine black oak [Quercus velutina]. As observed on Monte Sano and the adjoinging ridges, the typical sugar maple (Acer saccharum) of the North is not rarely met with on the smumit and the highest flanks in the richest spots. Its variety (Acer saccharum barbatum) [Acer floridanum] [southern sugar maple] with smaller and sharper-lobed leaves, is more frequent and is widely diffused over the rocky hills which extend southward to the tertiary ridges of the Upper Division of the coast pine belt, associated with the cucumber tree [Magnolia acuminata], silver-leaf linden (Tilia heterophylla), and sweet buckeye (Aesculus octandra) [Aesculus flava]. A group of fine trees of this last species, which is rare in Alabama, was observed on a terrace of rich soil a short distance below the brow of Monte Sano. The trees measured from 25 to 30 inches in diameter and from 75 to 85 feet in height. This truly Alleghenian type, extending from the headwaters of the Ohio River in Pennsylvania along the mountains to the northwestern corner of Georgia, finds its southern limit at this point.
The valleys skirting the detached spurs of the Cumberland Mountains are for the greater part still covered with the original forest, which is practically untouched by the ax. It can be said that a considerable portion of the most valuable hardwood timber found in the State is hidden in these secluded valleys — as, for example, in the valley of the Paintrock River. It is stated that in this valley, of about 35 miles in length, the tulip tree or yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) abounds in its largest dimensions, with white oak [Quercus alba], linden [Tilia americana], white ash [Fraxinus americana], large sassafras [Sassafras albidum], and black walnut [Juglans nigra], and with red cedar [Juniperus virginiana] of superior quality occupying the damp rocky recesses.
The ridges of Subcarboniferous limestone rarely exceed an elevation of 1,200 feet. Their tree growth is the same as that of the forests which cover the gentler slopes of the limestone ledges cropping out beneath the sandstones which cap the summit of the higher ranges. On the flanks, with a deeper soil covering, the tulip tree becomes more frequent among the oaks, associated with the maples mentioned, and, more rarely, with white ash [Fraxinus americana] and shell-bark hickory (Hicoria ovata) [Carya ovata]. Black walnut (Juglans nigra) and wild cherry (Prunus serotina) are but rarely found even on the richest spots. Fetid [Ohio] buckeye (Aesculus glabra) is of rather rare occurrence on the more exposed slopes of the calcareous hills, and red cedar [Juniperus virginiana] is mingled with the hardwood trees. Of the trees of smaller size, the American smoke tree (Cotinus cotinoides) [Cotinus obovatus] makes its appearance on the calcareous summits and upon the shelves where the sandstones overlie the calcareous rocks on the flanks of the higher mountains. This highly ornamental tree, one of the rarest of the Atlantic forests, is confined in the State to the mountains of Madison County, where it attains a height of from 30 to 60 feet, with a diameter of from 8 to 12 inches. The American smoke tree was first discovered by Nuttall on the limestone cliffs bordering Grand River, near the northeastern limit of Indian Territory. It was subsequently found in Alabama by Buckley, and has also been detected as far west as the Medina Valley, in western Texas. Having disappeared from the locality where it was first discovered, and subsequent to its discovery in Alabama not having been seen by any botanist, the tree remained in obscurity for the next forty years, until it was again brought to light by the writer in 1881. Later it was found hy Mr. Bush in southwestern Missouri, and since then Professor Trelease has found it in several localities in the Ozark Hills of the same region. Being in the Tennessee Valley exposed to a temperature falling not rarely nearly to zero, this tree will prove hardy in almost every locality where the cultivation of its European relative is possible. In its native location it is readily reproduced by sprouts from the stump, almost all of the vigorous coppice growths which it forms — for instance, the one observed on the Gurley place (near Gurley) — being of this origin. Red [American] plum (Prunus americanca), red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), aromatic sumac (Rhus aromatica), redbud (Cercis canadensis) with seedlings of the red cedar, form the bulk of the undergrowth of the high forests, and coral-berry [Symporicarpos orbiculatus] and shrubby St. John’s wort (Hypericum prolificum) the bushy covering of the ground.
Mesophile herbaceous plant associations. — The herbaceous flora on these forest-clad heights is represented chiefly by mesophile plant associations, which seek the shelter of the forest, or its borders and more or less shady openings. Besides the species common throughout the mountain region, a number of others are here found which are widely distributed to the northern limit of the Carolinian area, but occur rarely if at all in other regions of the State. Examples are:
Disporum lanuginosum [Prosartes lanuginosa] [yellow Mandarin], Thalictrum dioicum [early meadow rue], Uvularia puberula [Carolina bellwort], Dentaria laciniata [Cardamine concatenata] [cutleaf toothwort], Uvularia grandiflora [large flowered bellwort], Pimpinella [Taenidia] integerrima [yellow pimpernel], Caulophyllum thalictroides [blue cohosh], Washingtonia [Osmorhiza] claytoni [bland sweet cicely], Anemone virginiana [thimbleweed].
On the densely shaded bluffs of the Tennessee River at Sheffield landing [near Muscle Shoals] a few mesophile species have been observed which deserve to be mentioned. Of woody plants the Northern yellow wood (Cladrastis tinctoria), a representative type of the lower southwestern Alleghenian ranges, frequent from Kentucky southward, reaches here its extreme southern station, reduced to a shrubby growth. A peculiar form of Alsine [Stellaria] pubera (var. tennesseensis) [star chickweed] found by Dr. Short in Kentucky, according to Dr. Small, with Heuchera hispida hirsuticaulis [Heuchera hirsuticaulis], inhabitas the deeply shaded, damp rocky shelves and clefts with Cystopteris fragilis [fragile fern], and the delicate fronds of the Northern Cystopteris bulbifera [bulblet bladder fern] with the Southern maidenhair (Adiantum capillus-veneris) overhang dripping rocks.
VEGETATION OF THE LOWLANDS, COVES AND BLUFFS.
Mesophile forest. — South of the Tennessee River the lowlands bordering Catoa, Flint, and Big Nancy creeks are covered with extensive hardwood forests. The dense tree cover consists chiefly of cow [swamp chestnut] oak [Quercus michauxii], Texas [Shumard] oak [Quercus shumardii], willow oak [Quercus phellos], Spanish [southern red] oak [Quercus falcata], and more sparingly of mockernut hickory [Carya tomentosa], beech [Fagus grandifolia], and white ash [Fraxinus americana], with hornbeam [Carpinus caroliniana], papaw [Asimina triloba], deciduous [possumhaw] holly (Ilex decidua), and hawthorns [parsley, cockspur & littlehip hawthorn] (Crataegus apiifolia [C. marshallii], C. crus-galli, C. spathulata), common in damp fresh soils, as undergrowth.
The cow [swamp chestnut] oak [Quercus michauxii] abounds in the bottoms along the streams in the perfection of its growth, trees from 30 to 40 inches in diameter not being rare. Three trees felled, representative of the average size of this valuable hardwood timber, showed the following dimensions:
The Texas oak or Southern red [Shumard] oak [Quercus shumardii], the frequent companion of the above, is often found from 2.5 to 3 feet in diameter and from 80 to 100 feet in height, dimensions attained at an age of from 150 to 175 years. The timber of the Southern red oak is considered little inferior to that of the white oak.
White ash (Fraxinus americana) is found scattered throughout the forest, particularly along the base of the declivities bordering the lowlands. Trees from 2.5 to 3 feet in diameter have been observed in the valleys, as well as occasionally in other localities, extending to the border of the Louisianian area. Not being of gregarious habit, this tree is not abundant in anu locality.
The benches of the Mountain Limestone which form the terraces of the wide fertile coves surrounding the head waters of the streams named are covered by a deep fresh soil rich in humus, productive of an excellent timber growth. On these terraces oaks predominate, and, above all, the white oak [Quercus alba] (in this region called ridge white oak to distinguish it from the swamp white oak or cow oak), together with post oak [Quercus stellata], Southern [Carolina] shagbark hickory (Hicoria [Carya] carolinae-septentrionalis), black oak [Quercus velutina], Spanish oak [Quercus falcata], and more rarely black walnut [Juglans nigra], the last becoming scarce wherever it is accessible.
On these bench lands the white oak [Quercus alba] takes the place of the cow [swamp chestnut] oak [Quercus michauxii]. There can be little doubt that the largest supplies of white oak timber in the State are preserved in these coves of the Tennessee Valley. The full-grown trees average from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. Four trees felled for investigation were of the following dimensions:
Five or six trees of these dimensions have frequently been counted upon an acre.
The Southern shellbark [Carya carolinae-septontrionalis] or shagbark hickory is also abundant in these coves, and large quantities of this timber are annually shipped to the manufacturing centers North and South. The saplings of this tree form the greater part of the undergrowth in the more open forest.
The Spanish [southern red] oak (Quercus digitata (Q. falcata Michx.)) is at its best where the terraces merge into the lowland. Its sturdy trunk averages from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, with a total height of from 90 to 100 feet, affording clear sticks of timber 36 to 48 feet long. The age of such trees of full growth varies between 135 and 175 years.
The willow oak (Quercus phellos) is most abundant in wet, undrained flats of an impervious soil. In Alabama it is rarely found outside of this valley, but extends sparingly southward to the Central Prairie region. This oak seldom exceeds 80 feet in height, with an average diameter breast high of 25 inches, and spreads its massive limbs at a height of from 30 to sometimes 40 feet from the ground.
The large amount of hardwood lumber sawn at the mills on the banks of the Tennessee River (chiefly at Decatur) and at the numerous smaller factories along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad exhibits the rapid development of the industries depending upon the timber wealth of the Tennessee Valley.
Mesophile herbaceous plant associations. — The herbaceous flora of the forests of the bottom and bench lands comprises but a small number of mesophile species growing under their dense shade. Late in autumn the writer observed Chimphila maculata [Pipsissewa] and Galium circaezans [licorice bedstraw], both northern types extending to the Canadian zone, and also Mitchella repens [partridge berry] common throughout temperate eastern North America.
VEGETATION OF THE BARRENS AND RIVER HILLS.
In the northern part of the Tennessee Valley and west of the outlying spurs of the Cumberland Mountains rises an undulating; plain from 200 to 300 feet above the river level, broken by the deep narrow channels of the numerous tributaries of the river which take their rise in the ”Highland Rim” of Tennessee. The soil is a sandy compact loam of whitish color, destitute of lime and vegetable matter and deficient in underdrainage, being underlaid by an impervious clay or hardpan. This plain is covered with an open forest of the upland oaks, which are common in the mountain region, black jack [oak] [Quercus marilandica] prevailing, accompanied by mockernut hickory [Carya tomentosa]. The trees are all of stunted growth, scarcely above medium size, with an undergrowth of dogwood [Cornus florida], black haw [viburnum] [Viburnum prunifolium], sourwood [Oxydendrum arboreum], and sumach [Rhus spp.]. A low willow (Salix tristis) [possibly Salix humilis or Salix interior] covers acres of the level expanse, imparting by the ashy hue of its foliage a peculiar aspect to the low, bushy, deciduous forest. The herbaceous flora of these barrens exhibits the same want of variety as their woody growth. As noticed on a single visit to the barrens between the forks of Cypress and Shoal creeks, in Lauderdale County, in the early part of June, the paucity of the glumaceous plant formations was a surprise. Of grasses and Cyperaceae,
Andropogon virginicum [broomsedge], Eleocharis tenuis [spikerush], Agrostis hiemalis [small bentgrass], Cyperus ovularis [C. echinatus] [round-headed flatsedge], Panicum [Dichanthelium] commutatum [variable witchgrass],
were scantily scattered between the herbaceous perennials, indicating a cold, ill-drained, rather poor soil. The following were among the herbaceous plants observed, the first being the most abundant:
Phlox maculata [meadow phlox], Meibomia [Desmodium] canescens [hoary tick trefoil], Steironema lanceolatum [lanceleaf loosestrife] Meibomia [Desmodium] dillenii [perplexum] [perplexing tick-trefoil], Steironema ciliatum [fringed loosestrife], Coreopsis [Anacis] tripteris [tall coreopsis].
On the more exposed declivities, which admit of ready surface drainage, the same associations of xerophile herbs prevail which inhabit similar localities all over the State, mostly Leguminosae, consisting of bush clovers (Lespedeza spp.), tick-trefoils (Meibomia spp.), Stylosanthes [pencil flowers], Psoralea [possibly Pediomelum], Cracca [Tephrosia] [bush pea], and of other families, Coreopsis senifolia [Anacis major] [woodland coreopsis], Ceanothus americanus [New Jersey tea], and Polygala [Senega] incarnata [pink milkwort]. Tick-trefoils, chiefly Japanese clover (Lespedeza striata) [Kummerowia striata], which overruns the ground around dwellings, afford the only pasturage to live stock.
On their descent to the river plain the channels of the water courses intersecting the barrens widen and the highland becomes divided by broader valleys into ridges, which encroach more or less upon the banks of the Tennessee River. These hills are mostly steep and densely wooded. With the dip of these strata toward the south the soil becomes looser and calcareous and the vegetation more luxuriant. The timber growth is of great diversity and of fair quality. White oak [Quercus alba], post oak [Quercus stellata], and Spanish [southern red] oak [Quercus falcata] are most frequent, with [American] chestnut [Castanea americana], basswood [Tilia americana], and tulip trees [Liriodendron tulipifera]. As has been observed, the trees on these hills are of rather rank growth. Of smaller trees and shrubs, forming the dense copses and bordering the high forest, small-leaf sugar maple, redbud [Cercis canadensis], dogwood [Cornus florida], and hazelnut [Corylus] prevail. Box elder [Acer negundo], winged elm [Ulmus alatus], willow [Salix spp.], with azaleas [Rhododendron spp.], whortleberries, farkleberry, and the poison [mountain] laurel (Kalmia latifolia) shade the rocky banks of the swift mountain streams. The Carolina silverbell tree (Mohrodendron (Halesia) carolinianum) also makes its appearance here, a strictly southern Appalachian type, frequently met with from the lower ranges of southwestern Virginia, along the mountains, to the lower hills in Alabama.
CULTURAL PLANT FORMATIONS.
Of the 4,500 square miles embraced within the region of the Tennessee Valley about 2,430 belong to the Valley proper, their red soil resting upon the more or less siliceous limestones of the subcarboniferous strata. Being highly productive, these lands are mostly cleared and under cultivation. Mainly in the hands of small owners, they are under a high state of cultivation, the effort being directed to the development of all the possibilities of the farm. Hence, proper attention is given to the raising of every kind of live stock and the cultivation of all the crops needed on the farm for the sustenance of man and beast. Fields of corn and small grain alternate with fields of cotton, in which crop from 12 to 15 per cent of the whole area of the valley is planted. The fresh green of the meadow and the clover field greet the eye, and, as in the gardens and orchards of the Warrior table-land, all the vegetables, root crops, forage plants, and a large part of the fruits of the temperate zones of the globe can be successfully grown in this valley. Peaches, pears, and apples are raised in perfection on the hills, and for the cultivation of the grape no other section of the State appears to be so well adapted. Red wines of high quality can be produced on the sunny slopes of the calcareous hills.
What has been said of the agricultural plant formations of this valley applies generally to the Coosa Valley proper and to the smaller outlying valleys from the foot of Lookout Mountain westward to Blount’s Valley.
From the Plant Life of Alabama by Charles Mohr (1901) pp 80-89
Middle Tennessee & the Nashville Basin
“The youngest son of the Parris family in Tennessee was David Winston. He was about my age, and we were schoolmates. Our path to the Academy led through his mother’s orchard, where the mellow Father Abraham apples lay, in profusion, on beds of Nimble Will grass. It then wound along through the shadiest places of the beech and poplar grove, and along side of Mr. McKey’s orchard; and we had to do some skillful engineering to make it hit both orchards.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 307
“In the year 1808, he removed from Virginia and settled upon a tract of land six miles southwest of Franklin in Williamson county, Tennessee. The country was then covered with cane; but strange to say, society was refined and intelligent. … Everything really necessary was made at home, and the luxury of sugar was furnished from the
maple tree.”
From Early Settlers of Alabama by Col. James Edmonds Saunders, p. 326
“Shortly after this incident [in 1781], Maj. Buchanan went out hunting on Richland creek, several miles west of Nashville. Having the luck to kill a young doe, after skinning and selecting the choice pieces to take home with him, he converted the hide into a knapsack in which he placed his venison. Throwing this knapsack over his neck and shoulders, he commenced to retrace his steps toward home. The country was covered with a heavy growth of cane and peavine, through which the buffalo had beaten a track from Richland creek to French lick, now called the Sulphur Spring. Maj. Buchanan was returning by this path, and at a point some distance out, he came to where a tree had fallen across the path and the buffalo had made a path around the top as well as the
root of this tree. As he approached the spot, he turned to the left, and just at that moment he heard the voices of [Native Americans] coming around by the right. To his astonishment, there were seven [Native American] warriors within 20 feet of him, who had that day stolen two boys from the fort, and had these boys with them. Before the Indians discovered him, Maj. Buchanan shot the leader dead, which so frightened the others that they took to their heels in a wild scamper through the brush, cane and peavines, the two boys running with their [Native] captors, fearing that they would be killed if they attempted to escape.”
From Old Times in Tennessee by John C. Guild p. 303
“The distance from Nashville to Natchez was estimated to be five hundred and fifty miles. The road was a mere trace of bridle-way through the woods and canebrakes.”
From Old Times in Tennessee by John C. Guild p. 93
JOURNAL OF ANDRE MICHAUX
“Trees of Nashville Territory:
Quercus prinus [now Quercus montana: chestnut oak], Quercus phellos latifolia [willow oak], Quercus pinnatifida [Quercus alba: white oak], Quercus joliis lyratis sublus tombentosis calycibus maximis margine laciniatis glandibus includentibus Vulgo, overcup white oak [Quercus lyrata], Quercus rubra [northern red oak], Quercus tomentosa [possibly Quercus velutina or black oak], Acer saccharum [sugar maple], Acer negundo [boxelder maple], Acer rubrum [red maple], Juglans nigra [black walnut], oblonga, hickory, Platanus occidentalis [Sycamore], Liquidamber styraciflua [sweetgum], Ulmus viscosa jungosa (Ulmus julva) [Ulmus rubra: slippery elm], Carpinus Ostrya americana [American hornbeam], Rhamnus alaternus latifolius, Rhamnus frangula frutex prunifer [likely Frangula caroliniana: Carolina buckthorn], Juniperus virginiana [eastern redcedar]. Banks of Cumberland river: Philadelphus inodorus [mock orange], Aristolochia siphtomentosa [likely Aristolochia tomentosa: Virginia snakeroot], Mimosa erecta-herbacea [possibly Mimosa microphylla: Eastern sensitive briar], Mirabilis clandestine seu umbellate seu parviflora [likely Mirabilis albida: wild four-o’clock], Hypericum Kalmianum grandiflorum [likely Hypericum frondosum: cedar glade St. John’s-wort].
Soil of Nashville clayey, rocky, limestone rocks somewhat similar to the Kentucky formation, position of the rocks horizontal, occasionally quartz veins in the rocks, abounding in marine petrifactions.
Sunday 21 st of June 1795, killed and skinned some birds.
Birds: Robin, cardinal, Tetrao (grouse), Lanius tyrannus (rare) [Eastern kingbird], quantities of the genus Muscicapa, few species of the genus Picus [woodbeckers]: Wild Turkeys. Quadrupeds: Musk-rat, Beaver, Elk, dwarf Deer, Bears, Buffalos, Wolves, small grey squirrels.”
From the Journal of Andre Michaux, 1793-1795
The boundaries of Tennessee are embraced within the great Atlantic forest region. The whole of this territory was in its virgin state, an immense expanse of varied woodlands, being in the lowlands of dense and massive growth, filled with pathless jungles of cane and shrub, or, away from the water courses, on the uplands, reduced to open and airy groves (with great diversity of timbers), the barrens. Here a dense sward covers the ground and herbaceous growth prevails. Mountain forests are always of greater uniformity in distribution of timbers.
Nearly one-third of the entire area is now reduced to fields or occupied by buildings or roads. Canebrakes have well-nigh disappeared, and the forest is in all accessible regions depleted of valuable timber.
From The Flora of Tennessee and a Philosophy of Botany by Augustin Gattinger, p. 11
MIDDLE TENNESSEE,
The next division embraces the valley of East Tennessee and the entire area of Middle Tennessee. Contour of surface and geological structure result in East Tennessee from the combined processes of folding and erosion, whereby heterogeneous strata are ‘placed in juxtaposition, the whole valley being an often-repeated series of synclinals and antichinals of calcareous and siliceous rocks, -while in Middle Tennessee erosion alone had been at play.
A great fault connected with the upheaval of the Pine and Crab Orchard Mountains, and in a line south of it, an eroded anticlinal, the Sequatchie Valley, designate in the Cumberland Mountain region the western terminus of those convulsions which in-volve the problem of the stratography of the Alleghanies in so great difficulties. West of this line spread out the horizontal strata of ‘the Cumberland table-land, which terminates with an abrupt descent of about 1,000 feet upon the highlands of Middle Tennessee. These in turn overreach and encircle the floor of the basin of Middle ‘Tennessee by from 500 to 600 feet, either in a bluff or through a gradual descent.
The succession of strata is normal throughout: Uppermost subcarboniferous limestone and chert, followed by the Devonian shale; lastly, the lower Silurian.
Irregular basins, crossed and intersected by ridges of from 400 to 600 feet elevation, and this lower terrace again girded by a plateau, is the outline of Middle Tennessee. This shape of surface is the effect of unequal erosion through differently constituted strata. This agency has been in bygone epochs, probably during the Champlain, much more energetically at work than at the present day. Some superficial gravel beds and the iron ores in the western part of Middle Tennessee have probably been deposited at this period. The floor of this denudation lies either in the Nashville (Hudson) or Trenton limestone, while the hilltops are Devonian or subcarboniferous shales or chert, sometimes sandstones. The limestones produce the strongly calcareous, very productive soil of the lower grounds. The disintegration of the Devonian shales resulted into strata of heavy, impermeable beds of clay or loams, and the concomitant swampy lands and the cherty and ‘siliceous beds have yielded the angular gravels of the poor hilltops. The difference of elevation is so slight that it cannot essentially affect vegetation, and the greater or less adaptation only of plants to certain soils causes their appearance or disappearance at the limits of particular geological areas. The phosphatic rocks belong to this group.
Alluvium is restricted to river and creek bottoms. The heavy and fertile clay soils of the uplands are the insoluble residuum of the fossiliferous, argillaceous limestones, with more or less complete lixiviation of the lime by atmospheric precipitations.. In the midst of these is a third class of soil, of black color, full of bog iron ore in the shape of rounded grains. Sulphurated ferrugineous springs, decomposition of pyritical limestones, accompanied by perennial growth of cane, have, as it seems, generated it.
Increase in annual range of temperature and greater dryness of air, as compared with the former regions, cause the mountain flora to disappear and to yield to other designs in nature’s garb. A close botanical inquiry into the array of species soon discloses the fact that different assemblies of species congregate in the limestone and argillaceo-siliceous region. The former includes the glades ; the latter, the barrens, of Middle Tennessee.
Glades are thinly-wooded, unarable lands, with shallow soils, fit only for pastures. They ought to remain in their natural state, undisturbed by cultivation. To clear them is to convert them into deserts. In some parts they are exclusively occupied by the cedar, with a small percentage of deciduous trees intermingled.
Trees distinguishing this ground and region are the overcup oak (Quercus lyrata), bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa), in moist soils; the water Spanish oak (Quercus texana) [probably Quercus palustris or pin oak], in wet lands. The former two are the largest of our oaks. The yellow chestnut oak (Quercus muhlenbergii) grows in wet and dry soil. The shingle oak (Quercus imbricaria), with undivided lanceolate leaves, like the willow, makes a large, well-shaped, and very ornamental tree. White oaks, post oaks, black oaks, and red oaks are equally disseminated. Elms, very large and numerous, add four species. Two varieties of shellbark hickory belong to rich bottoms, and mocker-nut [Carya tomentosa] and pignut hickory [Carya glabra] to the hills. The pecan nut (Carya oliveformis) [Carya illinoinensis] occurs here and there in single old trees, probably planted by early settlers. Black walnut (Juglans nigra) has formerly been copious; white walnut [Juglans cinerea] is scattered along the river and creek banks and swamps. The Ohio buckeye [Aesculus glabra] abounds on the north side of Cumberland River. In Hadley’s Bend, near Edgefield Junction, are groves of holly with 20-inch diameter of trunk. Catalpas [Catalpa speciosa] are rare, but the yellow wood (Virgilia lutea) [Cladrastis kentuckea] and the coffee tree (Gymnocladus canadensis) [Gymnocladus dioicus] are very numerous on the rich hillsides south of Nashville. Altogether, we have about one hundred different kinds of timber in the immediate vicinity of Nashville.
The climbing form of growth is an eminently Southern type, loving rich soils and moisture, addicted to the forest which it is destined to embellish. Multiform ligneous and herbaceous climbers, stragglers, and creepers tangle and barricade the woodlands. Five different grapevines fill the air in May with the sweet fragrance of their flowers—the summer grape (Vitis aestivalis) on dry or rocky ground; the winter grape (Vitis cordifolia) [Vitis vulpina] on rich and moist lands, especially river banks. A variety of this with lobed leaves (Vitis riparia) grows copiously on Mill Creek. The rock [sand] grape (Vitis rupestris), on rocky bluffs, is a Western species, not discovered before east of the Mississippi. All these bear edible fruit, and are serviceable for root grafting with imported varieties, such vines being more resistant to the aggression of the root phylloxera. Two species with inedible fruit (Vitis indivisa and Vitis bipinnata) may also be mentioned. The woolly-leaved Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia tomentosa), the [American] wisteria [Wisteria frutescens], the bignonia [crossvine] [Bignonia capreolata], and the trumpet flower [Campsis radicans] bear beautiful or curiously-shaped flowers, but the unsightly smilax threatens with his thorns the vexed explorer.
Several plants held for exclusively Western have lately been observed around Nashville. The Solanum rostratum—from the tribe of the Irish potato—with golden flowers, foliage like the watermelon, elegant looking, but unapproachable from the prickles and thorns with which it is beset all over, is such an intruder, and a very undesirable one, being an inexterminable, all-spreading weed; Oenothera triloba [stemless evening primrose], a dwarfish evening primrose, not more than a: span high, with large yellow flower, a common plant on the plains; and some other less conspicuous weeds. Where the soil thins out, leaving here and there the rock exposed, or where from the collapse of subterranean cavities the strata are tumbled about in confusion and earth and humus irregularly distributed, there the heavier timber growth gives out, and the cedar is the predominant growth. Its far-searching roots descend into the crevices and cavities of the age-worn rock. The somber tint of the cedar delineates a cedar barren from its surroundings at a distance, and serves within its environs to bring out with dazzling vividness the beautiful green of the glade grass, aglow with rose-colored petalestemons [Dalea], sky-blue lobelias, golden Leavenworthias, Schoenoliriums [Schoenolirion] and shrubby hypericums. The pink stonecrop, Sedum pulchellum, covers acres of surface, yielding again to equal profusion of the delicate white Arenaria (Arenaria patula) [Sabulina patula], or a low, purple-flowered skullcap: (Scutellaria nervosa). The Talinum teretifolium [Phemeranthus teretifolius] [Appalachian rock pink], span high, with fleshy leaves like a portulaca, the flower resembling the bloom of a phlox, but of the purest carmine, finds room for its tuberous rootlets in the smallest fissures. It will bear transplanting even while flowering, and grows well in the garden. Cream-colored and blue astragals (Astragalus plattensis [A. tennesseensis?] [possibly Tennessee ground plum] and Astragalus caryocarpus [likely A. bibullatus] [Pyne’s ground plum]), and a purple, large-flowered, and prostrate psoralea (Psoralea subacaulis) [Pediomelum subacaule] [Nashville breadroot], phacelias, the blue false indigo (Baptisia australis), bluets, and the Carolina anemone (Houstonia patens, Anemone caroliniana), verbenas [Glandularia or Verbena], violets (especially the pansylike Viola pedata var, bicolor), the dwarf heliotrope (Heliotropium tenellum) [Euploca tenella], the pale purple Phlox stellaria [Phlox bifida] [starry phlox] (which deserves a bed in every garden), and many, many more assemble—a natural conservatory that could fearlessly challenge any flower garden in the combined effect of gayety and luxuriance. For truth, my honored Tennessee friends, go and see, and learn to appreciate and to preserve such great ornaments of your native land. I cannot dwell longer on this point; suffice it to say that the above are only a few of the most obvious spring flowers, and that every succeeding season has its own peculiar growth. The hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), Carolina buckthorn (Frangula caroliniana), Forestiera ligustrina [glade privet], delightfully fragrant when flowering in July, the Callicarpa [americana] [beautyberry], with clusters of rosy flowers and violet berries, and several kinds of hawthorn, are the characteristic shrubs of these barrens. Hackberry [Celtis occidentalis], honey locust [Gleditsia triacanthos], winged elm [Ulmus alata], post oak [Quercus stellata] and shingle oak [Quercus imbricaria] intermingle in limited numbers with the cedar.
The siliceous and argillaceous soils which surround the Silurian formation correspond to the cherty strata of the subcarboniferous and the blue or black shales of the Devonian formation. The former is commonly called “ gravelly hills,’ and supports a meager and monotonous vegetation. Black-jack oak [Quercus marilandica], Spanish oak [Quercus falcata], red oak [Quercus rubra], and black oak [Quercus velutina] are prevailing, especially the former two. Post oak [Quercus stellata] and white oak [Quercus alba] attain only medium size. Chestnut [Castanea dentata], sourwood [Oxydendrum arboreum], mockernut [Carya tomentosa] and pignut hickory [Carya glabra] are the principal trees. The shrubbery is represented by the farkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum), black huckleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa), Kalmias, purple azalea, chinquapin chestnut (Castanea pumila), New Jersey tea (Ceanothus Americanus) and an immense amount of dwarf sumac (Rhus copallina), Lespedezas and Desmodiums, and later in the season several species of Coreopsis and Solidago. The common brake [tropical bracken] (Pteris aquilina) [Pteridium caudatum] and the beech fern (Phegopteris hexagonoptera) grow aboundantly. The sandy, loamy, or argillaceous soils of the shale contain some valuable farming lands, but a good deal of it is either too light or too wet. The underlying slate seems to form impermeable strata, and in winter and spring large tracts of land are covered with shallow ponds, which disappear only from evaporation in the summer and autumn. These strata underlie the Oak Barrens (Tullahoma). The vegetation is diversified and very interesting. The forest contains a good selection of hardwoods, and the trees attain a very good size. Water oak [Quercus nigra], willow oak [Quercus phellos], and white oak [Quercus alba] grow very large; sweet gum [Liquidambar styraciflua] and black gum [Nyssa sylvatica], in abundance; poplars [Liriodendron tulipifera] and beeches [Fagus grandifolia], not as many as in the calcareous soils; cedars, only solitary and rare; pines and firs, none at all. There are neither pines nor firs the whole length of distance from Pulaski to Elizabethtown, near Louisville, Ky., nor are any found for a great distance east or west of this line (Nashville and Decatur Railroad). The scrub pine [Pinus virginiana] is the only species I ever observed in Middle Tennessee. I found it sparingly and confined to a limited belt in the hills around the confluence of the Harpeth and Turnbull Rivers, in Dickson County.
Shrubs which are especially addicted to the Oak Barrens are the large-flowering hydrangea (Hydrangea radiata, at the Cataract, in Tullahoma), Itea [Virginia sweetspire], with small white flowers in drooping racemes; Calycanthus [floridus] [Carolina allspice], or Carolina allspice; service berry (Amelanchier canadensis), the narrow-leaved crabapple (Pyrus angustifolia), hazelnut (Corylus americana), and in wet lands the button bush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), chokeberry (Pyrus [Aronia] arbutifolia), arrowwood (Viburnum nudum), Southern buckthorn (Bumelia [Sideroxylon] lycioides), smooth alder (Alnus serrulata), dwarf gray willow (Salix tristis) [Salix humilis]. The moist woodlands and swamps abound in showy orchids, liliaceae, and aquatic plants. Three species of flags [Iris] (Iris versicolor, Iris virginica, Iris cristata), Turk’s cap lily (Lilium superbum), blackberry lily [non-native] (Pardanthus chinensis) [Iris domestica], Zygadenus limanthoides [Stenanthium leiimanthoides?], narrow-leaved false hellebore [featherbells] (Stenanthium angustifolium [S. gramineum]), fly poison (Amianthium muscitoxicum). Several species of orchids: Habenaria, Pogonia, Corallorrhiza, Calopogon, and Cypripedium; various Sabbathias, a host of Pycnanthemums, Asters, Gerardias, Helianthus, button snake roots [Liatris] (Liatris squarrosa, Liatris graminifolia), and some very elegant grasses, the woolly beardgrass (Erianthus alopecuriodes, Erianthus brevibarbis, and Erianthus strictus), Indian grass (Sorghum [Sorghastrum] nutans), wood reedgrass (Cinna arundinacea). Among ferns we find a stately growth of Osmundas, especially the Osmunda regalis [Royal fern] and Claytoniana [interrupted fern] [Claytosmunda claytoniana], attaining three to five feet; the [netted] chain fern (Woodwardia angustifolia [Lorinseria areolata]), Aspidium goldieanum [Dryopteris goldianum] [Goldie’s woodfern], also becoming sometimes four feet high; sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis). Rushes, sages, and grasses present themselves in interminable succession to the well-trained botanist who understands how to distinguish them.
From The Flora of Tennessee and a Philosophy of Botany by Augustin Gattinger, pp. 19-24