ABSTRACT
Quantitative studies of 27 relatively undisturbed hardwood forests in the central Coastal Plain of Virginia reveal that <em>Quercus alba</em>, <em>Fagus grandifolia</em>, <em>Liriodendron tulipifera</em>, and <em>Quercus falcata</em> dominate most stands. <em>Quercus alba</em>, <em>Q. falcata</em>, and <em>Liriodendron concerate</em> in separate margins of a Bray-Curtis ordination, while <em>Fagus</em> lies between <em>Q. alba</em> and <em>Liriodendron</em>, and broadly overlaps both. <em>Carya tomentosa</em>, <em>C. glabra</em>, and <em>C. cordiformis</em> concentrate in the same area as <em>Liriodendron</em>, and <em>Acer rubrum</em>, never very important, concentrates in the same area as <em>Quercus alba</em>. These forests were structurally more like the Southern Mixed Hardwood Forests of the southeastern Costal Plain, where <em>Fagus</em> is important, than the Oak-Hickory Forests of the Virginia Piedmont, where <em>Quercus coccinea</em>, <em>Q. rubra</em>, <em>Q. prinus</em>, and <em>Acer rubrum</em> are important.