484 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF DISMAL SWAMP REGION. 



through the forest in almost any direction. There is generally a good growth of 

 grass, and these lands are very extensively used for grazing. 



■:;• ■::- * These second quality high pine lands form the principal truck areas at 

 Gainesville, Orlando, Winterhaven, Grand Island, and Bartow. The country is 

 generally rolling, with differences of elevation of from £."> to 50 feet. The whole 

 elevation of the lake region, which is used for truck growing, is from 100 to 200 

 feet above sea level. The soil is a coarse white or yellow sand, underlaid by a 

 coarse, sandy subsoil. It looks like a barren sea sand or a coarse, sharp, building 

 sand; but that it is very productive is shown by the large and vigorous growth of 

 pines, the luxuriant growth of grass, the great quantity of truck crops which can 

 be produced during the season, and the enormous growth of beggar weed which 

 takes possession of the land after the crops are removed. * * * 



As already explained, the hammock lands are characterized by a native growth 

 of hardwood trees, principally of oak, hickory, magnolia, dogwood, and the cab- 

 bage palmetto. There are quite a number of grades of hammock land, distin- 

 guished by the kind and density of the growth as well as by the character of the 

 soil. There are light and heavy hammocks, so named from the density of the 

 growth rather than from any appreciable difference in the character of the soil. 

 The low, flat hammock, the high hammock, the heavy clay hammock, and the 

 marl hammock, the various grades differing somewhat in the kind and relative 

 proportion of the native trees. * * * 



The great Etoni a scrub formation was examined at Altoona. It is an impressive 

 sight to stand at the border line between the scrub and the high pine land and 

 notice the difference in the character of the vegetation. The high-land pine is 

 open, the trees are large and vigorous, and the ground is covered with a crop of 

 grass, which gives very good gracing for cattle. The vegetation is quick and 

 generous, and the most tender plants will grow luxuriantly if properly attended to. 

 These conditions stop abruptly at the edge of the scrub. The boundary between 

 the high pine land and the scrub can be located without trouble within a few 

 feet. * * * In the scrub there is a dense growth of scrub oaks and low bushes 

 and plants, all having thick leaves protected to the utmost from loss of water by 

 evaporation by the property that desert plants have of turning the leaves up edge- 

 ways to the sun to expose as little surface as possible to the direct rays. No grass 

 is found, and only the most hardy desert plants grow. When pines grow, it is tke 

 dwarf spruce pine and not the long-leaf pine, while on the other hand the spruce 

 pine is not found across the border in the high pine lands proper. The full-grown 

 scrub vegetation reaches about the height of a man's head. * * * This scrub 

 growth stretches out at this place in an unbroken line for 10 or 15 miles to the 

 northward, and the whole country presents a most desolate appearance. 



ANATOMICAL NOTES. 



In the following pages are presented brief descriptions of the anat- 

 omy of some of the plants of the Dismal Swamp region which are 

 most interesting from an ecological point of view. The leaf alone is 

 described in most cases, that being the organ from whose structure 

 conclusions can usually most readily be drawn as to the interaction of 

 the organism and its environment, especially in matters of soil and 

 climate. As a rule only the epharmonic characters — in other words, 

 those by which the plant adapts itself to the physical conditions of 

 its environment — so far as they have been determined, are here dis- 

 cussed. Most of these having already been mentioned collectively in 

 describing adaptations to environment in the several plant formations, 



