114 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



of Brooksville, it is usually rather loamy and retentive of moioture, 

 but in Citrus and Pasco Counties it is drier and sandier, though 

 often brownish in color. The central portion of this belt is covered 

 by the soil survey of Hernando County, published in 191 5. In that 

 by far the greater part of the soils are referred to the "Hernando" 

 series (a name apparently not used elsewhere, so that it means 

 little to the reader). Other series in order of area are the "Gaines- 

 ville," "Norfolk," "Fellowship," "Portsmouth," "St. Lucie," and 

 "Leon." The prevailing texture classes are fine sandy loam (about 

 60%), fine sand, loamy fine sand, and stony clay loam. The scrub, 

 here called "St. Lucie fine sand," makes up about 3% of the total. 

 Two chemical analyses are given in the general chapter on soils. 



Vegetation. Hardwood forests, or mixed hardwood and pine 

 cover hundreds of acres in the neighborhood of Brooksville (fig. 

 17), but toward the extremities of the region hammocks are chiefly 

 confined to depressions, and the uplands are mostly high pine land. 

 The vegetation is decidedly less tropical than that of some places 

 farther east in the same latitude, and nearly all the plants range 

 at least as far north as Georgia. The short-leaf or loblolly pine 

 (Pinns Tacda), which is probably the most characteristic tree of 



Fig. 17. Part of Qioocochattee Hammock in process of clearing, about 

 3 miles southeast of Brooksville. Trees mostly live oak and sweet gum. March 

 9. 1915- 



