208 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



probably not more than 5% being under cultivation at the present 

 time. 



"Cutthroats" . In the eastern part of Polk County, about on the 

 line between the lake region and the flatwoods, there are several 

 examples of a little-known habitat or type of vegetation called lo- 

 cally by the above name. It seems to have been first made known 

 to scientific readers by Prof. C. V. Piper about three years ago.* 

 About two years later some of it was pointed out tu the writer, 

 who made a hasty examination while his host's automobile waited. 

 A cutthroat seems to be a place in the flatwoods kept perpetually 

 moist by water seeping out from slightly higher ground near by, 

 and is almost the only thing in central Florida comparable with the 

 boggy slopes that are a characteristic feature of the West Florida 

 pine hills.j The trees are mostly slash pine, and the bulk of the 

 herbage seems to consist of "cutthroat grass" (Paniciim Combsii, 

 also found in West Florida). According to Prof. Piper this grass 

 is reputed to be good forage for steers but not for calves, and it is 

 supposed to cause "salt sickness" among cattle. 



High pine land (figs. 9, 10. 19). This is one of the most exten- 

 sive types- of vegetation in central Florida, covering perhaps nine- 

 tenths of the lime-sink region and three-fourths of the lake region, 

 and considerable parts of most of the others. Typically it consists 

 of long-leaf pine, with a lower story of black-jack, turkey, and oc- 

 casionally other oaks, a sprinkling of saw-palmetto and other 

 shrubs but no woody vines, and a moderately dense carpet of wire- 

 grass and other herbs. Either the oaks or the shrubs may be absent 

 from many acres, though. The oaks are commonest on the high- 

 est and driest uplands, and they seem to increase in abundance after 

 logging operations, perhaps chiefly because the removal of the pines 

 allows the soil to become drier ; but they are almost wanting in some 

 places where nearly all the pines have been removed, as in the hard- 

 rock phosphate country. The characteristic plants of high pine 

 land in the lime-sink region have been listed in the Seventh Annual 

 Report (pp. 166-167), and that in the lake region does not differ 

 much. 



*Jour. Am. Soc. Agronomy 10:162-164. April, 1918. 

 tSee 6th Annual Report, pp. 232-233. 



