212 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



In dry weather fire originating in the surrounding pine forests 

 occasionally sweeps through a cypress pond, but the pond cypress — 

 unlike its better-known relative in the river and lake swamps — has 

 such thick bark that it is not usually materially injured thereby. 

 The only economic importance of this vegetation at present seems to 

 lie in the value of the cypress for poles, cross-ties, shingles, etc, 



Bays. The same sort of depressions that ordinarily contam cy- 

 press pond vegetation often have instead a dense growth of shrubs 

 and small trees, mostly evergreen. This sort of growth, with or 

 without a few scattered taller trees, in shallow stagnant or slow- 

 flowing water, is called a bay in Georgia and Florida, probably on 

 account of the usual presence in it of bay trees {Magnolia glaiica. 

 Persea piibescens, or Gordonia LasianfJiits). Whether a given de- 

 pression is^'to be occupied by cypress pond or bay vegetation, or no 

 trees at all, seems to be determined chiefly by the depth and seasonal 

 fluctuation of the water, as suggested in the Sixth Annual Report 

 (page 203) ; bays being in those whose water fluctuates least. 



The bays in the lower parts of Middle and West Florida were 

 described in the Third Annual Report, pp. 264-265. In central 

 Florida they are less common, but occur in a number of places in 

 the flatwoods and the lake region. A variation with fewer shrubs 

 and a great deal of slash pine was described under the head of 

 slash pine bogs on pages 256-257 of the same publication. Some 

 of the peat prairies have dense clumps of bay-like vegetation dot- 

 ting their surfaces, as indicated on a preceding page, and on pages 

 274-275 of the report just cited. 



Typical bays are practically exempt from fire, but slash pine 

 bogs are burned occasionally. The bays are of very little economic 

 importance, except that some of the plants in them yield honey. 



Non-alluvial sicamps. Wherever water that has percolated 

 through the surface sands without coming in contact with any cal- 

 careous strata seeps out on the surface in sufficient quantity 

 throughout the year there is likely to be a dense shady swamp con- 

 taining bay trees, maple, black gum, bamboo vines, etc. Such 

 swamps (described in the 3rd Annual Report, pp. 258-260) differ 

 from the bays just described chiefly in having a greater flow of 

 water and more trees and fewer bushes. They are widely distrib- 

 uted through the coastal plain from Long Island to eastern Louis- 

 iana, but not very common in peninsular Florida, where they are 



