l80 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY I3TH ANNUAL REPORT 



hard limestone, where large enough to escape being swept by fire, 

 and well shaded, as in hammocks and deep sinks and moutiis of 

 caves, usually have vegetation consisting mostly of ferns and 

 mosses; but just why ferns should be partial to such places is not 

 clear.* 



Red oak uplands. A very characteristic type of vegetation 

 around Ocala is the red oak woods (described in its proper place 

 farther on). This is not confined to one particular type oi soil, 

 but attains its best development on a type a little different 

 from that of the calcareous hammocks or any other above described. 

 In the soil survey of the "Ocala area" most of it is called "Gaines- 

 ville loamy sand," though it does not seem to resemble closely 

 anything around Gainesville. Mechanical analyses 21 and 22 and 

 chemical analysis A probably represent phases of this type, and R 

 certainly does, for it was specially selected for that purpose. Its 

 most remarkable feature is the high percentage of phosphoric acid, 

 and it is also pretty well supplied with potash and iron. 



Salamanders and gophers are rare or absent in this soil, perhaps 

 because it is a little too rocky as well as too shady, but there musi 

 be other subterranean animals present, as in other fertile soils the 

 world over. Red oak, sweet gum and hickory are the characteris- 

 tic trees, and where this soil merges into the ordinary sandy uplands 

 the long-leaf pine comes in. A good deal of it. perhaps half, is 

 cultivated, mostly in corn, cotton or vegetables. Little or no fer- 

 tilizer is used with the corn and cotton. 



MECHANICAL ANALYSES 



The following mechanical or physical analyses of central Flor- 

 ida soils and subsoils have been extracted from Bulletin 13 of 

 the Division of Soils of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (A 

 preliminary report on the soils of Florida, by Milton Whitney. 

 1898), and the soil surveys of the "Gainesville area" (1905) and 

 "Ocala area" (1913). In the last named the localities and depths 

 of the samples are not given, but they were obtained by correspond- 

 ence wnth Prof. Whitney (who has been chief of the Bureau — for- 

 merly Division — of Soils since its beginning), and were used in the 



*For a description of one of the finest rock fern localities in our area 

 see the papers referred to under the head of caves on page 163. 



