288 . FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT. 



seem to be confined to Florida, and Laciniaria Chapniani nearly so. Pieris 

 Mariana and Eriocaulon septangulare are rare elsewhere in the South, but 

 common enough here. Chrysopsis flexuosa, discovered first by Mr. Nash near 

 Bellair in 1895, was not known outside of this region, or outside of Leon Coun- 

 ty, until the past summer, when the writer found it in the Panacea country 

 (region 14).* The Eupatorium (dog-fennel), that grows on the treeless mar- 

 gins of ponds that fluctuate several feet, is not common elsewhere. Psilo- 

 carya corymb if or mis is another rare plant. 



The genera Chrysopsis and Laciniaria, each with four or five representa- 

 tives, seem to make up a larger proportion of the vegetation here than in any 

 other part of Florida, and are very conspicuous in the fall, when they bloom. 



About 60% of the trees are evergreen, and 30% of the shrubs (or .07% 

 of the total vegetation) are Ericaceae, while 17.4% of the herbs are Legumin- 

 osae. The figures for both Ericaceae and Leguminosae are considerably above 

 the average, which is rather remarkable, and not easy to explain. 



Economic Features — The deep sand is not well adapted to 

 agricultiire, and probably not over 5% of the area is under culti- 

 vation. There has been considerable lumbering, but the pines 

 were never as large in this region as in some others, and the best 

 ones have been cut out. Turpentining seems to be the leading in- 

 dustry at present. Much if not most of the fuel used in Tallahas- 

 see is long-leaf pine and black-jack oak, from this region. The 

 wire-grass affords pasturage to many cattle. The bulbs of La- 

 ciniaria tenuifolia a few years ago were made the basis of a pat- 

 ent medicine by a doctor in Tallahassee. 



No statistics of .population are available, but there are prob- 

 ably not over ten inhabitants to the square mile, and negroes' ap- 

 pear to be in the majority. Bellair, in the northern edge of the 

 region, about four miles south of Tallahassee, was in ante-bellum 

 clays a favorite summer resort for the aristocracy of the capital, 

 who went there mostly to escape malaria, apparently.! The place 

 is now almost extinct, probably partly because improved trans- 

 portation facilities now enable Tallahasseeans to reach more at- 

 tractive summer resorts quickly, and partly because we now know 

 better ways to avoid malaria than running away from it (and that 

 disease is much less prevalent now than formerly). 



*The genus Chrysopsis is remarkable for the limited range of some of 

 its species. One species. C. pinifolia, discovered by Stephen Elliott about 100 

 years ago on the fall-line sand-hills of what is now Taylor County, Georgia, 

 is still known only from that county, though it is a^s comimon there as 

 C. flexuosa is around Bellair. 



tThis is one more illustration of the correlation between soil and health 

 that has never been fully explained. Just why malarial mosquitoes should have 

 been more numerous in the red hills than in the sand country with its numerous 

 ponds and sloughs is not obvious ; unless possibly the water in sandy regions 

 is lacking in some nutriment that they require. 



